
Study shows stronger links between entrepreneurs and dyslexia  - makimaki
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/05/business/dyslexia.php?sid13
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uuilly
I am an entrepreneur and I am dyslexic and I have ADHD. It's way worse with
numbers than words though. Basically I just have to be really careful copying
numbers by hand. It made proofs in E school a nightmare. For a few days I even
had numbers reversed on my own phone number for my answering machine message!

I agree with this article completely. As a matter of fact I have never read an
article from new.yc that hits home more than this one.

"If you have a healthy dose of rejection in your life, you are going to have
to figure out how to do it your way."

I like this a lot. Living in the bowels of the the academic system taught me
to think fast. I was constantly one step away from total academic destruction
and I had to think on my feet to beat the system. Often that meant talking
parents out of punishments and teachers out of giving me bad grades. Great
training for startups. Everything is always on fire and your company depends
on convincing clients, investors, employees and customers to keep cool in the
midst of a blaze. Only now we get to do what we're good at and hire people to
do what we're bad at.

I also like the parts about verbal communication, delegation and trust. All
apply to me in spades. My co-founder is hyper-organized and hyper-systematic.
He's the tortoise and I'm the hare. He is very good at keeping us on track and
not forgetting details and I'm really good at game time decisions during sales
and VC meetings.

I also think hacking is great for the dyslexic. You can write code that masks
your weaknesses. Also ADHD people fear repetition above all else. Some say we
descend from hunters who thrive in dynamic environments, while most "normal
people" descend from farmers and thrive in more predictable environments. It
means that hacking is our natural ally in the fight against repetition.

Whatever the case, I don't think kids should be put on drugs to solve these so
called problems. They need HEAVY exercise and an some recognition that they
have something offer even if it doesn't happen in school. Though perhaps with
that recognition they might no longer be outside the system and they may not
develop the strengths that this article suggest. That is something I've
thought about a lot...

Sorry for the ramble, like I said, that hit home.

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ALee
I'm not dyslexic, but my healthy doses of rejection occurred because I was
nerdy, poor, and liked talking about things like robots, space, and role-
playing games.

It's helped quite a lot when dealing with rejection in the business world.
Paul Graham is just like Charleen from middle school.

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DanielBMarkham
Lex-dysics untie!

