Book Insight: ADHD and the Edison Gene

I first read Thom Hartmann in my mid-20s when I was informally diagnosed with ADD. I was highly anti-meds at the time so there didn’t seem any point in getting officially diagnosed. Plus I wasn’t convinced that it was a disorder. (I’m still not.) Hartmann’s books helped me understand how to choose environments that suited me and helped me be kind to myself when I didn’t fit with cultural expectations about work. This latest, "ADHD and the Edison Gene," takes his initial ideas and updates them with more current science. Instead of describing ADD brains as hunters (in a hunter/gatherer vs. farmer paradigm), he’s using the “Edison gene” and inventors. I’m a fan of all of it. I don’t care if you think of me as an inventor, a hunter or a superhero as long as it’s positive and creates an environment where we can do our best work together. In very brief summary, this book posits that what our culture labels ADD/ADHD arises from a combination of factors that includes a genetic trait for novelty-seeking, a mismatch between innovative brains and our assembly-line culture, and possible environmental factors, like diet. Many of the traits of ADD are positive and adaptive in the