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Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#221

Post by EricE »

I'm going to echo others - who says you need to find one thing and stick with it? What if that one thing is no longer worth pursuing? Things change constantly.

Rather than focusing on 1 thing or a couple of things, develop skills for learning and exploring. If you aren't good at reading, do more of that. Learn to love it. Having good skills for reading and comprehension are probably the most important skills you can develop and will pay you dividends hand over fist. It may seem trivial, but I think people tend to underestimate the importance of having good reading skills! Hot on the heals of reading is developing strong problem solving skills. They will help you develop crucial critical thinking skills. Root cause analysis - conditioning yourself to immediately strip any problem/subject down to it's component parts - and being familiar enough with a subject to deconstruct it fully. Whenever there is a new subject, or especially with technology or a new thing to learn I hang out in support forums and try to answer other people's questions about said technology/subject. I have found no faster way to develop expertise in something than forcing myself to learn it inside-out than by trying to support others in answering their questions.

If you develop the skills to adapt/learn/grow then whether or not you are good at one thing is irrelevant. You can be good at adapting and rapidly learning new things, which is far more important in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#222

Post by triggercut »

User23 wrote: post #111
thenaturalist wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m not sure about the whole neurological dysfunction story. Are you a medical professional or do you have a scientific source backing up your suspicion? The point why there is no objective blood test is mainly rooted in the fact that getting a true measurement of a neurotransmitter is prohibitively costly (measurement across intra- and inter-daily blood samples to establish a true baseline). Yet, scientists are do…

I'm not making fun of anyone. My beliefs on the subject are informed by my own experiences and direct observation of others. I do have some concern about the long term effects of putting people on a close chemical cousin of methamphetamine indefinitely, even though it is, as I said, an excellent productivity booster for those diagnosed with ADHD. Of course it's also an excellent productivity booster for those who are…

>long term effects of putting people on a close chemical cousin of methamphetamine indefinitely What is your basis for this "concern"? Sure it sounds bad, but there are plenty of chemical compounds with "off by one" differences that have completely different effects.... that's just... chemistry.

Just so you know, (depending on who you read) those with untreated ADHD may live, on average, 10 fewer years than the rest of the population. So if I had to chose between your concerns and 10 better quality years, I know what I'm picking.

> Medical professionals are just speculating at this point when they say it's some kind of neurological disorder rather than just part of the range of physiologically normal brain function.

Where are you getting this from? Any papers? If this is the consensus then I really must not have been paying attention (pun intended)

You seem to have a lot of "observational" experience in a specific setting, but little more knowledge or understanding than the tip of the iceberg "top-5 symptoms". ADHD is an incredibly complex developmental issue. Look at the issues with ADHD and gauging signals from the body, how those affect eating. Look at various issues with sensitivities sensory stimulation. Issues with inhibition and how they permeate behaviours. Reducing ADHD to "focus" is like reducing baseball to throwing a ball around.

Maybe look into some of Dr Russel Barkley's lectures. Some of them are a little dated but mostly accurate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhbAK1pdPM&t

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#223

Post by addisonl »

hirvi74 wrote: post #212
addisonl wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does limiting the number of days you take medication (mon-fri and/or doing x weeks on, x weeks off) help in any way? I've always read threads like these and thought, yes that definitely sounds like me, but I have always been hesitant to get dependent on a medication...

As far as I am concerned, we are all dependent on "something." Prior to medications, I was dependent on moderately high consumption of coffee and tea. Many patients and providers are both afraid of "dependency." However, what seems to escape me is -- isn't that somewhat of the point? I depend on the medications to help treat a chronic condition. I see it no different than being dependent on eye-glasses for poor visio…

I really appreciate your thoughtful and insightful reply—gives me a lot to think about, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#224

Post by userlog4051 »

decaffjoe wrote: post #162
ex-leper wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deadlifts will hit most of the posterior chain, but to really grow thickness in the upper and mid back you'd need to add in heavy rows and/or pull-ups as OP mentioned.

Might as well chime in with the basic back-of-a-napkin strength program -> One movement for: (1) vertical push, (2) vertical pull, (3) horizontal push, (4) horizontal pull, (5) glutes/"back of your legs", (6) quadriceps/"front of your legs". To beat the dead horse, deadlifts definitely involve pulling but it's primarily a glutes exercise. Adding in dedicated pulls like pullups and rows will give you a lot of bang for…

Well, if we're all chiming in: another requirement is a caloric surplus. Beginner gains are a real thing, but at a certain point (say 8-10 weeks) a caloric surplus will be required to continue seeing changes in strength and muscle mass. And that reminds me, the weights also need to get incrementally heavier.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#225

Post by Infinitesimus »

tiborsaas wrote: post #188
kixxauth wrote: post #96

My advice is to not focus. At least not yet. I'm in the 40-45 year old range and assuming you are much younger. Apologies if we are closer in age, since this advice will carry less value. I have often been envious of people who were more focused than I am. I feel they have been able to make more progress in a given amount of time. I worked as a mover in Boston into my mid twenties, spent a bunch of time trying to bec…

> "Do you regret your experiences?" What would have he said if the answer was yes? Experiences are not equal, you can have a series of events that not even can time can fix to make them look/feel better.

