
Living with ADHD: how I learned to make distraction work for me - Mattc007
https://aeon.co/ideas/living-with-adhd-how-i-learned-to-make-distraction-work-for-me
======
chriswait
I disagree with some of Sarah's takes on how education should change, e.g:

>Most curricula lack a preliminary phase of collectively exploring students’
existing interests, before introducing them to material in a way that will be
relevant to what they already care about.

>But why, in an age where we know that learning can be made nearly addictive,
is [gamification] not one of the standard ways we engage young (and older)
minds?

>Redesigning curricula is a relatively inexpensive educational intervention

(This last one made me laugh, cause my dad has been intimately involved in
curriculum redesign, and it mostly seems to involve every single teacher
complaining that you are making their jobs harder and threatening to quit)

I think the ability to focus on something "uninteresting":

• Probably requires some kind of willpower

• Is deeply useful and occasionally necessary (e.g doing my friggin taxes)

• Seems to vary innately from person to person (which is unfair)

• But seems to be something we can improve at (relatable if you've ever tried
to have a meditation practice)

• And something we can actually get worse at (e.g building a dependence on
social-network dopamine)

So I'm not sure that removing opportunities to practice this is going to help
anyone in the long term. I guess you could turn "learning" into "addictive
games" and try make sure everyone has a motivating, personal connection to the
material before it's taught, but I'm not sure how this doesn't produce a whole
generation of people who can't focus on anything except Candy Crush.

