My hypo-mania came in handy one time when i was offered the opportunity to learn computer programming on the job. If i hadn't been hm i would have turned it down but full of bonhomie and chutzpah my hypo-manic self said yes, yes, yes. It turned out okay -- i had a grueling year of learning but i made myself into a pretty badass programmer. Many times i thought i would have to give up but then i would just say, Try for five more minutes. Five minutes would turn into hours and then it was time to go home. I wrote a real successful app in which i created the picture file data type before Microsoft did. It was a rudimentary implementation and we ended up abandoning it but it was a lot of fun. So, in that instance, hm was helpful but on the whole it's more likely to be destructive.