Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#151

Post by rchaud » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:45 PM UTC

I definitely get it about the constant bookmarking. There are often really good comments on HN, so I began saving the good ones in my Logseq journal. I save a ton of stuff in my Twitter bookmarks as well.

The key is to regularly re-visit these bookmarks and clean them up. For me it means categorizing these saved threads and comments under a specific theme. Maybe I'll write a blog post about it once I've arranged those ideas together. Even if I don't, the act of acting on those bookmarks reduces mental clutter.

Be sure to time-box it though. There's nothing more frustrating than opening up Twitter to review some old bookmarks and then getting distracted in the organization+deletion cycle for 45 mins.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#152

Post by cardanome » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:46 PM UTC

hidelooktropic wrote: post #88

BatteryMountain wrote: post #34

Pi Hole with my own blocklist. That is, I block all of my problem sites, then let someone else set my pihole password and then I delete my ssh key off the server. Then on the phone, remove all apps that allows consumption (social media, games, readers, youtube, even the browser). Debloat it with adb too. Switch off all notification except for your main chat app (like whatsapp) and alarms. If still too distracting, se…

I completely disagree about caffeine. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-does-caffeine-affect-people... "if you don't learn to focus it." this is nonsensical and harmful

Is the long term consumption of caffeine really a good idea?

I would expect the tolerance build up to negate the positive effects fairly quickly. Most people that need to have their coffee in the morning are NOT more awake than a non-coffee drinker but need the coffee to just reach their normal baseline.

So you would need higher and higher dosages to see any positive effects and at that point you get nasty side-effects like heart racing and insomnia.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#153

Post by andybak » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

marmetio wrote: post #147

andybak wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are technically correct.

What's important is that it's reinforcing a bad habit.

The "bad habit" is poor impulse control and failure to control focus. That's something that is so central to ADHD that all I can ever really hope to do is mitigate it.

Sometimes having 50 tabs open is a sign that I'm distracted and sometimes it's a sign up being really productive. All I can hope to do is make sure that the needle swings to the latter more often than the former and that I have a good strategy to recover when it doesn't.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#154

Post by vallassy » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

nickelcitymario wrote: post #134

For me: (1) Recognize that if I'm struggling to focus, I'm probably either (a) not interested in what I'm doing or (b) have too much on my plate. (2) If I'm struggling to focus day after day, find something else to do. (3) If I have too much on my plate, insist that my employer lighten the load or, once again, find something else to do. It's not easy. Taken to its logical conclusion, I'm suggesting quitting jobs that…

>allow you to do one thing at a time

Yep, this is why I chose truck driving as a job. I am looking to change out of it now after 12 years, but there's no short list of 'one thing at a time'jobs, and the ADHD has prevented me from learning programming so far.

Regarding OP's question, when the tab counter on Firefox turns to infinity, I check the last ten tabs for anything really important, then take a deep breath and 'Close All Tabs'

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#155

Post by dbancajas » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

Didn't know I had ADHD until I read this. Were you officially diagnosed?

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#156

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:48 PM UTC

I go to HN to seek distraction on purpose; if I'm busy enough with work and able to concentrate on it I probably wouldn't bother as much.

But I think everyone will find something to do with their brain when it's understimulated, and HN and its wealth of interesting things is a big source of stimulation.

I've got little else to add that others haven't already mentioned though.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#157

Post by a_alakkad » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

Regarding HN in particular, I use https://hckrnews.com/ with "top 10" visible to reduce the amount of things I need to check. If that's too much, subscribe to https://hackernewsletter.com/ and don't consume content on the main HN website.

Realizing the we have finite time and cognition is key to help us accept and reduce what we consume and what we like.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#158

Post by smeej » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:53 PM UTC

Is this symptom unique to ADHD? I certainly accumulate hundreds of open tabs of things I want to come back to and research, but I don't have the other characteristic symptoms of ADHD.

I use a browser plugin that lets me create markdown highlights from websites and I copy them into my Logseq system. I tag them and then, when I want to dive in and do something about a topic, I go to that topic and there are all my notes from hundreds of websites I've found interesting over the years.

Maybe the difference between my experience of this and the ADHD one is that I enjoy the times I get to sit down, dive deep, read the sites, and make the notes, but people with ADHD have trouble with that stage?

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#159

Post by PM_me_your_math » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 2:54 PM UTC

Just set aside a specific time to check the things that are interesting. Say, during lunch for 30 mins or carve out a 1 hour block where you just read.

5 hours a day seems excessive and a waste of time. How do you get anything else done? You can build a million dollar business in 5 hours a day compound over time.

Re: Ask HN: How do ADHD people cope on here?

#160

Post by uneekname » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

stared wrote: post #15

> There’s a never ending number of things I bookmark. One of the key features of ADHD is a never-ending list of things to do. Edward M. Hallowell (who wrote "Driven to Distraction") remarks that perhaps it is the most characteristic feature of ADHD. Previously, browser crashes saved my sanity— killing dozens of open tabs with fascinating articles. Now I try to let it go . In a Zen/stoic way, knowing that nothing will…

This comment resonates with me. I've been working on accepting the idea that I'll never do all the things I want to, and that's a good thing.

If you, dear reader, have ADHD that presents like mine does, try to find peace in that you'll never ever be bored. Nah, we'll never see all of these wonderful ideas to completion, but the ones that stick are the most important anyways.