According to Zentall, an activity that uses a sense other than that required for the primary task — listening to music while reading a social studies textbook — can enhance performance in children with ADHD. Doing two things at once, she found, focuses the brain on the primary task.
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two things at once.
getting anything done at all.
Know that it is OK to do two things at once: carry on a conversation and knit, or take a shower and do your best thinking, or jog and plan a business meeting. Often people with ADD need to be doing several things at once in order to get anything done at all.
Ratey, John J. Md; Hallowell, Edward M. Md.
Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder, (p. 311).
c. 1994, Random House, Inc. (via adhdisme)
Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder, (p. 311).
c. 1994, Random House, Inc. (via adhdisme)
flip, not tip.
When people say, “The tipping point,” they often misunderstand the concept in Malcolm‘s book. They’re actually talking about the flipping point.
The tipping point is the sum total of many individuals buzzing about something. But for an individual to start buzzing, something has to change in that person’s mind. Something flips from boredom or ignorance to excitement or anger.
sight reading.
Brilliance from Seth Godin:
When I played clarinet in high school, I never practiced. I blamed it on my dog, who howled, but basically I was a lousy music student.
At my weekly lesson, though, the teacher would scold me, guessing that I’d only practiced three or four hours the week before. I was so good at sight reading that while I was truly mediocre at the clarinet, I was way better than anyone who had never practiced had any right to be.
We often test sight reading skills, particularly in job interviews. In that highly-charged encounter, we test the applicant’s ability to think on her feet. That’s a great idea if the job involves a lot of feet thinking, but otherwise, you’re inspecting for the wrong thing, aren’t you? Same with a first date. Marketing yourself to a new person often involves being charismatic, clever and quick—but most jobs and most relationships are about being consistent, persistent and brave, no?
what you can offer.
What one person has to offer another is their own being, nothing more and nothing less.
Ram Dass
from from Posner, Barry Z.; Kouzes, James M. (2008-12-18). A Leader’s Legacy ( John Wiley and Sons), p. 52.
from from Posner, Barry Z.; Kouzes, James M. (2008-12-18). A Leader’s Legacy ( John Wiley and Sons), p. 52.
critical leadership.
Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.
John Gardner
you have the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. now do something.
Seth Godin: Steve devoted his professional life to giving us (you, me and a billion other people) the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. Everything in our world is different because of the device you’re reading this on. What are we going to do with it?
simple.
Steve Jobs (again):
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
creativity
Steve Jobs:
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it. They just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
hot dogs are delicious
This is amazing.
Hot Dogs
by Christopher Walken
Do you enjoy eating hot dogs? I hope you won’t be put off by my frankness when I tell you that I absolutely love them. In fact, I enjoy no food item more than a freshly-boiled hot dog. Now, I’ve done a lot of movies, and it’s true that I’ve worked with quite a few celebrities who did not share this opinion. I’m sorry to say that these people have always angered me.
There are two types of people in this world: those who eat hot dogs whenever it is possible to do so, and those who opt to do other things with their free time. Who do the latter think they are kidding? What pastime could be more rewarding than the consumption of hot dogs? I haven’t yet found one, and I don’t expect to in my lifetime. Unlike other foods, hot dogs can be eaten at any time, in any place, and it is not necessary to cook them. Now, I ask you: Why not eat hot dogs? They are delicious.
I carry a bag of hot dogs with me wherever I go. I eat them from the bag whenever I get the urge, regardless of the circumstances. When I make a movie, my hot dogs are my co-stars. If, in the middle of a scene, I decide I want to consume a hot dog, I do so. I waste the director’s time and thousands of dollars in film stock, but in the end, it is all worth it, because I enjoy eating hot dogs more than I enjoy acting. This bothers some people. I was supposed to portray Batman, but when Tim Burton learned of my hot dog cravings, he asked Michael Keaton to wear the cape. To this day, I am peeved about this.
When we filmed The Dead Zone, I ate over 800 hot dogs a day. It was necessary. My character needed to come across as intense as possible, and I found the inspiration for that intensity in my intense love for hot dogs. The director, David Cronenberg, said that he would never work with me again. I kept eating hot dogs when the cameras were rolling, and that seemed to bother him. I say fuck him. He doesn’t even like hot dogs.
I would like to end by emphasizing once again that I really like to eat hot dogs. If any of you people disagree, I loathe you. I despise you. Not only that, but I also despise all your loved ones. I want to see them torn to pieces by wild dogs. If I ever meet you in person, I’ll smash your brains in with a fucking bat. Then we’ll see who doesn’t like hot dogs.
Next week: My thoughts on Woody Allen, hot dog hater and shitty director.
Source: The Onion, sometime in the late ’90s, predating their current web archive.