While in the USA kids are relatively common diagnosed with ADD, in Europe is really rare that a kid is diagnosed with it, we actually rarely do test for it unless there are evident signs, and the reason is that kids are just being kids. I think that ADD is actually a good think, being able to go totally ADD when in a creative process and become highly focus when following a plan or listening to someone is a very important skill.
Quantum Thought
There's a new thought process, problem-solving and learning technique called quantum thought. Even Szabo, the guy who many thinks be Satoshi Nakamoto, mention about it in a few posts: http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-short-takes.html
The concept of quantum thought is not only to go ADD on a subject, so to look at it from many prospectives, that's quite intuitive and you should do it already, but also to disagree with your own opinions, pretty much thinking also the impossible cases and a possibility, deconstructing any certainty, as well as learning faster.
The quote from this article "pure reason is a subtly flawed tool", express exactly the point of quantum thought.
Breaking rules
Breaking the Law - Judas Priest
One year ago I was talking just about something similar with one of my best friends, we were in a French restaurant, drinking a cup of white wine and listening to some live jazz music, and talking about how stupid are the construct of human society. It's a good thing that we do have those rule, for example, someone could get up and drink the cup of the wine of another person, that's wrong, but sometimes we want to do something and we're paralyzed by our own inhibitions, which often aren't necessary.
The point of our discussion was a simple "fuck it, let's break our own rules!". That's pretty much also the Steve Jobs reality distortion field, you can do whatever you want, you're more powerful than what you think. Living with this concept will give you an extra gear to your life, and this is a very important step stone to become an entrepreneur, you must learn when and how to break rules and to evaluate cost, risk, and reward from breaking those rules!
Creativity needs you to break rules
I'm more and more realizing how crazy this post may be and that's because of the way we build sentences and create good arguments, you want to get to a point, you want to use evidence, my only goal in this post is to let my thought flowing freely and express ideas without much editing, with the goal to spawn more ideas for both you and me.
See the problem is that most of us, at least I do this, express ourselves always with the idea that someone is judging, for example, we dance for an audience, we act and sing for an audience, we write for an audience (some of you may be reading this), so I challenge you, and myself, to get out this notion, and instead to start living more freely, to make more mistakes and learn from them, and sometimes to go ADD and random.
Discover new possibilities
I recently read "How to build a mind", an interesting book that explains how the human brain works and how to learn and how solve problems. The synapses, use a chemical - electrical process when you think a solution to a problem for a few hours, you won't get to a solution because you'll keep sending signals to the same neurons. Like when it rains and small river form in the land, if the water keeps flowing the path of that river will take a long time to change, but if the rain stops, and a few days after rains again, the water may create a new path, reaching new lands. In the same way, when you take a break, or meditate, and stop the flowing of signals to certain neurons, you open the possibilities to find new solutions by using different synapses and searching in the new area of your brain or with new combinations.
Live freely
Freedom is a beautiful feeling when you live it with good ethic and when you're giving some karma back to the world.
To conclude my chain of thoughts, ADD can spawn creativity, stay focus when you talk to someone of course, but feel free to ADD when you're in a creative process, break any rules and structure, break your own rules and contradict yourself as well, think in quantum way, and remember that the canvas you're using is a lot bigger than it looks and it has infinite possibilities.
Federico Ulfo
https://twitter.com/feulf
https://linkedin.com/in/federicoulfo