The Variance

By Douglas M. Katz | Children of Chaos What Is the Connection Between ADHD and People-Pleasing? Most conversations about ADHD focus on attention — the inability to focus, the wandering mind, the forgotten tasks. That framing misses what people with ADHD actually experience every day: friction. Not just internal friction — the kind that comes from a mind moving faster than its environment. But social and professional friction. The kind that builds over years of missing cues, i

Search "best knife for arthritis" and you'll get a list. Usually ten items. Lightweight handles. Softer grip materials. Ergonomic curves. What you won't get is an explanation of why any of them are easier to use. Or whether they actually are. I've been building an adaptive kitchen knife for several years now — as a disabled veteran, as someone who has navigated my own grip limitations in the kitchen, and as a person who went looking for a better tool and couldn't find one. So

What changes when you sit down to cut? You lose your core — and the knife was never designed to work without it. When you're standing, your body stacks naturally. The core stabilizes, the shoulders align, force flows down into the blade. You've never had to think about it. Sitting breaks that chain. Instead of force moving from your center into the cutting surface, you're reaching forward. The elbow drifts out. The shoulder lifts. The wrist starts carrying a load it wasn't bu

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

https://entrepreneurofimpact.org/2026/douglas-katz I've worn a lot of hats in my life. West Point graduate. Veteran. Entrepreneur. Inventor. But the one that drives me every single day? Problem solver. That's what NULU is. A solution to a problem that millions of people face and almost nobody talks about — the moment when physical limitation robs you of something as fundamental, as joyful, and as deeply human as cooking your own food. The Idea That Became a Mission Three year

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