I noticed something the other day. My intelligence is different.
For the moment I will say I am not just stupid. Scatterbrain thought is a huge handicap, but it lends itself to what I would call large scale problem solving.
In small scale problem solving, attention span is really important, a large working memory means being able to have more complex concept interactions. I, and probably most other people get around this by, "chunking" blocks of thought. But it very noticeable when someone is possibly more intelligent than other people, because they do not require a bunch of chunking to handle new stuff. So their ability to handle new ideas is both faster and broader.
In large scale problem solving, attention span is not as important. There is time to write down complex objects and interactions. What is more helpful is what I will describe as creative ability. This comes down to two parts. The first is the ability to gather a lot of information and do synthesis on it. This lends itself to the ability to recognize morphisms. "x is an example of y, so some set of tricks in y can be used in x". The second part is a randomness of thought. A strictly structured thought process gets stuck in local spaces of a problem too readily. And a natural evasion of distractions can also lead to generated logical spaces to overfit, because it is assumed, without knowing the actual theory, that more precision is more scientific or intellectual.
Scatterbrain behavoir is a trade off, not a total loss.
@jmw150 I think that hyperfocus is actually part of ADHD... The way I see ADHD is that it isnt a lack of ability to focus, its that you tend to have hyperfocus on those things which are enjoyable (or at least not tedious and extended).
Its really poorly named, people with ADHD have more attention than those without, its just their attention is so strong that anything they love, and therefore draws in the most of their attention, will overshadow the things they dislike.