For a kid being clinically diagnosed with ADD is relatively common in the USA, is really rare in Europe and that's because kids are just being kids.
There's a new thought process, problem-solving and learning technique called quantum thinking. Szabo, the guy who many thinks be Satoshi Nakamoto, mention about it in a few posts: http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-short-takes.html
The concept of quantum thought is not only to go ADD on a subject, so to look at it from many prospectives, that's quite intuitive and you should do it already, but also to disagree with your own opinions, pretty much thinking also the impossible cases and a possibility, deconstructing any certainty.
One year ago I was talking just about something similar with one of my best friends, we were in a French restaurant, drinking a cup of white wine and listening to some live jazz music, and talking about how stupid are the construct of human society. It's a good thing that we do have those rule, for example, someone could get up and drink the cup of the wine of another person, that's wrong, but sometimes we want to do something and we're paralyzed by our own inhibitions, which often aren't necessary.
The point of our discussion was a simple "fuck it, let's our own rules!". That's pretty much also the Steve Jobs reality distortion field, you can do whatever you want, you're more powerful than what you think.
My post itself could be a little confusing to you, a little crazy, and that's because of another construct of the way we build sentences and create a good argument, what if once in a while, we just let our thought just flowing freely and express our ideas without too much editing? What if the idea didn't make sense, but only spawn new ideas?
See the problem is that most of us, at least I do this, we express ourselves always with the idea that someone is judging, for example, we dance for an audience, we act and sing for an audience, we write for an audience (some of you may be reading this), so I challenge you, and myself, to get out this notion, and instead to start living more freely, to make more mistakes and learn from them.
I recently read "How to build a mind", an interesting book that explain how the human brain works and how learn and how solve problems. The synapses, use a chemical - electrical process, when you think a solution to a problem for a few hours, you won't get to a solution because you'll keep sending signals to the same neurons. Like when it rains and small river form in the land, if the water keep flowing the path of those river will take a long time to change, but if the rain stops, and a few days after rains again, the water may create new path, reaching new lands. In the same way when you take a break, or meditate, and stop the flowing of signals to a certain neurons, you open the possibilities to find new solutions by using different synapses and searching in new area of your brain or with new combinations.
Freedom is a beautiful feeling when you associate it with good ethic and when you're giving some karma back to the world.
To conclude my chain of thoughts, ADD can spawn creativity, stay focus when you talk to someone, but feel free to ADD when you're in a creative process, break any rules and structure, break your own rules and contradict yourself as well. The canvas you're using is a lot bigger than it looks, and it has infinite possibilities.
Creative Software engineer
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