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Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

nytimes.com

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Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#11

Post by matthewslotkin »

what is the claim here? that some great leaders were addicts, so addiction is a trait of a great leader? please. it is interesting to note that some can simultaneously battle substance addiction and lead productive lives, but nothing in this article even remotely resembles proof of causation.

that said, i can believe that the greatest thinkers and inventors in human history are those that were completely obsessed (addicted?) with what they were doing. people can become addicted to pursuing their vision, and in this sense the article has some merit. not well communicated however.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#12

Post by matthewslotkin »

matthewslotkin wrote: post #11

what is the claim here? that some great leaders were addicts, so addiction is a trait of a great leader? please. it is interesting to note that some can simultaneously battle substance addiction and lead productive lives, but nothing in this article even remotely resembles proof of causation. that said, i can believe that the greatest thinkers and inventors in human history are those that were completely obsessed (ad…

show me a neurological study comparing passion/obsession with substance addiction!

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#13

Post by sliverstorm »

Mz wrote: post #9

The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. This is ridiculous in some ways. Yes, certain personality…

Nothing wrong with having an addictive personality. I'm like that, and I've never thought of it as an insult- rather, it's something I openly acknowledge. It's just one more thing I know about myself, that lets me try to make better choices to keep myself happy.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#14

Post by jey »

jey wrote: post #6
hammock wrote: post #4

I dont want to sound too hard, but I have an intuition that this is just a load of hogwash. The author racks his brain and comes up with a few examples of addicts who run big companies. What about all the big companies run by non-addicts (the majority)? What about all the addicts who don't run big companies (the majority)? These things need to be addressed before I'll start to buy the argument. And this comment comin…

> What about all the big companies run by non-addicts (the majority) Sure, but the real question is whether "addicts" are over-represented amongst successful CEOs more than the general population.

Looks like I should explain myself:

If there was no association between having an "addictive personality" and being a successful CEO, we would expect "addictives" to be CEOs just as often as non-addictives. If being an addictive helps with being a successful CEO, we'd expect a higher concentration of addictives amongst the population of successful CEOs.

The grandparent is presenting a argument a much stronger straw-man: that the majority of successful CEOs have addictive personalities. The original post does not make that claim.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#15

Post by Alex3917 »

Mz wrote: post #9

The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. This is ridiculous in some ways. Yes, certain personality…

"Cultures that blame alcoholism on the alcohol have higher rates of it than cultures that hold the individual responsible."

I don't think either of those options squares with the science, e.g. http://www.nijc.org/pdfs/Subject%20Matter%20Articles/Drugs%2...

And also the science about genetic differences in the way people process alcohol and experience pleasure also contradicts that dichotomy.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#16

Post by Mz »

sliverstorm wrote: post #13
Mz wrote: post #9

The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. This is ridiculous in some ways. Yes, certain personality…

Nothing wrong with having an addictive personality. I'm like that, and I've never thought of it as an insult- rather, it's something I openly acknowledge. It's just one more thing I know about myself, that lets me try to make better choices to keep myself happy.

I would say there is nothing wrong with having certain personality traits. I think framing it as "addictive" does cause a lot of people to feel out of control and unable to deal with things in a comfortable manner. If it doesn't have that impact on you, more power to you. But most people don't take that as neutrally descriptive but, instead, as something to feel guilty about and like it is inherently socially unacceptable and so on.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#17

Post by Mz »

Alex3917 wrote: post #15
Mz wrote: post #9

The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. This is ridiculous in some ways. Yes, certain personality…

"Cultures that blame alcoholism on the alcohol have higher rates of it than cultures that hold the individual responsible." I don't think either of those options squares with the science, e.g. http://www.nijc.org/pdfs/Subject%20Matter%20Articles/Drugs%2... And also the science about genetic differences in the way people process alcohol and experience pleasure also contradicts that dichotomy.

I honestly don't understand your point. I appreciate the link, but my initial skim of it gives me the impression that it says stuff that agrees with my point about "social"/experiential influences on addiction, which is not what I thought it would do. Did I miss something?

I am aware that there are physiological differences in how people process things like alcohol. (For example, men tend to tolerate it better than women.) I am hesitant to agree with framing that as "genetic" differences. I have a genetic disorder. I have changed my diet and lifestyle to reverse a lot of my symptoms and done a lot of reading and what not. I am reluctant to agree with the standard views on 'genetic' cause of stuff. It tends to not fit with my first hand experience with the subject. I am also hesitant to argue it as my views are backed primarily by my experiences so there is little I can cite to back them up and this gets me in enormous hot water in online discussions.

Also, my comment about environmental influences does not mean that things like physiology play zero role. That's a false dichotomy.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#18

Post by thisrod »

Alex3917 wrote: post #15
Mz wrote: post #9

The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction; rather, the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. This is ridiculous in some ways. Yes, certain personality…

"Cultures that blame alcoholism on the alcohol have higher rates of it than cultures that hold the individual responsible." I don't think either of those options squares with the science, e.g. http://www.nijc.org/pdfs/Subject%20Matter%20Articles/Drugs%2... And also the science about genetic differences in the way people process alcohol and experience pleasure also contradicts that dichotomy.

I only know of one experiment on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park >. It concluded that morphine addiction in ordinary rats is not just influenced by their environment, but pretty much determined by it.

I'd be interested to hear how much that can be changed by breeding the rats selectively. Until you know that, I won't believe anything you say about genetic influences on addiction. It seems that no one has tried to find out. So I assume that Addiction Studies (or whatever it's called) has very little to do with science.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#19

Post by mannicken »

I definitely feel that in my life. The urge to create things, to grow, to change myself, the condescendence at anyone who is satisfied with current situation. It's like someone is itching my brain, it feels very similar to craving nicotine, or caffeine, or just mind-altering substances. It's like someone is shouting at me "common, this sucks, now go do something" even when everything is seemingly awesome.

Re: Addictive Personality? You Might be a Leader

#20

Post by Hyena »

The article is mostly about addictive personality and the connections between addictive personality and innovation or success aren't really well drawn. Moreover, their anecdata suffers from the problem that people who are in a high stress environment may exhibit addiction-like behaviors which are are actually self-medication for stress.
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