Doug's Gray Matters

ADHD is often framed as a disability. I personally do not feel that way. For some people, it is—but that experience is shaped heavily by environment. There are theories that different cognitive styles evolved for different roles—some oriented toward structure and order, others toward movement, adaptation, and uncertainty. Both are valuable. But modern systems tend to reward only one. When the environment aligns with the wiring, performance changes. This is about ability—and f

We need to start thinking about what can go right with AI and who it can help. Much of the public conversation about artificial intelligence revolves around replacement. The argument tends to fall into one of two camps: either AI will replace human thinking, or it will diminish the value of human work. The framing assumes that the central question is substitution. But from where I sit, that isn't the most interesting aspect of what these tools are doing. The more compelling d

Aikido as a counterbalance to my chaotic mind My brain runs wide. Always has. But last weekend I deliberately walked into a room where that would get me thrown on the floor. I stepped onto an Aikido mat for the first time in years. I had visited a few seminars over that time and checked out different schools, but this felt different. I wasn’t drawn back because I suddenly missed the martial aspect. I was drawn back because I realized I needed something structured in my life a

Sometimes when you appear as a guest on a podcast, you get the pleasant surprise of discovering something about yourself. This conversation on ADHDifference  with Julie Legg was that moment for me. What started as a discussion about being diagnosed with ADHD later in life turned into something much bigger. I realized, in real time, that my diagnosis wasn’t a closing chapter — it was permission. Permission to stop apologizing for how I’m wired. Permission to go all in. If you’

I wasn’t surprised when I was diagnosed with ADHD. I had known for years. The diagnosis didn’t reveal something new about me; it confirmed something I had already been living. The intensity. The jump-cut thinking. The friction with monotony. The ability to feel underloaded in stable environments and sharply alive when stakes rose. What changed wasn’t the label. What changed was perspective. For most of my life, ADHD functioned as an explanation for inconvenience. It explained