Comment by adenozine | Hacker News Reader

Comment by adenozine | Hacker News Reader

So, as someone with ADHD-C, and someone who's been playing a lot of chess recently in the wake of its resurgence online, can I expect some important insight or self-realization from practicing the art of concentrating?

I can concentrate for hours and hours on certain things, I just don't always get to choose the things. Will chess and its nature of honing concentration force me to enhance that?

I listened to this article on the drive to work this morning, and I found it very interesting, and yet a bit hard to relate to. For neurotypical players, maybe it's a lot more rewarding to sit down and concentrate on chess. When I play, I have some good streaks and then streaks where I get tilted out of my flow, and I try and force myself to stay in the chess box, and I burn up and find something else to do. I used to be 1600-1700 in high school, and now I'm barely treading water at 1250-1350 on lichess.

I'm hoping there's someone with a brain like mine who has more experience to share.

Great link. Best I've seen in the front page in quite some time, imo.

Enhance it in other areas? I doubt it. If you go by Barkley's model, ADHD is mainly executive dysfunction and might just as well be called intention deficit disorder. Hyper focus conversely is what is called perseveration and it is actually not a good thing in most cases. If you find an interesting angle that keeps your mind in the zone then that's probably how you could learn chess more deeply (aka if you really like studying chess openings and books from Alekhine, and if you enjoy finding those patterns in your own games for instance). Of course there are ways to improve the situation, break down your tasks into smaller tasks and so on. Or do boring small tasks immediately. Get enough sleep. Exercise. Also I would strongly recommend medication. Meditation seems to help some people as well.

I can attest for meditation. If I try to sum up the insight in the case of ADHD it's that the next thing will not be more interesting than the present, and that simply being can be more pleasing than "doing" something. It's not only intellectual, there is a whole well-being feeling that comes up (at least for me). So the whole never-ending fall forward to find the next best/more interesting becomes kind of pointless in the process. Maybe not a cure but an efficient way to keep it under control instead of suffering from it.

Highly recommend HealthyGamerGG's videos "How to Deal with Your ADHD ft. Mizkif" and "Solving Laziness with Asmongold". (Her's a Harvard psychology professor who has surprisingly-wholesome live therapy sessions with famous streamers). The presentation is a tad corny in some areas--like awkwardly phrasing psychological phenomena in terms of RPG mechanics--but that doesn't make up the bulk of it, promise. I'd be lying if I claimed to be coming from a place of any more expertise than you, but I suspect that some of the framings he discusses will resonate.

It's actually hard to practice concentrating with a game or active activity. If you truly want to meet your mind, sit down and do nothing, i.e. meditate. You'll notice your mind racing, and you'll see just why it's hard to concentrate on anything. You can then practice letting go of intervening thoughts, without self hate, and just observe the breath, sounds around, but in a passive, calm manner, not reactionary or impulsive with the attention.

I've heard this advice many times over the years, and I guess I've really just never committed myself to meditation as a regimen. I can keep a fitness routine very well, I think that's as close I get with my brain to that place of reflection.

Did you have any like, significant trauma to deal with when you started meditating? I have some things in my past that I feel the need to run from when I am still and quiet in my mind.

(Beginner/very part-time meditator here.)

Just start. I think most ‘courses’ will address this concern — it’s kinda the basic tenet of meditation, that you‘ll notice thoughts but that this is okay. You train yourself to notice them, observe them, and let them drift by.

Personally I like Headspace because I find Andy Puddicombe’s voice delightful. But of course there are a million meditation resources, many free.

As someone who never thought I’d be a meditator — and whose first experience was in a packed auditorium with Sam Harris at the front, which was amazing [0] — I can’t recommend it enough. This thread has me wanting to get back in to it. (Because, like anything else, the act of just doing it is half the battle won.)

[0]: At the global atheist conference, whatever it was called, in Melbourne, c. 2012? Anyone else there?

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