Then you take if from there - if you regret your experiences, perhaps try different choices and learn from them. If you don't, then there is much to celebrate.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#226

Post by triggercut »

algoatecorn wrote: post #213
triggercut wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD is a broad spectrum of developmental delay issues that present as different behaviours but can be observed in ECGs. There is no "cure". Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what they're talking about. There are only strategies for minimising the unwanted effects that cause disruption to your life. The large portion of people taking stimulant ADHD medication to "study" are not by and large getting the same effec…

So we'll treat a broad spectrum of issues with amphetamines in order to level to playing field... got it. My point is that we don't really know what this disorder is, or its root causes. An ECG can reveal its presence in the same way an EKG can reveal certain arrhythmia. However, in the case of EKG, you can't truly determine the cause of arrhythmia; is it cardiomyopathy, fibrosis, stenosis, a combination, etc. Now im…

We treat a broad spectrum of issues linked to the developmental delay of the central nervous system and underperformance of the prefrontal cortex with rigorously studied drugs with proven benefits to patients. Just checking, you have no problem with Methylphenidates, just the one that sounds like "meth" but actually isn't? Any powerful drug can be abused. It's up to professionals to prescribe accordingly. I guess this is another case of where the US medical system gives everyone else a bad name (just not those outside the US who have good medical systems and don't suffer from the same issues).

Trying to make the case that ADHD is not well studied is plain wrong. It is incredibly well studied. The assumption that we can't possibly understand it because "it's the brain" is just wrong, there is a huge amount we know about the brain. I don't know what you're getting at with this ECG business but we've been doing EEGs on people to diagnose epilepsy for 60+ years.

ADHD is already understood as a incredibly nuanced and complex set of issues, the fact that so many people continually reduce ADHD to just "attention" or "focus" shows how little is known or understood about it by people who want to draw some tenuous observational links to... what ends... I don't know? Why do you care? A tiny number of people who actually suffer ADHD would agree with anything you are saying, forgetting the just plain false statements and leaving the opinions they were trying to reverse some support for. ADHD is about dysregulation of emotion, impulse and yes, attention but much more than that, it's about how those fundamental differences effect every damn facet of your life in the most pernicious way and require you to spend more effort and energy to keep up, or fit in, or look normal or to remove you and protect you.

I can't talk to the American system (remember there's a whole world with decent healthcare out there) but just because one country has an issue with misdiagnosis and overprescription, doesn't change anything. What's your point. There are also plenty of non pharmacological interventions. Many that I can claim back through my national health care.

You're conflating to many associated but not actually linked issues and it's unsubstantiated rants like these that perpetuate the stigmatisation of those living with ADHD. You're not helping anyone.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#227

Post by MajimasEyepatch »

gcr wrote: post #140
thenaturalist wrote: post #93

Hi there, This might be an off beat chance, but have you had a history of or ever looked into the topic of adult ADHD? Changing several jobs, jumping between hobbies or projects is textbook ADHD, especially if you don't feel like you can get out of it and describe it as a "huge live hurdle". That is the same for me. Got diagnosed at 30 two months ago. If you have a suspicion you might have it, I highly recommend doin…

when you have a diagnosis, then what? where do you actually go from there? are there doors that an ADHD diagnosis opens that have a better ROI than, say, graymarket modafinil?

Therapy can help. Some people can learn to manage it without needing drugs, or at least without being as dependent on drugs.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#229

Post by herdyderdy »

dashmeet wrote: post #195
herdyderdy wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you very much for your perspective. This is useful to know. I've basically found some methods to cope with my weird attention issues but since my methods are so unusual and essential for me to be focused it makes it difficult to work with others or keep up my own self-motivation. I was wondering if there was a magic pill to solve some of these problems, but you've cleared up that it's a double-edged sword.

Would you be willing to share your coping mechanisms? Or is there a way I could reach out and ask?

Sure, though I don't know how helpful it'll be to you or others. I basically had to change my career to get through things long term, but I do have some day-to-day techniques I follow listed down below. Hopefully some of it is useful.

I was a developer for 4 years after college, but I noticed I was struggling way more than my coworkers and friends in terms of just staying on task in a long term project for more than a few weeks at a time. In the short term I was at least as good as most, but after a while things just became impossible to keep focused on. I constantly asked my manager to be given different tasks or parts of the code to work on. This wasn't terrible because I was useful in many different parts of our code base, but eventually there weren't any parts of our project that I was interested in, and I couldn't see myself being interested in any other role where I had to code for the majority of it. I ended up switching into Software Sales Engineering.

Sales Engineering is, for me right now, the perfect role because I still get to think and work on some technical stuff, but no project is longer than 2-3 weeks which is about right for my ability to focus. There is also a huge dopamine hit at the end of a project because there's a clear endpoint. I'm not one of the Sales Engineers who needs to 'close' I just need to build out demo projects for a client until it's deemed a 'technical success'.

Some short term techniques I've learned for my own mind in just being productive (these were a lot more necessary when I was a developer but I still follow these in some way): * Change my physical working location every 2 hours (COVID has sucked for this, but going to coffee shops and libraries helps a lot) * Drink 1-3 cups of coffee in the morning, and 2-3 cups of tea the rest of the day (I've had to experiment with timings and doses a lot) * Keep a hand-written TODO list and keep my eye on it throughout the day -- For very boring topics or in difficult times, literally write down the scheduled time blocks I will spend on specific topics * Also in very difficult times, I TRY not to look at the computer unless it's to work on my required tasks. Internet to me is seriously more addictive than anything I've experienced

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#230

Post by RHSman2 »

Bakary wrote: post #209
RHSman2 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have it for reference. Both my children have it. What is the difference between someone who has it and somebody who doesn’t? Where is the line? There is no biological line because we all have these traits. It is only a disorder of it interferes with how you interact with modern life/society. Being human is a condition and for some a disorder. Here, have a drug (anything that triggers dopamine)

Yes, by definition the difference is only in the sense that it affects your life negatively. Of course, negatively will be relative but logically if the individual is okay with it (and the people in their life agree) they will not seek treatment or a diagnosis. To be more precise the cliché idea that society is insane and the individual is sane is not really helpful because dysfunction relative to the society is the…

Perhaps that is why adhd diagnosis is on the up because we see so many people suffering in the construct that does not work well for those that have such sensitivities?
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