Attention Surplus Syndrome (A.S.S.)

My 14-year-old slam-poet ADD son came up with this one. I thought it was funny! I watch the poor kid struggling with the "gift" he inherited from me, and I'm glad he can laugh about it! He's getting pretty good at making other people laugh, too -- his slam poetry has a definite standup comic element to it. But if he goes down that path...boy am I in trouble!!!

Inventions

ADD people are pretty much all inventors by nature. Only thing is that our inventions don't always make it out into the world, because of all those boring steps involved in production, promotion, etc. Still, I'm sure that a lot of things everyone uses in their daily lives have their roots in ADD!

So just for fun, here are some inventions I'd like to see for ADD folks. Sometimes I'm kinda kidding, sometimes not. I don't have much time at this moment (as usual), so I'm sure I'll keep ADDing to the list. Feel free to ADD your ideas as well!

1. Smoke alarms...that ring on your cell phone
(or better yet, a remote beeper that goes off if the keys are stuck into the ignition while the stove is on!)
2. GPS object locators that come in sticker form
3. Magnetic W-2 Forms
4. An ankle-strap generator that makes energy from pacing (& related products for kids: the trampoline generator, the mattress generator, the sofa generator...)
5. A bluetooth earplug-fingertapping pad that allows musical creation (or some other useful multitasking, damit!) during dull meetings
6. Floorboard storage: lift & hide!
7. A talking gas gauge (& oil, brake fluid, handbrake, etc....)
8. Glow-in-the-dark contact lens cases
9. Illustrated tax forms
10. A hypnosis technique that lets you erase the last stupid thing that came blurting out of your mouth before it could be stopped!


(sorry, gotta run. will Keep ADDing later!)

Goals vs. Purposes

One of the "Alternative Dimensions" in ADD is the alignment of goals and purposes in our lives. If we're gonna get a grip on our own situations and change the world, it is very important for us to understand how we are different from non-ADD people in this respect.

Here's an example: Housecleaning. When my non-ADD husband cleans the house, his focus is on the purpose: it needs to be done. Great. He picks things up because they need to be picked up. He sweeps the floor because it needs to be swept. He complains about certain things that I do, because they need to be dealt with. These things align with the purpose of keeping the house livable.

For me, on the other hand, as much as I would like to believe that I think the same way, the fact is that I do not. When I clean the house, I am focused on the goal of having a living space that matches my vision of what I want to see, including my own personal "feng-shui standards" and many other sub-goals that comprise the picture. I clean the same way I create a painting -- which often means that there is often more mess than beauty until it's done! I pick things up and sweep the floor because these things are necessary to achieving the state of beauty and functionality that I am shooting for.

This difference is especially important in explaining why the decluttering "how-to" books that themselves clutter many ADD living spaces don't work for us. They are written for non-ADD people who are essentially driven by the purpose of having a clean space (there are also a number of other reasons why these books don't work for us; I'm sure I'll get to that later).

Actually, let me correct myself: those books usually work fine -- for that fragile, magical moment in which they initially feed our inspiration. We'll look at pictures, get ideas, "feel the fire", and, if we're lucky, get to work before "something else" happens. The transformation may even be miraculous. But then, once the place looks great, the book gets shoved in some corner and becomes just another part of the rapid decay toward dysfunction.

I'm not saying this to say that we're hopeless. I'm saying that the relationship between us and that book is just another part of the less-than-perfect relationship we have with the non-ADD world, and it needs to be set right so that we don't just get down on ourselves for the loss of utility of that book in our lives.

Does this mean ADD people are more goal-oriented by nature?

BAAAAHHHH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!!! Yeah, RIGHT!

OK, here's a classic example (for me) of the opposite: COLLEGE. Non-ADD people basically tend to focus on doing the paper, passing the class, getting the degree. Goals. Well, yeah, I have the same goals, too -- but, um...different! Those goals, for me, are like tiny lights at the end of a loooong tunnel, toward which I am more or less constantly navigating, at a speed roughly determined by my financial situation (and subsequent need for completion) at a given moment. Meanwhile, I am focused on fulfilling my purpose of being a student -- learning, arguing with professors, screwing off in class, meeting people, and scrambling to meet deadlines.

