HyperBored

How many ADHD brothers does it take to write a blog?

Steve Ballmer's Brain Goes Chop Chop Chop

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Oh wow, does this ever sound familiar. Maybe Steve's ADHD too? :)
"My brain races too much, so even if I’ve listened to everything somebody said, unless you show that you’ve digested it, people don’t think they are being well heard. Sometimes you really don’t hear because you’re racing. It’s just the way my brain works. My brain is just chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. And so, if you really want to get the best out of people, you have to really hear them and they have to feel like they’ve been really heard."
From TechFlash via NYT.
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Filed under  //   Brain   Meta Thinking   Steve Ballmer  

Thanks Alex for making my life more difficult

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People like this make it harder for people like me to get medication. Every time I move to a new area or start seeing a new Dr I get grilled and am guilty until I can convince them of my legitimate need. It's also why I can't get a prescription for longer than a month and have to go back in every 30 days to pick up my prescription. Maybe 'Alex' just needs to get a grip and realize that you can't have it all. A Reporter at Large: Brain Gain: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
A young man I’ll call Alex recently graduated from Harvard. As a history major, Alex wrote about a dozen papers a semester. He also ran a student organization, for which he often worked more than forty hours a week; when he wasn’t on the job, he had classes. Weeknights were devoted to all the schoolwork that he couldn’t finish during the day, and weekend nights were spent drinking with friends and going to dance parties. “Trite as it sounds,” he told me, it seemed important to “maybe appreciate my own youth.” Since, in essence, this life was impossible, Alex began taking Adderall to make it possible.
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Filed under  //   Adderall   Brain   Education   Harvard University   Meta Thinking   Schoolwork   Student society  

Self Aware Metacognition

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We think a lot. It's what we do, all the time. I don't think people ever think nothing. But how much do we think about thinking? How often do we think about the way we individually think? Metacognition - Wikipedia I mean we're all a little different. None of our brains are hard wired exactly the same with the exact same levels of chemicals. We all have had different experiences growing up that lead us to rewire parts of our brains at different stages of development. I believe one key to my success to date is that I give a lot of thought to the way I think. I build or customize whole systems around the way I do things because very rarely do the pre-packaged ways work for me. One classic example is my Moleskine. I've had some sort of planner since I was in Jr High. They never fit right for me. Over the last 5 years I've developed my own system for how to use a Moleskine as my "brain". (I'll post details someday.) Another exercise I do is I try and track my random thoughts. Every let your brain wander (like I can stop mine) and several minutes later wonder, "Why am I thinking about THAT?" Try and retrace your steps. See if you can figure out what series of thoughts lead to such a seemingly random thought. You'll often be surprised that it wasn't so random after all.
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Filed under  //   Brain   Meta Thinking   Metacognition   Moleskine   Psychology   Wikipedia  

I can't sleep

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It happens to everyone I guess but it happens to me regularly. I can't get to sleep. I know why and I usually have tricks to help me get there. Tonight it didn't work. The problem? My brain won't shut off. It runs non-stop like a generator producing enough energy to electrify the rest of my body. (P.S. don't tell me it has anything to do with caffeine because I didn't have any - maybe that's my problem) Normally I relax. I write in my journal all the stuff running around in my head. After a while I throw on some headphones to give me something else to not-focus on (if that makes sense). Eventually I fall asleep. Not tonight. The alarm will go off in a few hours (about the time I start to wear out). I'll shower *wake up* and do well most of the day. I'f I'm lucky I'll be tired and get some sleep tomorrow/tonight night, (whatever). If I'm unlucky it'll be a 2 or 3 nights before I get some real sleep. That hasn't happened in a while, but it does still happen.
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Filed under  //   Brain   Caffeine   What I Think   hypomania   sleep