The reason why quips like this are dangerous is that people will assume that because of who Garry Tan is, they'll take his word for it.
Simply put, this is wrong. There are not three kinds of laziness. Better, it's wrong to assume that your laziness and inability to act is one of those three types mentioned.
As someone who was recently diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, I can assure you, reflecting doesn't solve anything. Nor are the three types mentioned accurate. Maybe the intent wasn't to classify ADHD and OCD as laziness, but until I was diagnosed, that's what I called it.
So no. This is dangerously wrong. If you have any thought that you might have ADHD or OCD, get it checked out. It can make a world of difference, not only in medication (which doesn't have to be addicting) but in therapy. The difference just over the last month has been staggering. It's a big difference, and hard to quantify.
If you have a problem, seek professional help in understanding it. Ignore meaningless platitudes "to reflect on death" and how there are "three kinds of laziness."
"Simply put, this is wrong. There are not three kinds of laziness."
This, especially, summarises my feelings about a vast number of HN submissions and articles on the internet in general of the form "The X kinds of Y" or "The 10 reasons Z" or "The Blahblahblah Principle". We all know this type of article. Many books too, especially in self-help and dieting, etc.
At best the writer has described a model which is useful for understanding some aspect of a larger picture, and at worst they are just doing reasonable-sounding pattern-recognition from a largely anecdotal pool, and then building what they believe is a bulletproof system from it all.
I remember when I was in university I wrote notebooks full of this kind of thing. I go through them from time to time and find interesting ideas wrapped up in way too much rigidity in search of a neat formalised system. There must be half a dozen "guru" bestsellers to be refined from those notebooks, if anyone had the time and lack of internal honesty to write them.
For a while now, variants of "Simply put, this is wrong" have been what my brain returns whenever I see such articles, yet I do still read them and I do still find nuggets.
I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, and I wish the best for your ongoing treatment.
I agree with you -- if there is a medical condition that can be treated, then it makes sense to pursue that. I read a passage in a book earlier today that I liked, and I posted it on my personal blog. I would never encourage someone who had such problems to "just reflect on it."
Thank you for the concern. On one hand, it's haunting to consider what it's like to learn you've been operating at 50% efficiency all your life. On the other hand, you focus on how much you've done in spite of the condition.
I didn't mean to imply that you would suggest to someone with a condition to "just reflect on it." No reasonable person would, and apologies if it came off like that.
Rather, my hope is that more people realize that this condition does exist, it does carry a stigma, and you might not find out until you are well into adult-hood. Too many self-help and GTD-like books and articles focus on simple tricks. These all might help out, but if you find yourself constantly struggling, get checked.
And if you know people like this, people that are otherwise smart and do good work, but are somehow always behind, always playing catch-up, suggest they get tested.
A part of me was ashamed about having this condition. I felt as if it said to everyone around me that I'd really never been giving 100%. That I had lied to people around me. I thought that I can't complain. I had a great life already, and who was I to worry about not doing enough. OCD and ADHD, the premier first world problems.
None of that is true, of course.
The truth is, the best thing I can do is speak up about it. Make people aware. And share with them the fact that proper treatment and care can result in a dramatic difference in their lives. That the more we are aware of ourselves, the better off we can be.
I'd disagree that "reflect on death" is a meaningless platitude. It's a definite, actionable step. Whether it helps you or not is a different story, and really only you can find that out. In short, it's concrete advice, though whether good or bad I can't judge.
Simply put, this is wrong. There are not three kinds of laziness. Better, it's wrong to assume that your laziness and inability to act is one of those three types mentioned.
As someone who was recently diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, I can assure you, reflecting doesn't solve anything. Nor are the three types mentioned accurate. Maybe the intent wasn't to classify ADHD and OCD as laziness, but until I was diagnosed, that's what I called it.
So no. This is dangerously wrong. If you have any thought that you might have ADHD or OCD, get it checked out. It can make a world of difference, not only in medication (which doesn't have to be addicting) but in therapy. The difference just over the last month has been staggering. It's a big difference, and hard to quantify.
If you have a problem, seek professional help in understanding it. Ignore meaningless platitudes "to reflect on death" and how there are "three kinds of laziness."