My point is that it is important for us to see these differences clearly and honestly in order to strategize real solutions for ourselves -- preferably, solutions that do not change who we are, but which allow us to be happy...and free to be, ADD!

Polychronicity

Know what that is?

The word is not in Webster's Dictionary. Or Cambridge. Or Oxford.

But you watch -- I guarantee it's gonna be in all three major dictionaries in five years. Or less. In fact, I think it may be headed for "household word" status a lot sooner than that.

Why? Because the ADD revolution is already happening, and new concepts are part of it. In fact, we are the new concept (as well as a very ancient one).

One of the best descriptions of polychronicity I've seen is on Harley Hahn's Page (b/t/w if this guy isn't a classic example of Alternative Dimensional Design put to constructive use, I'll eat my shoe. Except I don't own any shoes -- at least any that I can locate-- right now). I suggest checking it out; I won't even try to do a description of that level. But here's an excerpt:

"...polychrons prefer to keep their time unstructured, changing from one activity to another as the mood takes them. Although polychrons can meet deadlines, they need to do so in their own way. A polychron does not want detailed plans imposed upon him, nor does he want to make his own detailed plans. Polychrons prefer to work as they see fit without a strict schedule, following their internal mental processes from one minute to the next.

Monochrons relate to time differently: to them, time is discrete, not continuous. Monochrons see time as being divided into fixed elements — seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and so on — temporal blocks that can be organized, quantified and scheduled. Monochrons love to plan in detail, making lists, keeping track of their activities, and organizing their time into a daily routine. "

Even though it does not appear in the dictionary (yet), polychronicity is not a new concept. It has actually been in use in the field of anthropology since 1959, when it first appeared in Edward Hall's classic book, The Silent Language. Hall was a renowned cultural anthropologist who mainly focused on the "dimensional" perceptions of different cultures (no, I didn't get the "ADD" idea from him, but it fits, huh?). Psychologists picked up on the concept, and started using it in scholarly study by the 1990's. Now, it's getting popularized by people like Harley Hahn...and people like you & me.

If you are an ADD person, I don't even need to tell you how the concept of polychronicity is relevant to us. The fact that it came out of cultural anthropology is very important, because it points to the fact that human beings have very different ways of perceiving and working with time. This is not some fly-by "hippie" concept coughed out to justify ADD procrastination. It's established social science.

Moreover, thinking about this idea gives us a chance to zoom out to a world view again. Polychronic cultures tend to be ancient cultures. This means (amongst other things) that, except for colonization and that being-wiped-off-the-face-of-the-Earth thing, many of these cultures are sustainable. The fact that they haven't kept compulsively "evolving" (i.e. perpetually recreating an environment that fits them rather than the other way around) means that they have found something that works. They do not need to reinvent themselves at lightning speed in order to survive and be happy (or well at least they didn't before the Wal Mart opened...). And they really are where they are, not located upon some artificially imposed time/space matrix for the sake of synchronicity (hmm...Synchroni-City...isn't that the place where they invented the traffic jam??).

People might debate me on the "but are they really happy?" thing (I know, I know, Willie Wonka just had to rescue the Oomah Loompahs from eating those darn caterpillars or God knows they never would've found chocolate...), but it doesn't take an anthropologist to figure out that excessive reliance on a monochronic paradigm in our society is making a lot of people miserable and abusive. It's not that all monochronic people are lame. Lots of cool things come out of monochronic abilities, and there's actually a lot of creative potential in synchronicity. But living with a monochronic grid as the only paradigm, and the expectation that everyone will fit precisely in this matrix 100% of the time SUCKS...especially if you happen to be ADD.

Somebody's gotta change this beat already.

So do yourself and the planet a favor: take a minute (an ADD minute!) to think about one way that you can bend the music of the world around your beautiful polychronic rhythm.

Flow!