Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/20/fidget-toys-to-disperse-your-n.html
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Video review of a fidget toy that looks very similar.
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I wanted to know how it works, but I’m much too fidgety to watch all that! Takes ages to get down to business!! GAH!!! 
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Well, if you’re too impatient to watch the video, possibly you could make one. All it takes is a couple of bike chain links, a couple of keychain rings, and a couple rubber bands.
I was diagnosed ADHD as a kid, and it’s not going away. Not the supposed type you grow out of. And I constantly fidget. Never thought there might be fidget toys out there, until I saw the kickstarter for the fidget cube, and that’s opened up a whole new world to me.
There’s lots of different kinds of fidget toy. I usually just take pens apart and put them back together one handed, or pick at my skin, or chew my nails. But this is a whole new option.
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Check the last minute of the video. She is discussing how she could make this cheaply and possibly make a large batch (China?) sidestepping any patents.
Material objects are going the way of the CD download.
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You can’t patent this kind of device because it’s not novel, and is obvious, and takes no skill from anyone.
It pretty much fails on all fronts of the patentablity tests.
In other words, if your device is so simple that anybody (even an idiot like me) can make it from household items, you don’t deserve a monopoly on it.
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I was trying to compare it to the Fidget Cube. Counterfeit ones have come out of China even before the Kickstarter campaign finished. I haven’t seen this object until now, so it looks innovative IMHO. Even the paper clip has a patent.
Edit: I would agree that if it is already out there and someone is trying to kickstart the idea that is bad form.
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Only halfway serious there! The video does explain their action pretty well, once it gets around to it.
As for making them, hmm, I get the feeling that you’d need a rubber band that is Just Right, or they wouldn’t get quite the same feel to them, would they?
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OT, but I have to say… Kinda spooky to see a heap of my own idiosyncrasies mirrored by the young woman in the video. The clear enjoyment of saying random crude things, the restless fingers… It reminded me of how I’ve been thinking, sometimes, that maybe there’s some ADHD in me, too. Always been incredibly restless and very physical. And I sure could have used some kind of pill to let me focus on dull, unexciting tasks without losing patience.
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Have you watched Mythbusters? Adam Savage has one of the more extreme cases of adult ADHD I’ve seen. It’s especially apparent in the lest heavily-edited bonus stuff, and in his videos on the Tested Youtube channel. He’s pretty much my spirit animal.
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Hmmm, I watched it a bit, but not a whole lot. I guess he’s a bit intense? Talks really fast - can’t find the patience to talk slowly? And yeah. I do both of those, don’t I.
Is there any clip in particular where you really notice?
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Well, this isn’t Mythbusters, but it struck me as a good example:
It’s 20 minutes long, but if you skip along to where he shows his actual cooking technique all I could think watching it was “Hey I do that!”
Right about 5:08 he flips the omelette and has do a “Full Adam Flip”, and that’s completely what I do. And a lot of ADHD people do. We have to get our whole body involved with a complex motion that requires a lot of concentration.
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I could use something like that to stop me picking at my skin. I’ve started wearing rings to work to have something to keep my fingers occupied but I keep forgetting I’m wearing them. My face hates me.
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Yeah um. I’m like, does he do anything strange? Coz I do all of that. Everything.
I also never eat without doing something else at the same time: computer time, book time, talking to whatever guest or family member I am eating with, etc. I’m eating right now, of course. I never cook without having a backup task for those moments when you wait for something to come to a boil, etc. I love having books on my phone so I can read any time I don’t have anything else to do, like on the subway, or when waiting in slow lines, etc. It has been a long road to stop myself from fiddling with pens etc at meetings, it drives people nuts. And I have a seriously difficult time focusing on anything whatsoever if it isn’t somehow activating me. Diablo 2? I can play for hours. Any task that give me no zing-zest-bam-stimulus? I get bored instantly.
Yeah. Maybe I really should try to track this one down. I really, really could use some help with managing the boring stuff that gets shunted to the side all too often. I do ok, but I could do much better…
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Medication is very helpful for “buckling down” so you you can focus on boring stuff. If I’m off-meds, I literally cannot focus on something that doesn’t interest me. You’ve said you’re in Brazil, right? So you have a national healthcare system, which means a drug like Modafinil (US trade name is Provigil) should be affordable. Here in the states it’s easily $1500 USD for a month of that stuff if you don’t have good insurance.
Oh, and if you make me stop fidgeting, this happens:
I’m a leg jiggler.
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Setup an appointment with a psychiatrist. They are very helpful too.
I have found that voice reminders on my phone is a great way to keep my daily tasks. I can’t say I’m exactly a functional adult, but I’m working on it. I’ve found out that if I try to live completely alone bad stuff happens because I simply don’t realize I have normal chores to do. They’re not interesting enough to rate as an impulsive “gotta do it now” thing. So I need people to get on my back about certain things.
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I’m in Sweden, actually! But yeah, health care should subsidize whatever pills I might need. I’m doing pretty ok for myself and while I don’t clean nearly as often as I should, well, my place looks mostly ok. I have an education and a job, but I’ve a feeling that my lack of focus hasn’t done me any favors as far as job stuff goes. I mean, I can focus and get tons done, but then for three weeks I flounder about, or that’s what it feels like, at least. If I could reliably focus, dang, I could get SO much stuff done.
But yeah. I probably should look into this…
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I was on the night shift for about two years. The only work I really got done was when someone called in with an emergency. I was put on the day shift from February till about 5 weeks ago, and I think I got more done in that short period of time than I have in my whole career.
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There’s nothing like “fidget toys” to make you look like a sane, rational person.
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It would be great if the USPTO actually abided this guideline, instead of handing out patents and letting expensive court fights work it out.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-11-stupidest-patents-of-2015
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