from Hacker News

How I Used ADD to Build Great Businesses

by sgacka on 4/2/13, 2:05 PM with 62 comments

  • by superplussed on 4/2/13, 3:31 PM

    "So the first thing I do when I wake up is make chocolate Pop-Tarts (I eat like a 10 year old)"

    As someone that has always struggled with ADD, I can tell you that sugar makes it 100x worse. Since I went on a strict Paleo diet (and especially recently when I've cut out alcohol), my baseline clarity and ability to focus my thoughts have improved immensely. I would recommend trying the Paleo diet for a month and seeing what kind of affect it has on you.

  • by wilschroter on 4/2/13, 2:38 PM

    (author here). The first 18 years of my life, particularly in school, were dreadfully plagued by ADD. I graduated at the bottom of my class in high school, went to summer school year after year, and was generally considered an awful student. I just couldn't concentrate and it was incredibly frustrating. It left me at a point where I really didn't think I had any capacity to do anything, and by 18 I hadn't even bothered to apply for college.

    What I came to find out later, after I started a company at 19, was that if I could train my brain to sift out all the incredible noise, there was actually a lot of useful activity going on. 20 years later I finally feel I have a handle on it. I also learned I wasn't the only one. I wish I could sit down with so many more young ADD-laden students, founders and kids and help them along.

  • by mortdeus on 4/2/13, 2:54 PM

    As somebody who has ADHD (Please start using the correct acronym.) I feel it is my obligation to make it absolutely clear to everyone that there is nothing beneficial about ADHD. If we are successful with ADHD, then we would only be more successful if we didnt have ADHD.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQu-OPrzUc

  • by julianpye on 4/2/13, 2:33 PM

    I tend to give my brain play-time, when it can freely roam around. At that time a whiteboard however is much more useful than a browser with tabs, where you will end up with 40 open tabs that you plan to 'work through'. What I also found most useful is cycling outside. I research and let my brain binge on information, then I do a long walk or a cycling trip for two hours. During that time the puzzle solves itself. Then I have a voice-recorder ready and record my completed train of thought, which later at night is typed into Powerpoints for work and Mindmaps. The trickiest part of all this is that it's difficult to fit this around fixed schedules.
  • by OlivierLi on 4/2/13, 2:40 PM

    It has been my experience that nutrition plays a big role in controlling ADD. Especially eating a good breakfast.

    Eating two eggs, fresh fruit and whole wheat toast provides lots of energy.

  • by clicks on 4/2/13, 2:59 PM

    I'm noticing that there have been a whole lot of discussions/articles on HN recently relating to ADD/ADHD. Do a significant amount of founders have this disorder? I'm wondering what's the explanation here.
  • by bmac27 on 4/2/13, 2:23 PM

    I'm starting to finally make use of Things in a more constructive fashion (after buying it a year and a half ago and having it waste away on my mac/phone etc.) It helps prioritize these kinds of things, although a lot of my notes still find their way into a "bottomless pit" scenario where they don't get looked at again for days, weeks, months etc.

    On a related note, there should be an "ADDers Anonymous" for startup founders, bootstrappers etc (if there isn't already) for those with executive function type issues.

  • by joonix on 4/2/13, 3:44 PM

    You may want to skip the chocolate poptarts and have a better diet. I know that my focus improves when I eat more choline (eggs), omega 3s (walnuts, fish oil), whole vegetables, etc.
  • by ucflibrary on 4/2/13, 2:37 PM

    Music always helps. But it has to be music with no words that doesn't make you think about anything. Foreign language music works.
  • by shadeless on 4/2/13, 4:34 PM

    As a long time lurker with a (self-diagnosed) ADHD I read quite a few comments telling people to seek treatment. Is the general consensus that the medication is necessary in treating ADHD? (I'm not trying to avoid meds, just happen to live in a third world country where lack of focus and motivation is dismissed by psychiatrist as just laziness)
  • by reeses on 4/2/13, 3:23 PM

    Org-mode. Make capturing painless. Omnifocus Quick-Entry is good too.

    And Intuniv is awesome.

    Gotta go, I hear a western scrub jay squawking outside.

  • by lightup88 on 4/2/13, 2:53 PM

    I'm really digging the concept of putting a twist on the traditional to-do list. Categorization and prioritization are still there, the items themselves are just thoughts rather than discreet action items. Very cool and very likely useful to a wider audience than just those with ADD.
  • by gailees on 4/2/13, 2:25 PM

    I love this. Definitely would love to hear more about how you manage your ADD and keep focused moving forward -- its something I struggle with at times still, although I've found daily meditation to be extremely crucial.

