Translating ADHD – Episode Summary

Podcast: Translating ADHD

Hosts: Asher Collins & Dusty Chipura
Episode: Big Brain vs Fast Brain: How ADHD Shapes Planning and Action
Date: October 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode delves into two distinct ADHD experience patterns, labeled "Big Brain" and "Fast Brain." Asher and Dusty, both ADHD coaches and adults with lived ADHD experience, explore how these styles influence planning, decision-making, and action. Through candid personal stories, client examples, and coach-to-coach reflections, they investigate ways to foster success, presence, and authentic living despite ADHD-related challenges. The tone is open, empathetic, and peppered with humor and memorable analogies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Big Brain vs Fast Brain: Defining the Concepts

• Big Brain: The "planner," generating expansive ideas, getting stuck on perfecting the plan or seeing the entire vision before acting; struggles with action initiation.
• Fast Brain: The "actor," moving rapidly into action, often without planning; can overschedule, overcommit, and gloss over details or consequences in favor of novelty and productivity.

Notable Quote:

“Big Brain is the planner, the big idea generator, the person who sees themselves on the Oscar stage and wants to know every step between here and there, when every step…is unknowable.” – Asher (13:52)

[00:46–03:52]

2. ADHD Labels: Beyond 'Inattentive' & 'Hyperactive'

• Critique of medical language such as “inattentive” and “hyperactive” for focusing on external effects, not the internal experience.
• "Big Brain/Fast Brain" is language Asher and Cam (a former co-host) developed to better get at internal ADHD realities.

[00:56–01:56]

3. Lived Experience: Fluctuating Types & Personal Challenges

• Both hosts are "combined type," but notice changes as they age:
  • Dusty shifts from predominantly inattentive to more hyperactive/fast brain.
  • Asher, previously hyperactive, now finds big-brain (planning and thought) challenges more prominent.

[01:56–02:22]

4. Coaching Anecdotes: The Big Brain Trap

• Clients often feel they've made progress “just by thinking about it”:

  • Example: Client spends months planning a logo but doesn’t act.
  • Quote: “To them, that seems like progress…like, ‘I really think I figured that out.’ But…we still haven’t got this logo.” – Dusty (04:01)

• Asher describes the "Oscar stage" metaphor, illustrating the paralysis from excessive planning and perfectionism.

• Importance of detaching from outcomes and committing to action even when the path isn’t perfectly clear.

[03:52–10:35]

5. Coaching Strategies for Big Brain Patterns

• Introduce the concept of "detaching from the outcome"; set specific, time-bound milestones (“commit for one year”).
• Encourage small, actionable, low-stakes tasks to generate momentum (e.g., iterating on one aspect, learning new software by starting with a non-crucial project).

[05:29–12:17]

6. Coaching Strategies for Fast Brain Patterns

• Fast Brain clients “just do” but rarely slow down to plan, reflect, or consider time as a limited resource.
• Problem of “toxic optimism”: Believing all tasks are achievable with better apps/lists, ignoring resource limits of time, energy, and attention.

Notable Quote:

“His relationship with time was the entire dilemma...he wasn’t seeing time as a resource…He has this tendency to be toxically optimistic about what is possible…” – Asher (14:15)

[13:49–18:22]

7. The Toll of Fast Brain: Trade-offs and Presence

• Dusty shares how constant “doing” means sacrificing meaningful presence and relationships.
• Overcommitment leads others to assume she isn’t available, impacting friendships and parenting.
• “Everything you say yes to, you’re saying no to something else…It’s about figuring out how to value the absence of things and how to value empty space.” – Dusty (21:47)

[18:35–23:49]

8. Big Brain & Fast Brain: Same Outcome, Different Process

• Both styles risk missing out on presence and intentionality — either by being lost in thought (big brain) or perpetual action (fast brain).
• Asher describes swinging from “no” to “yes” too often, underscoring the need for values-based decisions and intention.

Notable Quote:

“The challenges don't look that different. It's just what's happening within that challenge…Even if it looks like you're doing a lot and I'm doing nothing…the net experience is the same.” – Asher (25:43)

[23:49–25:43]

9. Complementary Approaches and Teamwork

• Integration of both styles is ideal; teams with balanced big/fast brains can leverage planning and execution strengths.
• Each style has coping mechanisms that, when combined, help counteract ADHD’s decisional or action inertia.

Memorable Analogy:

“If we think of Big Brain and Fast Brain in a car’s gearbox, Big Brain is often stuck in Neutral and Fast Brain is often stuck in fifth gear.” – Asher (30:18)

[25:43–30:18]

10. Finding “The Space Between”

• The goal is not to force a slow-to-act person into relentless action, or an impulsive doer into permanent planning mode.
• Instead, seek a “gear” between Neutral and Fifth:
  • Big Brains find a concrete step forward; Fast Brains slow and get intentional.
• Both hosts acknowledge no one is 100% one or the other—most people with ADHD oscillate or show a mix.

Key Takeaway:

“Whichever way you feel is more aligned with your struggle, what does it look like to find some space between those two places?” – Asher (31:50)

[30:18–32:29]

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “[Big Brain is…] the planner, the big idea generator, the person who sees themselves on the Oscar stage…”
  — Asher (13:52)

• “To them, that seems like progress…like, ‘I really think I figured that out.’ But…we still haven’t got this logo.”
  — Dusty (04:01)

• “His relationship with time was the entire dilemma...he wasn’t seeing time as a resource…He has this tendency to be toxically optimistic about what is possible…”
  — Asher (14:15)

• “Everything you say yes to, you’re saying no to something else…It’s about figuring out how to value the absence of things and how to value empty space.”
  — Dusty (21:47)

• “The challenges don't look that different. It's just what's happening within that challenge…Even if it looks like you're doing a lot and I'm doing nothing…the net experience is the same.”
  — Asher (25:43)

• “If we think of Big Brain and Fast Brain in a car’s gearbox, Big Brain is often stuck in Neutral and Fast Brain is often stuck in fifth gear.”
  — Asher (30:18)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:46 – Episode topic introduction: Big Brain vs Fast Brain
• 03:52 – Coaching anecdotes: the “Oscar stage” Big Brain metaphor
• 12:17 – Small goals & iterative action to unlock progress
• 13:49 – Fast Brain: overcommitment, “toxic optimism”, time management
• 18:35 – The toll of constant action: presence, relationships, and balance
• 23:49 – Similar end points: presence, intention, and internal experience
• 25:43 – Complementary team strengths and identifying personal patterns
• 30:18 – The car gearbox analogy: finding the middle gear
• 31:50 – Key takeaway: seeking space between Big Brain and Fast Brain

Conclusion

This episode illuminates how ADHD can manifest in very different but equally challenging styles. The “Big Brain/Fast Brain” framework offers listeners new language to better understand their own tendencies. Asher and Dusty demonstrate practical approaches for both planning paralysis and overcommitment, ultimately urging listeners to seek presence, intention, and that “middle gear” for more authentic and sustainable lives with ADHD.

For further exploration, join the Translating ADHD Discord/Patreon communities (details in full episode).