Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re getting a lot of advice about ADHD and the medications prescribed for it. My advice is to tread cautiously and know the risks, because most doctors won’t tell you (or they’ll just gloss over them). Amphetamines are addictive and, used as prescribed, you can find yourself with way worse attention and psychological problems. This is especially true if you take them on a daily basis as prescribed. Taken this way,…
> Taken this way, they can lead to chronically depleted adrenals and long term downregulation of your dopamine receptors, which means you’ll feel like shit when you run out of medicine. The road to up-regulating your receptors is long and arduous. Do you have references? > There are also long term risks such as the development of Parkinson’s disease Do you have references?
Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
271–280 of 280 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
ADHD is at best greatly overdiagnosed, and the business of providing ADHD diagnoses is quite analagous to the opiate pain pill clinic debacle, in which 'physicians' got kickbacks from the industry for providing opiate prescriptions. With ADHD, it's 'the medication' that is being sold. Often, the doctor's client is actually the amphetamine derivative supplier, and the product being sold (on a commission basis) is the…
I hope this viewpoint becomes a bit more accepted. The human brain is so complex and we love to put ideas in little boxes, hence the term ADHD. In X number of decades, there's a very good chance we will all look back and realize how dead wrong we were about ADHD, attention, and our extremely crude methods of "curing" it. It blows my mind that especially in American society we are so accepting of putting millions of p…
I'm curious about this - what's informing your belief that ADHD is treated only with medication?
When talking to people diagnosed with ADHD, the diagnosis was accompanied by a mix of behavioral therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and external support from teachers/friends/family.
Drug-seeking behavior is something else altogether, which I agree is a net-negative on both society AND people with ADHD. Regulations around ADHD medication make the medication ironically very difficult to obtain for anyone with an executive function disorder. People without an executive function disorder have no problem jumping through the extra regulatory hoops.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is a blatantly false answer. Of course, there is an ongoing debate about nature vs. nurture, which means that the genetic makeup of the individual strongly influences the individual's life. Look at musicality, look at sociopathy, look at general intelligence - all areas where genes exert their influence (as an example). So yes, you can try to grow around your talents, and develop strengths there. But by the same…
How do you know that the genetic component is missing in you? Were both of your parents failed musicians?
No, they weren't. They had only little interest in anything musical. Why would you start as a musician (and then fail), if music does not interest you?
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is a blatantly false answer. Of course, there is an ongoing debate about nature vs. nurture, which means that the genetic makeup of the individual strongly influences the individual's life. Look at musicality, look at sociopathy, look at general intelligence - all areas where genes exert their influence (as an example). So yes, you can try to grow around your talents, and develop strengths there. But by the same…
Well this is a weird non sequitur. Growth mindset has literally nothing to do with "top notch performance", or a guaranteed way to achieve success in any and every field of practice. It's simply a framing exercise for how you handle failure and how you approach new topics and challenges. And I will cheerfully disagree, many top notch musicians can't sing, and many great singers are no musicians. You could have been g…
Well, humans are not made of silly putty, that can be shaped in any way by simple wishful thinking.
Please read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blank_Slate
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#275Do you ever find yourself wondering why people find it so hard to do a particular thing that seems, to you, trivial - possibly to the point of frustration? Alternatively, do you sometimes get confused when people praise your work on something that you think of as not having taken any real effort to produce? Is there any particular domain or skill where you occasionally hear people (e.g. coworkers) discussing their re…
What if I never feel that way but often the opposite? I'm in college right now and it's mind-blowing to me how everyone else can understand everything so quickly.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#276Many years ago I dropped out of a Computer Science university program for a variety of reasons, but primarily because I was too disinterested to try all that hard. After a lifetime of computering, having started tinkering at 8, I simply had no alternative plan. I took an aptitude test administered by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation[0] and the results were interesting and somewhat new to me. Of the many diffe…
Sounds like me. I dropped software engineering studies last year to study industrial design/production engineering.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#277My 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…
ha, boston, climbing obsession, career pivot to software eng... are you me? did mark twight also have an oversized impact on your life? I burnt out on alpine climbing and never got anywhere close to elite, but I feel the exact same way. wouldn't trade a minute of sitting out bad weather in a tent.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard someone say once that one of the best things that helped them develop a growth mindset was lifting weights. Consistently doing 3x5 heavy squats, deadlifts, and presses just three days per week will make a visible change in most people's body remarkably quickly. And seeing that change in yourself really helps reinforce that you can change your situation. I thought that was an interesting observation but I'd li…
I started lifting weights 3 years ago on this program (it's basically the Starting Strength novice linear progression). For background I'm in my mid 50s, never did weight training in my life before 2019. I've progressed more I thought I could and my muscle tone and strength is better than it's ever been in my life. However none of this has changed my outlook on work, or accomplishing other stuff in general. It hasn't…
> I don't say this to be discouraging but personally I've never found that "just do this one thing you're not doing" will make a dramatic difference aside from getting better at doing that thing.
Oh, I definitely agree and do not subscribe to a "just do this one thing" philosophy. I wasn't trying to suggest that this one thing will solve all problems. Only that it is something that a person who is striving to adopt more of a growth mindset might consider trying. It is fairly straightforward to get reliable success if you're a novice here, and having tangible successes is at least useful (and very arguably important) in making a substantial change in mindset. Also, my comment was specifically generalizing to more than just the Starting Strength novice lifter program.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#279Way too many personal opinions here. Check out the aptitude testing done by the Johnson O'Connor Research institute. https://www.jocrf.org/ Johnson O'Connor has turned aptitude testing into a science as much as possible. They have helped a lot of people including me. Good Luck.
Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?
#280Optimize for what excites you, not necessarily what you may be naturally talented in. Work hard at what you find fun, and the skill will follow.
Cautionary tale: I am a data scientist and love working with numbers. I fell into a job that required me to create educational videos about data science. I discovered that I am very good at narrating and creating educational videos.
People loved these videos! I was even told I should offer my services as a part-time voice actor due to my narration skills. More and more requests for videos kept piling in.
Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was get back to writing code. I didn't mind creating the videos but I found them draining. Analytics is truly what makes me happy and excited to start work in the morning. A career is a marathon and if you're not optimizing for what fills your cup every day, you will quickly burn out.
Do what makes you happy!