    Shoot me an email if you get the chance: gailees@umich.edu

  • by DamagedProperty on 4/2/13, 3:35 PM

    TL;DR I have ADHD and it made me a better person

    I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid. I received many different types of drugs and treatments that, IMO, didn't work. I barely passed the 3rd grade, failed the 6th grade and dropped out of school when I was a junior.

    I was also a gifted artist, like my father, I could draw anything. I wasn't fantastic but it came easily to me. At 16 I picked up the guitar and quickly learned how to play and was proficient after a month.

    These experiences made me question why I was good in some areas but failed in others. By the time I was 19 I gave up ALL drugs I was taking for ADHD and started my own treatment of "taking responsibility for my life."

    This was the hardest thing I ever had done. At that time I was reading at a 6th grade level and has no prospects for jobs. I went to live with my grandparents and received the best education of my life. Discipline. They were farmers.

    After 2 months I knew I had to leave and make a life for myself. I was scared and afraid but I had started reading self-help books and when tested again at the department of vocational rehabilitation I was reading 4-5 years ahead of my current age. My spatial skills were off the charts (their words).

    I knew I had something special about myself that I could work with. I knew that if I worked hard I could do anything even if it took me longer to accomplish it I could do it.

    I started by working my way up a janitorial company. I learned spanish in 6 months using Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques. I met my future wife and got married. I started putting computers together for the purpose of playing video games. I loved it. I was good at it. I eventually worked as a tech for a big box store and then worked in IT at a large insurance company when I found out I was going to be a father.

    I learned everything I could about Active Directory. I then learned Perl as my first programming language and automated most of my job. I then started making games at home and learning as many languages as possible. I felt unstoppable.

    Then my wife and I were having problems. Not huge problems but enough to get help. We sought counseling and happened to meet with a woman who studied ADHD as a specialty during her phD. Within 1 hour she said to me, "You know you have ADHD right?"

    My heart sank. All those years of failure came rushing back to me. I thought it was crap. A ruse. A mis-diagnosis. How could I have accomplished so much. How could I have gone back to college and graduated with a 4.0 for my associates in comp sci and 3.8 for my bachelors. How could I learn all those languages and read over 500 books.

    I had to come to grips with the fact that I still had it. But I made it work for me and it was unfortunately affecting my relationship with my wife. We were able to come to an understanding about who I am and accepting the way I think.

    Now, I make games for iOS fulltime. From home. ADHD isn't a death sentence. It's only a disorder if it's making your life harder.

  • by goloxc on 4/2/13, 2:39 PM

    this is not unlike mindful meditation
  • by seivan on 4/2/13, 3:15 PM

    I have it, dropped out of college. Remember being up all night learning other stuff than what the education had planned for me.

    School: learn MySQL

    Brain: learn Redis.

    School: Learn javabeans and JEE and etc

    Brain: Learn Obj-C and Cocoa

    Contrived example, but something along those lines. Had to drop out, it was killing me staying up all night experiment with stuff that was not related to the education plan setup for me. I mean it's an investment in myself to learn as much as possible, but I wasn't getting any credit for it.

    Didn't know it at the time, but recently got diagnosed with "severe" adolescent ADHD. In queue for treatment atm. They said pills might not help.

    Does anyone have any cool tip on how to focus without getting distracted and look at George Costanza quotes or research about meat eating plants?

    For me, cutting starch/carbohydrates/sugar helped. But only by a little, it got rid of the "fog" brain. At least now the 1000 thoughts in my head running concurrently are crystal clear :)

  • by Buzaga on 4/2/13, 3:52 PM

    I say we should diagnose more ADD because really this stuff is way good, everybody has it and then people sort of like learn to control it or something! X-men is here folks!

    Really, I have no idea what the fuck is ADD since it's symptoms seems to be stuff that everybody has to deal with and the best I can see people coming up with "no but when you have it it's like a LION is trying to eat you and you still can't focus, like, completely not normal"... I wonder, in case it's a legitimate thing, how the fuck have we gotten so far with 20% of brains shipping out with defects!? Amazing.

    (I also guess the reason ppl are so proud of it is because this label is laid on them early on as childs, tweens... then they just start wearing it)

    (Downvote at will)

  • by Cacti on 4/2/13, 2:40 PM

    Sounds more like you screwed up at least 8 businesses....