[jbrambleDC]

I was once diagnosed with ADHD myself as a child. I have been unmedicated for 8 years now and been quite successful career wise, and academically. Though I do wonder if I could do better had I not had ADHD.

its not fair to conduct these studies solely on educational outcomes because educational outcomes in the west largely depend on how well you conform to the mean societal expectation of a successful archetype. many people have unique educational styles (ADHDers included). I myself personally learned more from the internet and reading books than I ever did in school.

I suspect successful engineers, start up CEOs, hacker types have higher prevalences of "learning disorders", ADHD, etc. Many did poorly in school, though many also excelled. I also suspect the same demographics are true of musicians and other artists.

The MAJOR caveat here, is that while these groups probably have higher prevalences, and these fields are more or less supportive of people with these issues, very few ADHDers can break into these fields and the average ADHDer probably will perform worse in life than the average person without.

Mostly conjecture, based on my own anecdotal evidence, but worth consideration.