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What you describe is exactly how I learn. My parents intentionally kept me from taking meds for it. I nearly failed high school, and I dropped out of college.

What you describe is exactly how I learn. My parents intentionally kept me from taking meds for it. I nearly failed high school, and I dropped out of college. I often wonder how horrible my life would have been if I had done well in school and not pursued my dreams through entrepreneurship. I’m greatful every day that I get to live life riding the roller coaster of startup life. My personality is well suited to the insanity and chaos often brought to this kind of life. Had I been tempered by medication so the words stopped moving and I didn’t have to re-read I might never have learned how to learn.

ycombinete 9y ago
You should probably add extra bio about how you currently learn well, as the story you submitted makes it seem like you never really learned how to learn. More that you learned how to live with not being able to.
BugsJustFindMe 9y ago
I'm glad that you've managed to find success and be happy, but it's super weird (and statistically unsupported) to think that your life would be worse if you had done well in school.
- trevyn 9y ago
  An unusually good life and doing poorly in school both seem correlated with an intolerance for bullshit. I feel like the raw statistics are a bit misleading here, because yes, on average, formal education improves outcomes. And I think most of us here are hardcore outliers, and have a passion for learning and self-development outside of a formal education context.
  - boomboomsubban 9y ago
    >And I think most of us here are hardcore outliers, and have a passion for learning and self-development outside of a formal education context. A passion for learning only helps if you learn useful things, and a child with ADHD will focus on what they find interesting. And I don't see how improving your ability to focus on uninteresting things would have held you back.
    - trevyn 9y ago
      Absolutely agree. I've found the most magic in finding the intersection of useful and interesting, and suspect that this has led me to more satisfaction than someone who has found something only useful and used their willpower to focus on it.
      - boomboomsubban 9y ago
        First, that "magic" is pure luck. Either through helpful people that guided your interest to a useful place, or just pure chance. What is giving you satisfaction could have easily have ended up a curse. Second,those aren't the two options. You're gaining the ability to focus on uninteresting things, something people without ADHD have and don't use constantly. All the traits mentioned in your last post don't disappear when you add the ability to focus.
- adrusi 9y ago
  Statistics go out the window when you know an actual outcome, so they're useless retrospectively. How likely is it the failing in school helps you? Not very. Given that you have succeeded because of failing in school, what was the probability that failing in school helped you? There's no such thing as that probability because there's no such thing as how likely it is that your actual outcome came about. There's no such thing as what fraction of possible life-outcomes are similar to your actual outcome. At least you can't possibly know these things.
- randomdata 9y ago
  Since he seems to be referring to career success specifically, it does not seem that weird. There is a significant opportunity cost associated with school, not to mention the proclivity to pigeonhole oneself with increasing opportunity spent (the sunk cost fallacy). It is natural to think, from a career perspective, one is better off without that baggage. It is true that the statistics show that those who are born with the right traits to succeed in life are more likely to do well in school and in the workplace, which is unsurprising. Life is a gradient, but when we take it to the logical extreme, it becomes quite apparent that someone with a crippling mental disability is not going to be able to go far in school, nor are they going to be a top choice to do business with. But that does not mean that there are not cases where people who are born with the right traits slip through the system. The education system is big and complex and sometimes fails. Someone with successful traits does not lose their successful traits from that experience. That said, I agree that there is more to life than career success. The enrichment that school could have provided him may have made his life better in other ways.
saiya-jin 9y ago
> I often wonder how horrible my life would have been if I had done well in school and not pursued my dreams through entrepreneurship. I see where you're coming from, and happy to find your relatively niche fit, and for sure I hope it's something long term sustainable. But since you're clearly describing something you don't have experience with - what your life would be when actually finishing university and being more 'stable' - you paint a dark picture. It's actually opposite - you would have many more options in life. I've met tons of 'unstable' people in life, for whatever reason - they can sometimes find spot in the universe to fit in, but long term they almost always, consistently struggle. Their life is a mess. Relationships are often crap. Long-term happiness and life balance are mythical phrases. And so on. I hope this isn't and never will describe you (and ideally nobody)
colordrops 9y ago
I know it's anecdotal but I agree. There is a risk that alternative ways of thinking can stunt one's life, but if the struggle is overcome, you will be left ahead of everyone else, learning self control while maintaining a unique and valuable alternative way of approaching the world. I remember reading a while back that there might be a genetic basis to ADHD and that it's really an older way of thinking, based around randomized hunter gatherer lifestyles rather than the single minded tedium of agriculture. This reminded me of the words of the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, mentioning that despite lack of technology, he believed Papua New Guineans have some of the strongest native intelligence on Earth.
tabtab 9y ago
My personality is well suited to the insanity and chaos often brought to this kind of life. Lets hope it works out in the Whitehouse also.

ycombinete 9y ago

You should probably add extra bio about how you currently learn well, as the story you submitted makes it seem like you never really learned how to learn. More that you learned how to live with not being able to.

