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Comment by wombatmobile | Hacker News Reader

ADHD people have a different calculus that affects their project management.

NonA-DHD typically respond to deadlines with increased urgency, commitment, and re-factoring assessments.

ADHD may respond to deadlines by abandoning tasks and starting new extraneous tasks.

Is that rational? It’s what happens, and since it is such a dramatic and consequential difference, it warrants a reconsideration of the meaning of the term “rational”, and it’s limitations.

ADHD isn’t an isolated minority. It’s a transient condition in a significant number of people, prevalent enough in the population to make economic text books about monolithic “rationality” unfit for purpose.

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Rationality isn't whatever people do. Biases are whatever people don't do optimally that they would, if they were perfectly rational.

Various subgroups can have different responses, but rationality is its own ideal, regardless of what people do.

In what sense!? From what god is Rationalty (TM) handed down? Which parts of society are Rational? Which of the sentences of mine is Rational?

Ostensibly Rational just means “with reasons” or “calculated” but there are many different calculuses under which one could operate.

I agree with GP. Economic rational agents are supposed to do things like maximize utility or minimize loss. I know that I for one do things like “anticipate others’ needs”, “feel ambivalent about eating the entire box of donuts”, and “take a day off work to practice origami”, and I’m not sure how those actions fit into the economic model.

It's not necessary to pull economics into the picture - the general definition is that a rational choice is making the choice that best furthers your goals. If you make suboptimal choices (with respect to your own goals - sacrificing "socially desirable" goals in order to achieve some desire of your own isn't irrational), that's an irrational choice, and people often do that for various reasons. We're not horribly bad at achieving our goals, but we're also nowhere near perfect. Some types of suboptimal choices are systematic, predictable deviations which we can study as biases.

Is it truly transient? I know some people "grow out of it", but it seems plenty of people are afflicted for life. Am I misunderstanding what transient means in this context?

It's not transient, it's a neurodevelopmental disorder that changes the fundamental structure of the brain and how it functions (this is a bit of a simplification, but it's true enough for this context).

People who 'grow out' of having ADHD either:

1. Developed coping methods that lessened the impact of their symptoms, making them functional enough to not be diagnosable (ADHD is only diagnosed if it negatively impacts your ability to function in two or more of the domains of work, social life, and home/family life). Often people who do this are still negatively impacted by their condition, but their problems are invisible and go unnoticed.

2. Never had ADHD to begin with, and instead had one of the many other psychiatric or physical conditions that can impact executive functioning (e.g. depression, sleep disorders, anxiety, malnutrition, etc.).

(wow I used the word impact a lot in this paragraph)

Right, that’s what I thought. I’ve been diagnosed and it doesn’t feel transient in the slightest so that seemed like a peculiar statement. Thanks for your impactful response!

Transient in some people in certain circumstances. Not transient in others.

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