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My ADHD founder toolbox

hypatia.ca

21–30 of 413 posts

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#21
post #2

I saw the guy who founded kinkos speak at Babson business school about 20 years ago. Weirdly, he was there due to some sponsorship related to disabilities because he had ADHD. He got up and in the first 30 seconds said he thought ADHD had helped him, didn’t think of it as a negative, and just came because he wanted to tell his story. Like so many founders (esp of retail businesses, I find), he was super charismatic a…

Everyone’s different. For me, ADHD is like being an RPG class with different “stances” or “modals”.

I can be energetic and fun and charming (allegedly) and very social, quick witted, a natural comedian. Or I can be quiet and focused and studious. But I can never be both at the same time. Concerta is what lets me pick.

I’ve never seen it as a disability because it is an advantage in so many ways. I’m just so thankful I get to control it.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weirdly, he was there due to some sponsorship related to disabilities because he had ADHD. Can I ask why you find that weird? ADHD is, and is also comorbid with other learning disabilities. ADHD has so many dimensions and interrelationships between those dimensions that everybody's lived experience is different. If you know one person with ADHD, then you know one person with ADHD, you don't know everyone with ADHD.…

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

I generally agree with that. It should not be glamourized. I liken it to being like Cyclops in the X-Men. Sure you can shoot lasers out of your eyes, but you can never look upon the love of your life naturally and unfiltered.

That being said, some of most cherished achievements would not have been possible without it, and that's where the cognitive dissonance begins.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#23
post #2

I saw the guy who founded kinkos speak at Babson business school about 20 years ago. Weirdly, he was there due to some sponsorship related to disabilities because he had ADHD. He got up and in the first 30 seconds said he thought ADHD had helped him, didn’t think of it as a negative, and just came because he wanted to tell his story. Like so many founders (esp of retail businesses, I find), he was super charismatic a…

It can feel like a super power at times. But it's one you cannot control. When I was in my teens and early twenties my area of interest happened to align with something which would turn into a very lucrative career. Software development. I couldn't get enough of it. I soaked things up like a sponge and was able to internalize so much that has stuck with me. But once I "figured out" programming, the interest dropped to almost zero. I love solving problems and learning things and there is no way in hell I could participate in most software development teams because the vast majority of programming is little more than typing out previously solved problems. There is no mystery to a CRUD API endpoint. The only time I jump into code these days is to help out with tricky bugs. Diving into an unfamiliar code base to solve a problem others aren't able to checks all of those puzzle solving and learning boxes which gets my attention going again.

I'm not sure about building a business with ADHD. I see that path as extremely difficult unless your super focus happens to align with what your building long enough to get to a point where you can make money off of it. That seems unlikely. Once you're running a successful business, I believe coping with ADHD would be significantly easier. A CEO can delegate the things they are worst at to focus on the thing they are best at and which deliver the most value. The vast majority of individual contributors don't have that option.

ADHD keeps me on the move and has given me a very broad skill set and understanding of many different industries. I've worked in health care with medical devices to building interactive kiosks to writing device firmware to applying AI to livestock management to insurance and banking modernization. In that sense it's a super power. But I still cannot build myself a personal website or blog despite wanting to because that shit is really hard for me.

This doesn't even touch on the damage ADHD can do to relationships. I had a very difficult time connecting with my children when they were babies and toddlers because, let's be honest, they are boring most of the time. This became significantly easier as they got older and we were able to start actually having conversations. There are also times where my inattentiveness gets to the point where I literally cannot pay attention to what my wife is saying. It's a struggle to try to separate my brain from what it's trying to pay attention to and redirect it to her. When I don't see people they basically stop existing. I have no relationship with my parents or siblings and almost no long term friendships because of this. It's extremely easy for me to get disconnected.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weirdly, he was there due to some sponsorship related to disabilities because he had ADHD. Can I ask why you find that weird? ADHD is, and is also comorbid with other learning disabilities. ADHD has so many dimensions and interrelationships between those dimensions that everybody's lived experience is different. If you know one person with ADHD, then you know one person with ADHD, you don't know everyone with ADHD.…

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

I agree, and I think it's more harmful coming from successful founders, as so many people naïvely look up to them to provide guidance.

