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Re: Advantages of ADD in a High-Tech Career
I found a rather interesting book the other day that discussed the topic of ADD - Dreamers, Discoverers, and Dynamos by Lucy Jo Palladino. It’s about the Edison Trait and convergent vs. divergent thinking. In the chapter about ADD/ADHD it describes the condition as the difference between expectations of the convergent-minded society vs. the functions of the divergent-minded person.
The Edison Trait is named for Thomas Edison. He was extremely imaginative and creative but also easily distracted and disorganized. He failed out of school twice, but when home schooled by his mother in an environment that fostered development of his divergent mind he flourished.
Convergent thinking is best described as a funnel. Taking bits and pieces of information and focusing on one topic at a time to bring them together into one idea. Divergent thinking can be thought of as a tree, with ideas branching off in a seemingly random fashion.
Things that come easily for divergent thinkers…
-Thinking up wild or unusual ideas
-Standing up for, feeling strongly about, and getting involved in those ideas
-Making things up, and imagining the future
-Trying things out
-Starting new projects
Things that are more difficult….
-Focusing on someone else's ideas
-Letting go of his own ideas
-Remembering things he's been asked to do
-Practicing skills repeatedly
-Finishing things
(I think I remembered all of them)
Most classrooms accept only convergent thinking, making the school setting difficult for divergent thinkers. Convergent thinking is considered the norm, and most schools naturally assume that all minds should work the same and structure lessons accordingly.
Palladino named the divergent style of thinking the Edison Trait and identified three variation of the trait.
-Dreamers drift from place to place, on a schedule of eternal time.
-Discoverers have to find things out for themselves and do things their own way.
-Dynamos are always in motion, with a flair for surprises, power, and speed.
That's all I can remember from the book. I didn't have enough money to buy it.
I envision convergent and divergent thinking along a continuum. ADD is the extreme of divergent thinking, to the point where it’s difficult to function in a convergent-centered society, where convergent is “right” and divergent is “wrong”. ADD describes the deficits in convergent thinking without mentioning the strengths of divergent thinking.
I think FIRST (and engineering in general) is a very divergent friendly place. My favorite quote from the book is, “It’s not a problem of knowing what to do, It’s a problem of doing what you know.” That’s my problem in school.
~Allison
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FRC3538 : RoboJackets : 2014-??? : Head Coach & Drive Coach
FRC226 : Hammerheads : 2003-2013 : Strategist
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