ADHD: The Other Side of the Coin

The following is an excerpt from Scientific American's "The Creative Gifts of ADHD":

In his 2004 book "Creativity is Forever", Gary Davis reviewed the creativity literature from 1961 to 2003 and identified 22 reoccurring personality traits of creative people. This included 16 "positive" traits (e.g., independent, risk-taking, high energy, curiosity, humor, artistic, emotional) and 6 "negative" traits (e.g., impulsive, hyperactive, argumentative). In her own review of the creativity literature, Bonnie Cramond found that many of these same traits overlap to a substantial degree with behavioral descriptions of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)-- including higher levels of spontaneous idea generation, mind wandering, daydreaming, sensation seeking, energy, and impulsivity.

Research since then has supported the notion that people with ADHD characteristics are more likely to reach higher levels of creative thought and achievement than people without these characteristics. Recent research by Darya Zabelina and colleagues have found that real-life creative achievement is associated with the ability to broaden attention and have a “leaky” mental filter-- something in which people with ADHD excel.

Recent work in cognitive neuroscience also suggests a connection between ADHD and creativity. Both creative thinkers and people with ADHD show difficulty suppressing brain activity coming from the "Imagination Network".

The article continues:

Of course, whether this is a positive thing or a negative thing depends on the context. The ability to control your attention is most certainly a valuable asset; difficulty inhibiting your inner mind can get in the way of paying attention to a boring classroom lecture or concentrating on a challenging problem. But the ability to keep your inner stream of fantasies, imagination, and daydreams on call can be immensely conducive to creativity. By automatically treating ADHD characteristics as a disability-- as we so often do in an educational context-- we are unnecessarily letting too many competent and creative kids fall through the cracks.

For the Love of Languages

This is a pretty short post. How many languages do you speak? Do you think that languages can make you a better thinker, giving you a broader dimension in which to analyse and to communicate ideas? Well, you could explore adding more languages to your repertoire. See you on the other side of the tongue.

The Courage to Do What Is Right

Yes, you're happy you did what you had to do then. And it's paying off now! You braced up the challenges and the criticism, though it wasn't easy. Now you have your wife, you won her back. You quit that job that took all you had. You cleaned house of friendships that weren't helping you. You set your priorities straight.

What Do We Want? Money, Power, ...Or Happiness?

People have spent many years learning. Others, countless hours working in the day and at night. And some have stolen and even killed.

The cost of  'Success' is rising so high I'm afraid we might be spent in its pursuit. But what is it we are really looking for? The literal dollar bills or power just for its sake? I doubt it.

We are looking for happiness. A very high dose of it.

The big mansion, the yacht, the high profile event, the spacious office, are means to an end. A drug-like end. We get it. Addictions can be hard to break.

Who is entitled to the so-called success? The intelligent? The educated? Royalty? And what about the man who has non of these? Now it's getting twisted.

Everyone has a right to happiness.

The man on Wall Street makes his money out of his briefcase, and the criminal unleashes mayhem on society to get his own means.

Can the world contain all our 'success' chasers?! Or let me rephrase it. Can the world contain all our happiness chasers?

Why has happiness been so elusive?

Could we be looking in the wrong direction for happiness? I think so.

The Amusing Nature of Complexity

The Cambridge dictionary defines complexity as "the ​state of having many ​parts and being ​difficult to ​understand or ​find an ​answer to".

Taking a closer look at entities, we find that they compose of many layers. Do these layers hold the secret to complexity? May be.

On descending to the innermost layer, we find a 'dumb' simple structure. This is where it begins to be funny. 

Complexity is a composition of simple structures.

The Future of Business

A bank welcomes a customer and he has a headache. A doctor employed by the bank is called in to make a quick diagnosis with some medicine dispensed to the customer till he sees his doctor.

Another customer walks in and she's hungry. She's kindly shown to a restaurant within the bank before she does her transactions.

Both customers smile as they leave their bank. Enter the modern business! Though this is exaggerated, the business of the future is not so different. All businesses would blur their lines to become almost anything to please their customers. A balance is what would be struck to ensure profitability. But watch closely and you see that many businesses are already beginning to transform to this model. They are becoming 'Emotional businesses' -- wildly creative to provide services and perks not related to their core business -- they are stealling hearts!

Any competitors that don't follow suit, would be doing so at their own peril. Companies would budget larger funds for customer pleasing. And who wins in this courtship? Both customer and company. The customer is happy to receive love and care which are priceless, and she gladly empties her purse to the company. Let's hope this affair turns out well.

Intelligence vs Wisdom (I)

The Oxford English Dictionary defines wisdom as "Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends; sometimes, less strictly, sound sense, esp. in practical affairs: opp. to folly".

Wisdom is not fully taught in the university. And many who claim to be authorities have contradicted one another on the best path to follow when we are at crossroads. Our modern culture seems to place more emphasis on making a living than on making a life. The media is awash with stories begging for wisdom.