It's even worse than their usual "if I can do it - and I certainly have, just look at how awesome I am - then you can do it" spiel about business success.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weirdly, he was there due to some sponsorship related to disabilities because he had ADHD. Can I ask why you find that weird? ADHD is, and is also comorbid with other learning disabilities. ADHD has so many dimensions and interrelationships between those dimensions that everybody's lived experience is different. If you know one person with ADHD, then you know one person with ADHD, you don't know everyone with ADHD.…

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

I want to emphasize this opinion. There is definitely survivorship bias, and I dislike people calling it a 'superpower'.

Yes it can make you more reckless and impulsive to take risks like founding a company, but it's important to keep in mind that ADHD is a serious cognitive disability, and we should treat it as that. There is so much it messes with on a daily basis and it absolutely sucks.

So much coping, self-doubt, lack of motivation and drive, procrastination - it's not nice. Yes we get better in managing it over time as we learn about it, but it still comes back and bites us, and it's depressing to see coworkers being so much more organized and 'on top of things' compared to me, no matter how hard I try

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

I agree, and I think it's more harmful coming from successful founders, as so many people naïvely look up to them to provide guidance. It's even worse than their usual " if I can do it - and I certainly have, just look at how awesome I am - then you can do it " spiel about business success.

100% ADHD also has a severity spectrum. And clusters of related things Most ADHD is similar at a high level, but some people have some aspects better or worse. And some people can barely function with it. Someone with some mild ADHD symptoms and patterns saying ADHD is not a big deal can be really harmful to people with more severe ADHD for obvious reasons.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#27

Has anyone here used InFlow (the app mentioned in the article)? Curious to hear your experiences if you have.

I noped out as soon as I saw it wanted a yearly subscription to activate a week-long 'free' trial.

I didn't trust myself to remember to cancel it in time and was disgusted at them weaponizing this dark pattern against ADHDers, so that was it for me.

If you go to the Play Store and search for the one-star reviews there are loads of people saying the same. And also for those that did try it, that it's mostly useless anyway.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#28
post #19
post #5

> After meeting the founders last summer during their YC batch, I’ve been pretty consistently using the app InFlow, which I described to a friend as “super chill easy cognitive behavioural skill-building around ADHD.” I feel like I’ve made real progress using it. This blog post reads like an advertisement for InFlow (YC S21), which was roundly criticized for being exploitative of people with ADHD, when it was posted…

I feel like if the author actually uses the app daily, that’s a pretty strong endorsement.

I did like 40% of the content over the year I used it - it’s got some great stuff in it. I churned at the end of the year but I’ll probably pick it back up again soon; I definitely feel it was worth the price of admission (especially compared to like… a single session of therapy)

As I said elsethread, I have no connection or financial interest in inflow aside from having met them through YC and generally finding them to be nice folks. I’m actually extremely scrupulous about noting when I do have a conflict of interest like that, for what it’s worth!

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the ADHD is a strength not weakness mentality is generally harmful. There are some aspects of it that can help, especially when you are not deep working on one thing, but in general, I think it is unequivocally not a benefit to almost anyone who has it. edit: I would add there is some survivorship bias to it too. Successful CEO says ADHD helped? Huh. Cool. There is a reason alcoholism and substance abuse have…

I generally agree with that. It should not be glamourized. I liken it to being like Cyclops in the X-Men. Sure you can shoot lasers out of your eyes, but you can never look upon the love of your life naturally and unfiltered. That being said, some of most cherished achievements would not have been possible without it, and that's where the cognitive dissonance begins.

I feel like I just don’t know. How can I? I can hyperfocus, get into flow, and crank through things that make hours and days and weeks fly by. I can also be deeep in the pit of distraction where it is impossible to start anything and I feel broken and the deeper I get the more I try to avoid doing even the smallest thing that might mean forward progress because everything is already so bad so just go and play some games or something anyway. Granted that was my early 20s and I learned to achieve balance and even now in my early 40s I can focus on demand but it took me a loooong time to get there and I think my approach to how I do that and the way I structure my life is different from a NT persons. And for most people that was their normal their whole life.

Re: My ADHD founder toolbox

#30
post #27

Has anyone here used InFlow (the app mentioned in the article)? Curious to hear your experiences if you have.

I noped out as soon as I saw it wanted a yearly subscription to activate a week-long 'free' trial. I didn't trust myself to remember to cancel it in time and was disgusted at them weaponizing this dark pattern against ADHDers, so that was it for me. If you go to the Play Store and search for the one-star reviews there are loads of people saying the same. And also for those that did try it, that it's mostly useless an…

Yikes, yeah that's not good
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