I doubt this 0%. I’ve hired people just to help me focus and also to help with chores. To me, this is someone with the same job in the same city as me just taking what I’ve done two steps further. Literally nothing in that post is unbelievable to me, including the behavior of the people he hired.
In the first paragraph he did mention tools for focusing, saying he went as far as making his own.
> I’ve hired people just to help me focus and also to help with chores
But were those people the same? Usually have have one type of person for each purpose, one psychologist/therapist to help you figure out why you can't focus and then one cleaner that helps you keep a tidy house.
Psychologist/therapist helping you figure out why you can’t focus is a different approach to the problem, one that you can do at the same time. But it’s really on a different timeline and sometimes it just doesn’t work. Sometimes you need help now.
Imagine your arms barely work. Or even more accurately, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, and you really can’t predict it. This is greatly interfering with your home and work life. Sometimes you can do laundry, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you can type, sometimes you can’t.
You go to a doctor. You take meds. You see a physical therapist twice a week. Maybe this is slowly helping. But consider during all that time in the doctor’s office, the PT’s office, the pharmacy, your laundry still isn’t getting done.
So, you need something that helps now. Some people will call this a quick fix, but that’s what you need. You know, that oxygen mask isn’t really a solution. You can’t fly like that all the time. You should figure out the root cause of your airplane’s depressurization. Or, you know, just focus on staying alive first and talk to the mechanic at your weekly session.
So you hire someone to be your arms for eight hours a day. What do you need help with? Everything. When? All of the time and none of the time. 50/50 at any given moment. So you basically need someone with you a lot of time. While your arms are working and you’re paying them, you might want them to do something else for you. And a normal assistant won’t cut it because this can apply to stuff that you specifically have to do, or requires some skills that other people are unlikely to have.
> If you ramble on long enough and your maid starts to answer and ask questions, are they a makeshift therapist?
If all you think a therapist does is just answering and asking questions, you should maybe see a therapist and experience it for yourself ;)
Joking aside, the struggle of loneliness can probably be helped by having just somebody to talk to, though not in a professional setting.
But if you're constantly having trouble focusing, it could be a sign that something is amiss. Personally, sometimes I get affected by things in my social environment without really noticing it, just that things gets less interesting and that I'm being less productive than usual. A therapist can help you realize those things, while friends will usually be more supportive rather than trying to actively combat your "inside problem", as they have their own.
Could also be that some sort of medication can be helpful for you. I have some friends who didn't realize that suffered from ADHD until they were 30-40 years old, and having access to medication and therapy helped them a lot. A therapist can again help you realize if you need/don't need this.
In the first paragraph he did mention tools for focusing, saying he went as far as making his own.