4 ms·

I've always been puzzled. Is ADD an actual disorder? Or is it the normal state of most humans? I have never been diagnosed with ADD. Nor have I ever thought

I've always been puzzled. Is ADD an actual disorder? Or is it the normal state of most humans? I have never been diagnosed with ADD. Nor have I ever thought of trying to get diagnosed. But I identify with your comment. In fact, your work habits actually seem pretty normal. I think a lot of people get most of their work done when they are "in the zone" and then spend the other rest of the time procrastinating and wasting time.

wheels 17y ago
I don't think it's the normal state for most humans, but it is descriptive of one end of the spectrum of normality, when testing for a limited set of properties. That's why I'm opposed to people medicating for it generally. Basically it's "people who have trouble motivating themselves to do things they don't really want to" (though may think they should). It can be inconvenient if your view of society is that smart people should be interchangeable. My personal belief is that this is just friction between relatively recently evolved (post-industrialization) social norms and the way that people actually work, and those two pieces not fitting together all the way down has been labeled ADD (among other things). To put a very fine point on things: what some people call ADD is why I am a founder. I could probably medicate myself into being a contented employee of a "good" company and stay there forever. But honestly, fuck that. I don't feel like getting shifty when things start boring me -- usually every 3 to 4 years -- and needing to do something else is a disorder. My best friend on the other hand lives in the US and takes amphetamines for her ADD. I hear her describe what she struggles with and can relate to it, but what I hear is, "Wow, she really hates her job," rather than, "Wow, she has a hard time focusing." American psychiatrists apparently disagree.
barry-cotter 17y ago
Don't know about most humans but it's probably the base state for pre-agriculatural humanity, so any ancestry group without long experience of agriculture will probably have higher levels of ADD.

wheels 17y ago

I don't think it's the normal state for most humans, but it is descriptive of one end of the spectrum of normality, when testing for a limited set of properties. That's why I'm opposed to people medicating for it generally. Basically it's "people who have trouble motivating themselves to do things they don't really want to" (though may think they should). It can be inconvenient if your view of society is that smart people should be interchangeable. My personal belief is that this is just friction between relatively recently evolved (post-industrialization) social norms and the way that people actually work, and those two pieces not fitting together all the way down has been labeled ADD (among other things). To put a very fine point on things: what some people call ADD is why I am a founder. I could probably medicate myself into being a contented employee of a "good" company and stay there forever. But honestly, fuck that. I don't feel like getting shifty when things start boring me -- usually every 3 to 4 years -- and needing to do something else is a disorder. My best friend on the other hand lives in the US and takes amphetamines for her ADD. I hear her describe what she struggles with and can relate to it, but what I hear is, "Wow, she really hates her job," rather than, "Wow, she has a hard time focusing." American psychiatrists apparently disagree.

barry-cotter 17y ago

Don't know about most humans but it's probably the base state for pre-agriculatural humanity, so any ancestry group without long experience of agriculture will probably have higher levels of ADD.