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Comment by zwkrt | Hacker News Reader

(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!

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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.

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