Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

The Medication Trap: Don't Drug the Next Innovator

4 Apr 2026 · 0 min

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Cameron Herold argues against medicating children for ADHD unless severe, warning that stimulants like Ritalin could suppress the creative drive behind innovation. He notes that tech leaders Steve Jurvetson, Jim Clark, and Jim Barksdale, who built Netscape, had bipolar disorder, the "CEO disease," and might never have achieved their breakthroughs if medicated.

Don't medicate kids for attention deficit disorder unless it is really, really freaking bad. The same with the whole things on mania and stress and depression. Like, unless it is so clinically brutal, man. Bipolar disorder is nicknamed the CEO disease. When Steve Jurvetson, Jim Clark, and Jim Barksdale have all got it and they built Netscape, imagine if they were given Ritalin. We wouldn't have that stuff.