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Comment by 123pie123 | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure all the people with dyslexia / ADHD would not agree

(This is coming from someone with ADHD but not dyslexia)

It's harsh, but it isn't wrong, right? The reason that these states of being are considered 'disorders' is because they interfere with daily life and with tasks that other people consider to be easy.

I need to take a lot of time to edit my writing and to re-evaluate the content that I write because it is easy for me to slip into a multi-paragraph tangent. Fundamentally that happens because my thinking is not sharp/focused.

On the other hand, when I am done writing I get a feeling of great accomplishment. Like I was able to swim through the deep waters of my mind and harpoon all the good ideas. Being smart isn't worth much if you can't communicate your ideas!

speaking as someone with mild dyslexia and high ADHD. I would say that my analytical skills, abilty to focus, spatial awareness (I could go on here but I think you get the gist) are well above average based on my work/ university experience

i do take offense of people implying my "mind is weak" based soley on my writing skills. Yes, I know writing skills are important at communicating, but humans have seriously many skills to offer than just writing or even communicating for that matter. yet people seem to be condensing their opinion of other people into a very highlevel simplistic rule. Are we going back in time here? whats next? basing if peoples minds are weak on DNA/ race?

>I need to take a lot of time to edit my writing and to re-evaluate the content that I write because it is easy for me to slip into a multi-paragraph tangent. Fundamentally that happens because my thinking is not sharp/focused.

same here on the first part, but not because I can't focus, its because I have to juggle many train of thoughts whilst writing slowing into one stream of communication. to the point I give up on many things that i really want to say

You are seriously underestimating the importance and potential of communication. Excellent communication conveys expectations, specificity, and manipulation in ways you are not capable of imagining without so being skilled. It’s the difference between effective leadership and being a tool.

no i'm not

Are you defining people as weak because you think writing is important and ignoring all other aspects of their personality?

If you want to talk about personality the member of the big 5 most correlated with intelligence is openness. The member with the highest negative correlation to intelligence is conscientiousness. To be skilled in any kind leadership you need both high intelligence and super high conscientiousness. To be skilled in writing you need high openness and at least moderately high conscientiousness.

Irrespective of creativity and intelligence you need some amount of conscientiousness to be goal oriented. That is just yourself. To direct others to do the same you need that plus excellent communication skills. There are no shortcuts or alternatives here.

I think the quote was paraphrased to make it more offensive than it really was originally.

Originally the quote was about sloppy thinking, not "weak" minds. You're right that weak isn't a great word to use here.

Maybe you'd also disagree that your thinking is sloppy.

So the actual quote is less divisive -

"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is."

As a father to three kids on rhe ASD spectrum, yes I guess you are right. And yeah they need extra time in exams - but honestly no-one writes the final draft the first time. All exams are is how quickly can you regurgitate an essay you wrote (yourself) earlier.

Write, rewrite and repeat. It's the only way. No matter how it bounces around in your brain at some point you mail the slippery thought down and can examine it.

I have an extremely bad short term memory. If you tell me something and I don’t write it down or think about it intensely for a while, I’ll forget it in minutes.

I write everything down because of this. Bullet points, paragraphs etc.

I second it. My brain is also tuned to discard most of the information which is easily available for retrieval through print or online resource. I have to write any new information or concept multiple times In order to retain it for few days.

I have ADHD and maybe some sort of low grade dyslexia. My voracious curiosity with no regard to structured learning or topical coherence has only been a huge boon to my reading/writing. I think ADHD/dyslexia has been a bigger problem in my math and science classes where I write something different than what my brain is thinking, or I make arithmetic mistakes. For instance, if I forget to write the first noun in a sentence, it isn't as huge a problem as when I mix up a summation and summand in an answer or on the way to one.

I’m not sure I understand your reasoning, and I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and am writing a nonfiction book.

I understand how this condition might make the writing process more challenging, but I don’t think that contradicts GPs point at all.

My ADHD agrees with it 100% because it's true.

Why do you say that?

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