I am responding specifically to some of the paragraphs in the essay where the author mentions working non-stop for hours straight on something in a quiet room, while their peers who were "studying" were spending some of that time chatting or bothered by some distraction.
Without medication, at least for me and I suspect almost all other people, hyperfocus is something that comes and goes at random and is rarely centered on what it should be (even if I do find it interesting, like real analysis coursework). But even regular people hyperfocus when they take adderall.
This part of the author’s account struck me as well. Like, yeah it would be great if I could summon the hyperfocus at the right moment, and sometimes impending deadlines/tests cause that, but more often than not it just doesn’t work that way. And if it does, the last-minute cram session is way more stressful and less effective than actually doing the work over time would have been.
Yes, the author got that A that one time, but what could he have achieved if he had managed to work on it for more than one night? Or put another way: if you are lucky enough to succeed and level-up through the academia/career/whatever ladder enough despite these problems, you’ll eventually get to a point where cramming doesn’t cut it. You’ll be surrounded by people who are just as smart but who can actually focus at the right times on the right things, and then you’ll struggle (speaking from experience).
I can focus for hours straight in a quiet room but:
a) I can't choose what to focus on. So if I need to do something but it's not the latest thing I'm obsessed about, tough luck
b) Deadlines help but if it's not something I'm obsessed about and there's no deadlines, not going to happen
My experience maps the author, I did well in university because becoming super interested in a subject and reading everything about it for a couple of weeks to the detriment of everything else worked well. Well it worked well in France where we had 2 exams a year and all exams were open book, it didn't work that well in the US where tests were more regular and memorising random uninteresting fact was expected (I lost point in a computer graphics class for not being able to give the name of companies that were members of the Opengl architectural board or when the first version was released... Who cares??)
After graduating, I'd say the fact that I get very interested in things and completely focus on them actually helped me in my career. On the other hand, my inability to do paperwork, send invoices on time (been a consultant most of my life), do my taxes etc lost me around 150k so far. So, it's a double edged sword for sure.
You got me curious, so I read your other comments :) And yes, I totally can relate to " I frequently get completely engrossed for periods of a few weeks on a topic - beyond healthy levels of interest. But one day, it's just gone - vapid."
This is coupled with a bit of a shopaholic tendency where I'll buy anything that would be useful for my new topic of interest (I didn't use to do this, but now I have disposable income so there's no more barriers to doing it) and sometimes by the time everything I bought arrives, I'm just no longer interested.
It's been useful for work because occasionally I will have unhealthy amount of interests in something that will be useful for my work. It's just that it's not controllable.
I relate to what you say about stimulants, however one problem I have is that if I'm not very well rested, concerta makes me sleepy. Unfortunately, I have a newborn so sleep is compromised and that means that right now stimulants cannot help.
Yeah I have the same problem with purchasing stuff for projects - having high income makes it a little too justifiable. When it applies to work though it can be very useful.
Without medication, at least for me and I suspect almost all other people, hyperfocus is something that comes and goes at random and is rarely centered on what it should be (even if I do find it interesting, like real analysis coursework). But even regular people hyperfocus when they take adderall.