It's an interesting read. It's about how certain aspects of one's creativity can be hindered by a not very well known brain disorder (or whatever category is that). It caugh me because it's strongly related to being unable to finish projects or meet deadlines.
About who wrote it: Dr. Brian Levine is a neuropsychologist interested in the function and dysfunction of large-scale neural systems as expressed in complex human behaviors, including episodic and autobiographical memory, self-regulation, and goal management.
Who is the person of interest in that article: Brian Wilson, founder of Beach Boys.
TL;DR - Executive function can be seen as the CEO of one's brain, it directs one's brain. The article doesn't try to explain creativity as a product of mentall illness, it rather focuses on what happens when the brain's CEO is damaged or malfunctioning.
Incidentally, I saw this video (below) and made a connection between the article and "The game that the time forgot"
From all 6 "A"s, I highlighted two:
Ambition - The boy set expectations too high, overly complex game or the workload is too much for a single person. Maybe we can call this "losing track of reality". In Brian Wilson's case they mention some bizarre requests, such as putting a piano in a sandbox. Another case is when he requested the musicians to wear fire hats to record a piece of music. Hmm... but I think I might be making up the connection here, because in one case (Brian Wilson) there was a real mental disorder in play and a kid making a game is just that, a kid making a game.
In the video the boy mentions A.D.H.D. which could be a cause for scrapping ideas over and over.
Always sticking to the plan - "I want to make a game inspired by aliens invading earth, it'll have many weapons, vehicles and huge battles". Stick to that idea no matter what, even if it seems overly complex. No detours, no wayback, once aliens, it'll be aliens invading Earth, not another distant planet, not medieval age, It'll be aliens invading Earth.
They mention an example of failing to properly analyise a situation in the article. Imagine that you are going to buy food and plan to make a dinner for a group of friends or family. Due to bad executive functions in one's brain, the person decides to buy food in a far away shop, far away enough that it's going to take too much time to travel there just to buy food (maybe because the person though about price and forgot about time or vice-versa). Or, suppose that the dinner has dishes that are going to take a lot of time to cook and that there won't be enough time to cook it, yet one won't change his/her mind.
I'd put an extra, seventh, "A" in the count "Always in doubt". Make an RPG in a fantasy world, medieval age, alien world or in open space? I can't decide! I'll open up a survey in a gamming forum and based on that, I'll choose one. Brian Wilson' had a psychologist that took over his career due to him leaving many decisions for other to make.
I've had some experience with these in the past. I once wanted to build a city in UT, but it was just too ambitious, beyond the engine limits. For many years I refused to go back to the planning stage. I'd just open the map, do something for some time, then a long break, then open again to do something, then another long break, untill I finally decided to delete it once and for all. Much like the mention to ADHD that the boy made, I too had that surge of ideas that I couldn't control. Make a map with theme A, then stop in the middle to start another with theme B, then stop to do 3D model, then stop to do sound recording, and so on.