@librarian_chef hyperfocus is an ADHD trait, as is an enhanced emotional drive. You’re right I don’t know anything about his diagnosis, but that’s not what is relevant. Maybe Phelps invented a new way to train; maybe he was passionate about swimming and that passion drove him further than a normal person can go; maybe his hyperactivity was channeled into swimming at an early age.
My point is that there are two choices: (A) he won 14 gold and 2 bronze medals because of his ADHD or (
in spite of his ADHD. If it’s (, then you would have to agree he would have done more without ADHD. So how much more? 16 Gold? 20? How would that be possible when the next best person in the history of the Olympics has 9. In my opinion, to say that he would have done better with a normal dopamine uptake brain is less plausible than saying he was able to leverage ADHD traits to accomplish something amazing.
I agree that the plural of anecdote is not data. I was not attempting to draw broad conclusions from a few examples. Ignoring scores of positive examples of successful people with ADHD, however, and dismissing their ADHD by saying that they did what they did in spite of it is not rational.
I agree completely that ADHD is not good for repetition or consistency, which is why ADHD people are 3x more likely to be entrepreneurs. No day is the same as the next, and building a company requires a skill set that lends itself to solving new problems, not repeating the old ones. I’m sure Michael Phelps didn’t have to fill out TPS reports, set corporate objectives or sit quietly in algebra. He was a stand out, and was encouraged to live a non-standard life and excelled because of that. To @caper’s original point, there are positives about ADHD in certain circumstances. It’s not all good, and it’s not all bad.
If we want to make the world better for ourselves, in addition to focusing on medication, meditation, exercise and sleep (all good things), we need to figure out why some of us are able to do great things beyond the reach of normal people; what environments help us to succeed; and then establish and maintain those healthy environments for ourselves. Maybe there is no answer. Maybe it’s a crap shoot, but maybe we can make the flop come up QQ7 every time. Simply throwing up our hands and saying that ADHD is a burden, you can only succeed in spite of it, and we’re all doomed is no more productive than saying it’s a gift and people are just using it wrong.
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