Re: Bob Hettinga's attention surplus disorder

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

At 7:51 am -0500 on 11/19/97, Anonymous wrote:

> Several people have commented about Bob Hettinga's verbosity,
> Thompsonesque writing style, and apparent limitless supply of bubbly
> energy.

Er, thanks. I think. Makes me sound like an ibogaine-crazed Barbie doll
with an AK... :-).

> Sometime ago during a discussion of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)
> Bob told his story on the list.  He explained that he had had ADD, but
> was now on amphetamines to counteract this, and was feeling much
> better.  It was quite brave of him to discuss this openly.

Sure. Glad to talk about it. Well, yes, Ritalin is an amphetamine, isn't
it? I was thinking about going on actual dexadrine in time release form,
but, what I figured out is that while amphetamines made me rediculously
productive, they also made me a real grouch. I've heard that tricyclics
like Prozac help with that, but, eventually, I decided that knowing I had
ADD was probably the most important thing to gain from the whole
experience.

I haven't been on medication for ADD for at least a year, maybe 2? hard to
remember. (I can hear the howls in the peanut gallery now :-)) Frankly, I
don't have the attention span to keep up with all the ADD stuff, and the
novelty's worn off, now. ;-). I've also developed coping strategies for
dealing with it pretty well, I think.

> I suspect what we are seeing is that the amphetamines are more than
> counteracting his putative ADD problems, to the extent that he has
> more energy than normal to write long winded Thompsonesque rants, the
> content of which could be more clearly expressed in a treatise 1/10th
> the size.

Sorry to dissapoint, then. :-). Actually, I think that I'm just catching up
for all the writing I *haven't* done in the past 8 months or so, with
FC97/98, e$lab, e$pam, DCSB, etc. I've been very busy, and I didn't really
notice that until I sat down and deliberately started to write stuff again.

As far as amateur psychopharmacology or psychiatry is concerned, you should
remember that ADD is more about not controlling one's attention than it is
about having a deficit thereof. People with ADD can focus for for extremely
long periods of time on something to the exclusion of nothing else. It's
called, oddly enough, hyperfocus. :-). Now, I may be accused of that in
this particular case, but I think it's actually the result of *not* writing
anything for a while which is the cause, and not because I'm playing in my
medicine cabinet. Sorry to dissapoint.

If anything, it's maybe the opposite of attention at this point. I've had
to work very hard at saving all the fun calumny I've gotten here lately, in
order to respond to it when I can give it the proper time. And attention.
:-).

> Impatience is a useful trait, because it causes one to reconsider the
> efficiency of approaches.  Most of us simply don't have the patience
> to even read the voluminous posts of Bob's to locate the actual
> content amidst the colorful metaphors (rocket launchers, snot covered
> gun barrels, etc).

Hey, that's what the delete key's for, right? I write, like everyone else
who writes, because I like it. Most of the time when I write, other people
like it. Sometimes, people don't. Life is hard.

> No offense to Bob, but I think his effectiveness would improve if he
> let off the amphetamines a touch.

Try another one. Though I do appreciate your apparent concern for my mental
well being. ;-).

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
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