It’s called hyper-focus. IOW,
you’d stay up all night to finish something that really caught your attention.
However, if it didn’t interest you, no power on earth could make you give it a second thought.
If it competed with the ping pong balls and won, it was worth ALL your focus.
Yup, hyper-focus. I actually didn’t know I had it till I was an adult and my mom told me that the teachers tried to force my parents to medicate me. I read one of Thom Hartmann’s books and saw a lot of my childhood written on those pages.
I like your ping pong ball analogy, never really thought about it that way. I’m convinced playing sports got me through high school.