I probably have the "disorder" known as "attention deficit disorder". I put it in quotes because I have a problem with labelling personality traits as "disorders", and I'm pretty sure that ADD is a selective advantage in certain professions, such as programming, though it also has a cost. So although I'm certainly intelligent, I often have a hard time focusing on a task for long periods of time. (This isn't the whole picture though—when I'm interested in a task I can focus on it for a ridiculously long time and shut the whole world out, which is ironically also considered a "symptom" of ADD, which I think should be renamed "Excessive Self-Motivation Disorder" or "XSMD". In other words, people who have it resist being told what they should think about. I think this more accurate terminology would make it much clearer why our society is resorting to addicting children to mind-altering drugs to suppress this personality trait.
One of these days, I'll write my book and pull all these observations into some coherent form. I have some thoughts on labelling some children "special" who are not really so "special" and political correctness and children who really are outstanding. I just don't feel up to writing that all down at this time.
And then there's the whole tin-hat paranoia theory angle, too. I promise I'll write all that down some day. If I don't, that means "they've" gotten to me. Damn black helicopters.
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