BugsJustFindMe 9y ago

I'm glad that you've managed to find success and be happy, but it's super weird (and statistically unsupported) to think that your life would be worse if you had done well in school.

trevyn 9y ago
An unusually good life and doing poorly in school both seem correlated with an intolerance for bullshit. I feel like the raw statistics are a bit misleading here, because yes, on average, formal education improves outcomes. And I think most of us here are hardcore outliers, and have a passion for learning and self-development outside of a formal education context.
- boomboomsubban 9y ago
  >And I think most of us here are hardcore outliers, and have a passion for learning and self-development outside of a formal education context. A passion for learning only helps if you learn useful things, and a child with ADHD will focus on what they find interesting. And I don't see how improving your ability to focus on uninteresting things would have held you back.
  - trevyn 9y ago
    Absolutely agree. I've found the most magic in finding the intersection of useful and interesting, and suspect that this has led me to more satisfaction than someone who has found something only useful and used their willpower to focus on it.
    - boomboomsubban 9y ago
      First, that "magic" is pure luck. Either through helpful people that guided your interest to a useful place, or just pure chance. What is giving you satisfaction could have easily have ended up a curse. Second,those aren't the two options. You're gaining the ability to focus on uninteresting things, something people without ADHD have and don't use constantly. All the traits mentioned in your last post don't disappear when you add the ability to focus.
adrusi 9y ago
Statistics go out the window when you know an actual outcome, so they're useless retrospectively. How likely is it the failing in school helps you? Not very. Given that you have succeeded because of failing in school, what was the probability that failing in school helped you? There's no such thing as that probability because there's no such thing as how likely it is that your actual outcome came about. There's no such thing as what fraction of possible life-outcomes are similar to your actual outcome. At least you can't possibly know these things.
randomdata 9y ago
Since he seems to be referring to career success specifically, it does not seem that weird. There is a significant opportunity cost associated with school, not to mention the proclivity to pigeonhole oneself with increasing opportunity spent (the sunk cost fallacy). It is natural to think, from a career perspective, one is better off without that baggage. It is true that the statistics show that those who are born with the right traits to succeed in life are more likely to do well in school and in the workplace, which is unsurprising. Life is a gradient, but when we take it to the logical extreme, it becomes quite apparent that someone with a crippling mental disability is not going to be able to go far in school, nor are they going to be a top choice to do business with. But that does not mean that there are not cases where people who are born with the right traits slip through the system. The education system is big and complex and sometimes fails. Someone with successful traits does not lose their successful traits from that experience. That said, I agree that there is more to life than career success. The enrichment that school could have provided him may have made his life better in other ways.

saiya-jin 9y ago

> I often wonder how horrible my life would have been if I had done well in school and not pursued my dreams through entrepreneurship. I see where you're coming from, and happy to find your relatively niche fit, and for sure I hope it's something long term sustainable. But since you're clearly describing something you don't have experience with - what your life would be when actually finishing university and being more 'stable' - you paint a dark picture. It's actually opposite - you would have many more options in life. I've met tons of 'unstable' people in life, for whatever reason - they can sometimes find spot in the universe to fit in, but long term they almost always, consistently struggle. Their life is a mess. Relationships are often crap. Long-term happiness and life balance are mythical phrases. And so on. I hope this isn't and never will describe you (and ideally nobody)

colordrops 9y ago

I know it's anecdotal but I agree. There is a risk that alternative ways of thinking can stunt one's life, but if the struggle is overcome, you will be left ahead of everyone else, learning self control while maintaining a unique and valuable alternative way of approaching the world. I remember reading a while back that there might be a genetic basis to ADHD and that it's really an older way of thinking, based around randomized hunter gatherer lifestyles rather than the single minded tedium of agriculture. This reminded me of the words of the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, mentioning that despite lack of technology, he believed Papua New Guineans have some of the strongest native intelligence on Earth.

tabtab 9y ago

My personality is well suited to the insanity and chaos often brought to this kind of life. Lets hope it works out in the Whitehouse also.