ADHD

It’s 2024 and ADHD is about as common as smog in Los Angeles. We’ve reached a point where everyone’s either diagnosed with ADHD or thinks they are.

Dopamine. If you have ADHD, your brain runs on low dopamine, which leads to craving more stimulation. It’s basically the brain’s way of saying, "Hey, could you find me something exciting? Or even destructive? I don't care. Just do something."

This is why people with ADHD end up in toxic relationships and generally being more prone to chaos. It’s not that we’re drawn to chaos, it’s just, well, chaos is more interesting than boredom. So ya, we end up with a trail of messes behind us, but at least we felt alive, right? It’s about feeling something. Feeling something that is bad is more stimulating than to feel nothing at all, which is why ADHD people are more likely to struggle with addiction & substance abuse, even if they know full well the damage they’re causing.

But here’s the kicker: ADHD is coincidentally the secret weapon for many high achievers who become entrepreneurs, consultants and other high-flying “thought leaders”.

The ADHD brain craves novelty and thrives on solving new problems (as long as they’re interesting enough to solve). Throw an ADHD person with a penchant for flames into a fire, and they’ll be reinventing the hose. Why? Because putting out the fire was boring 30 seconds ago. Time for something shiny and new.

So maybe it’s not a problem with the ADHD brain, but a problem with the monotonous job they find themselves stuck in.

Maybe people struggling with ADHD who are unable to stay motivated just need a new career path entirely. If you have ADHD, you’re wired to do things that interest you, not things you should do. You're not broken, you’re just bored.

Now what? What can we do about this?
Simple; start chasing progress instead of chaos. Progress in one aspect of life leads to progress in others - but remember, this only works if you’re interested in the progress.

So do this:

• Write down what you're good at

• Write down what interests you

• Figure out what people will actually pay for

Determine the alignment between these things and when you do, run with it. Stop chasing dopamine through chaos & destruction, start chasing it through progress.

I’m going to go through this exercise in real time:

• I’m good writing, asking questions, and curating cool information (real answer: idk if I’m good at anything)

• I’m interested in consciousness, freedom, perception, and community (real answer: am I interested in those things or are they just less painstakingly boring than every other subject matter?)

• People pay newsletters and podcasts sponsorship deals (what separates the few newsletter & podcasts that get paid form the majority who never do?)

So the only things I’m (hopefully) good at & interested in would be writing newsletters about my interests and doing podcasts where I can ask smart people questions and about their perspectives that enlighten my own.

I started doing both of those things and my biggest issues have been that I have no idea how to get a person to subscribe to a newsletter (I’m literally writing this to NO ONE) and I’ve struggled to convince people to be a guest on my podcast. Maybe I need to start by recording solo podcasts, but what do I talk about? I find myself staring at a wall with nothing to say when there is no external stimulation to base questions and conversation from. Should I be having “solo” conversations with chat GPT until someone agrees to be a guest? Maybe.