Hallowell and Ratey argue ADHD brains are wired for novelty and interest-driven focus — not simply "deficient attention."

The reframe they push:

• The label itself is misleading — attention isn't absent, it's inconsistently allocated
• Hyperfocus on genuinely engaging tasks is the flip side of struggling with boring ones
• Treating it purely as a deficit misses real, documented cognitive strengths

This isn't about denying real impairment in certain contexts — it's about replacing a purely negative narrative with a more accurate, dual-sided one.