I was going to write the same thing you did. I've been diagnosed with ADHD and while it is a disadvantage for certain things (I've lost quite a bit of money due to invoices not being sent on time to clients as a contractor, fines for not submitting tax on time, etc...), it's also been hugely beneficial in other areas.
When I was in university, I quickly realized that I had a hard time paying attention to lectures but that I would be passionate about reading the reference books on the various subjects. So I skipped a lot of classes (it was a French engineering school, attendance is not mandatory if your grades are good) and I read all the relevant textbooks. I was studying CS so I was passionate and very interested in what I was reading so I could easily hyperfocus on those books and did very well. On the other hand, if I had been forced to attend lectures instead, I would have not done nearly as well.
In my work life, I've been the go to person who solves the hard problems because when I find an interesting problem to work on, I can completely focus on it until I solve it. On the other hand, I have a very hard time dealing with boring repetitive tasks but that's why an effective manager makes sure each people play to their strength.
So I do take issue with this statement "As someone with diagnosed ADHD, I think this misrepresents ADHD. There's no form of society in which ADHD is an advantage; " and "ADHD is a disability, not a difference of ability". On the contrary, ADHD IS a difference of ability and effectively managing ADHD means finding ways to adapt your life and work life to take advantage of the good sides of ADHD and find workarounds around the problematic aspects of it.
I'm honestly not sure if I'd have been as successful without ADHD, I would have lost less money for sure but maybe wouldn't have earned as much as I did. It would have been less stressful though for the first 36 years before I got diagnosed when I didn't understand why I couldn't just do certain tasks.
When I was in university, I quickly realized that I had a hard time paying attention to lectures but that I would be passionate about reading the reference books on the various subjects. So I skipped a lot of classes (it was a French engineering school, attendance is not mandatory if your grades are good) and I read all the relevant textbooks. I was studying CS so I was passionate and very interested in what I was reading so I could easily hyperfocus on those books and did very well. On the other hand, if I had been forced to attend lectures instead, I would have not done nearly as well.
In my work life, I've been the go to person who solves the hard problems because when I find an interesting problem to work on, I can completely focus on it until I solve it. On the other hand, I have a very hard time dealing with boring repetitive tasks but that's why an effective manager makes sure each people play to their strength.
So I do take issue with this statement "As someone with diagnosed ADHD, I think this misrepresents ADHD. There's no form of society in which ADHD is an advantage; " and "ADHD is a disability, not a difference of ability". On the contrary, ADHD IS a difference of ability and effectively managing ADHD means finding ways to adapt your life and work life to take advantage of the good sides of ADHD and find workarounds around the problematic aspects of it.
I'm honestly not sure if I'd have been as successful without ADHD, I would have lost less money for sure but maybe wouldn't have earned as much as I did. It would have been less stressful though for the first 36 years before I got diagnosed when I didn't understand why I couldn't just do certain tasks.