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The British rock-band Traffic said it in their "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" : "... we were children once, playing with toys". I wonder if it's true that peo

The British rock-band Traffic said it in their "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" : "... we were children once, playing with toys". I wonder if it's true that people don't remember. People maybe remember but don't want to talk about it. It is such a cognitive dissonance.

sublinear 7d ago
Everyone remembers, but ADHD is overrepresented in the high-level positions of leadership.
- baliex 7d ago
  I can’t tell if you’re implying that those with ADHD are more likely or less likely to think and act in a childlike way. Or whether doing so or not is what causes the over representation in high level positions. Could you please elaborate? My understanding is that ADHD would make you more likely to behave in childlike ways as an adult, but not that that would necessarily lead to holding leadership positions. I’m genuinely very interested in your thoughts.
  - sublinear 6d ago
    I'm not going to argue splitting hairs about what ADHD is. Many of the most famous CEOs and startup founders have properly diagnosed ADHD and have been very vocal about it. This is also often true of any business owner you've met in real life. I didn't think this statement would get any pushback since not too long ago the front page of HN was touting this as a "superpower". The high-functioning expression of impulsivity is impatience with processes and insistence on maximum efficiency. I guess lately this is seen as negative because of the zeitgeist around AI? Tao is talking about this impatience. > Prematurely putting such games to an end by immediately providing the nominal goal --- for instance, providing these children with a brief lecture on infinity and the unbounded nature of the natural numbers --- defeats the entire "purpose" of such curiosity-driven play It's not that they don't remember playing as children, but that they resent the time spent on it as "wasteful". They do mean well by trying to squash play time, but yes of course that's harmful and naive.
- setopt 7d ago
  Do you have a source for that? My experience has been that people with ADHD are rather underrepresented, the ones who are overrepresented are rather hyper-extroverts that sometimes present similarly, but that do not have the same impulse control challenges (impossible to focus on boring tasks, hyperfocus on fun tasks) as someone with true ADHD.
ErroneousBosh 7d ago
Runrig's song "Fichead Bliadhna", too, but that's more kind of a protest song: Ruith sa mhonadh, ruith nam beann ’S mar sin dhan sgoil aig deireadh samhraidh Nar clann aig còig bliadhna dh’aois ’S gun facal Beurla nar ceann translated: Freedom of the moor, freedom of the hills (Ruith is literally "running" though) And off to school at summer's end As children of five years old And not a word of English in our heads Particularly resonant with me as my 6-year-old cycles off to school for the second month of Primary 2. Quite a wrench to have to deal with sitting still and listening to the teacher when it's 20° outside and sunny and there are bikes and toy cars and mud and sticks. At least some twenty years later by the late 70s when I was that age they actually were teaching Gaelic in schools again instead of literally beating it out of people, and now my son is in a Gaelic-medium class in school making it one of the three languages he speaks.
- nephihaha 6d ago
  Run of the moors, run of the hills And like that to school at summer's end Us being children of five years of age Without a word of English in our heads That's my literal translation anyway. I was talking to an American yesterday who couldn't understand the concept of the Highlands yesterday. His whole idea was of a place presented magically but with little more than funny accents in it. I tried to get over to him all the history of suppression, eviction, lack of economic development etc... but the big one is cultural. If the Highlands lose their culture (and they already have largely) then they are indistinguishable from anywhere else.
  - ErroneousBosh 6d ago
    I mean make him read Hallaig by Somhairle MacGill-eain. And, ideally, go and visit a cleared township. https://maps.app.goo.gl/nc8uhBogrBCjgjYs9 https://maps.app.goo.gl/nc8uhBogrBCjgjYs9 I used to walk out there most weekends when I was at school. Until about 175 years ago, those were homes. Families lived there. The white dots you see are sheep, which is of course why families don't live there now. Good Gaelic, incidentally, where did you speak it?

sublinear 7d ago

Everyone remembers, but ADHD is overrepresented in the high-level positions of leadership.

baliex 7d ago
I can’t tell if you’re implying that those with ADHD are more likely or less likely to think and act in a childlike way. Or whether doing so or not is what causes the over representation in high level positions. Could you please elaborate? My understanding is that ADHD would make you more likely to behave in childlike ways as an adult, but not that that would necessarily lead to holding leadership positions. I’m genuinely very interested in your thoughts.
- sublinear 6d ago
  I'm not going to argue splitting hairs about what ADHD is. Many of the most famous CEOs and startup founders have properly diagnosed ADHD and have been very vocal about it. This is also often true of any business owner you've met in real life. I didn't think this statement would get any pushback since not too long ago the front page of HN was touting this as a "superpower". The high-functioning expression of impulsivity is impatience with processes and insistence on maximum efficiency. I guess lately this is seen as negative because of the zeitgeist around AI? Tao is talking about this impatience. > Prematurely putting such games to an end by immediately providing the nominal goal --- for instance, providing these children with a brief lecture on infinity and the unbounded nature of the natural numbers --- defeats the entire "purpose" of such curiosity-driven play It's not that they don't remember playing as children, but that they resent the time spent on it as "wasteful". They do mean well by trying to squash play time, but yes of course that's harmful and naive.
setopt 7d ago
Do you have a source for that? My experience has been that people with ADHD are rather underrepresented, the ones who are overrepresented are rather hyper-extroverts that sometimes present similarly, but that do not have the same impulse control challenges (impossible to focus on boring tasks, hyperfocus on fun tasks) as someone with true ADHD.

ErroneousBosh 7d ago

Runrig's song "Fichead Bliadhna", too, but that's more kind of a protest song: Ruith sa mhonadh, ruith nam beann ’S mar sin dhan sgoil aig deireadh samhraidh Nar clann aig còig bliadhna dh’aois ’S gun facal Beurla nar ceann translated: Freedom of the moor, freedom of the hills (Ruith is literally "running" though) And off to school at summer's end As children of five years old And not a word of English in our heads Particularly resonant with me as my 6-year-old cycles off to school for the second month of Primary 2. Quite a wrench to have to deal with sitting still and listening to the teacher when it's 20° outside and sunny and there are bikes and toy cars and mud and sticks. At least some twenty years later by the late 70s when I was that age they actually were teaching Gaelic in schools again instead of literally beating it out of people, and now my son is in a Gaelic-medium class in school making it one of the three languages he speaks.

nephihaha 6d ago
Run of the moors, run of the hills And like that to school at summer's end Us being children of five years of age Without a word of English in our heads That's my literal translation anyway. I was talking to an American yesterday who couldn't understand the concept of the Highlands yesterday. His whole idea was of a place presented magically but with little more than funny accents in it. I tried to get over to him all the history of suppression, eviction, lack of economic development etc... but the big one is cultural. If the Highlands lose their culture (and they already have largely) then they are indistinguishable from anywhere else.
- ErroneousBosh 6d ago
  I mean make him read Hallaig by Somhairle MacGill-eain. And, ideally, go and visit a cleared township. https://maps.app.goo.gl/nc8uhBogrBCjgjYs9 https://maps.app.goo.gl/nc8uhBogrBCjgjYs9 I used to walk out there most weekends when I was at school. Until about 175 years ago, those were homes. Families lived there. The white dots you see are sheep, which is of course why families don't live there now. Good Gaelic, incidentally, where did you speak it?