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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#591

Post by CobsterLock »

gnicholas wrote: post #536
gosub100 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you have the inability to read books? I notice that I simply cannot focus on reading a book to save my life. I can read internet comments and articles all day though. If I try to read a book I get annoyed that they're "not making their point" fast enough, especially with fiction and visual descriptions of people and places. I used to just complain about it, but now I wonder if thats actually pinpointing something…

You might check out BeeLine Reader (I am the creator). [1] It's fairly popular in the ADHD community because it enhances visual focus while you're reading. Some people are able to read for 2x-10x as long with BeeLine versus without. I'm always happy to help out HNers with a free code for our browser plugin, just shoot me an email (contact in profile). 1: http://www.beelinereader.com

Is this the same beeline from 10 years ago? I sort of remember installing it back in middle school and really loving it and helping my ability to read walls of text. I never knew it got popular within the ADHD community or that it was still around.

Another reader helper I liked was the one that flashed words in place but that seemed more like a speed read hack rather than actually comprehending what you read, never used it seriously like BeeLine

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#592

Post by atcalan »

JohnBooty wrote: post #381
bratwurst3000 wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone with severe adhd and I only use meds ( adderal) if needed. The side effects are heavy on the long run. Having coping mechanisms and and understanding surrounding is way more important. Without that and only meds I am only the person with the highest tension in the room. And my adhd was measured. Low dopamine. Btw I tried a adhd friendly diet and sports once . I don’t know if it was placebo or real but it…

My experiences as well. In the long run for me, meds are a small part of the solution. One thing you didn't mention was night time sleep, which is actually maybe the biggest single thing for me. The rest matches my experiences exactly. I love the part about respecting and embracing neurodiversity.

I have, n=1, used racetams to help. Due to Trump Era policies, that door is closing fast. The thing that pisses me off the most is that drug holidays are illegal in some states. The FDA really does everything they possibly can to hurt people with ADHD.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#593

Post by zeristor »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #544
TheRealHB wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use this approach of video heartbeat detection on a real product (recruiting tool) but not for my hack ADHD device, You can't really do video detection it in real time and properly, without overheating the cheap device. On the SaaS we did we use a recorded segment of video so we can analyse it afterwards, check the colour changes in the face of the subject and try estimate heartbeat with loose accuracy. More like…

I assume you are measuring the pulse/stress level of a candidate. Is this a proxy measurement for a lie detector?

Sounds a bit like a Voigt-Kampf machine to see if they’re a replicant to me.

Greedo shouldn’t have asked about Han’s mother!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#594

Post by jihiggins »

boringg wrote: post #332
jihiggins wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i did that all throughout university and graduated with honors in an engineering program. it really depends on your coping strategies / personality / luck / etc. i definitely have adhd, it just took a few boring jobs for it to blow up my life in any real way. (i completely burned out, turns out relying on adrenaline as an adhd medication is not a great long term coping strategy.) some people will hit that wall earlie…

Fair - I also graduated from an engineering program - though the intensity around finals was grueling. Somehow I think the 80-100% finals weighting might have made it that way. Why does the boring job blow it up? Not enough stimulation?

it ended up being a confluence of personal life stuff plus how pointless the jobs felt (especially after what a slog university was, i was basically already burnt out going into my first job.) i think boring meant adrenaline didn't kick in as much, and my first few jobs didn't really try to incentivize caring about work in ways that weren't blatantly exploitative or "on trust."

honestly, idk that it was really anything specific, so much as a bunch of different things finally catching up to me mixed with some bad luck

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#595

Post by darkclouds »

TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

[dead]

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#596

Post by atcalan »

P_I_Staker wrote: post #385
atcalan wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately genuine ADHD is a physiological problem that requires stimulant therapy _and_ cognitive behavior therapy in conjunction. Your dopamine and/or acetylcholine receptors are out of whack. This is why coffee and cigarettes/vapes are so prevalent. Methylphenidate or dexamphetamine work best but you pay a price. Yes, I have real world executive function research lab experience, so I know a bit of what I'm talk…

Yet this is not the current stance of the industry that is trying to select the correct people for extermination instead of help people. What does a neurologist do anyway. I have CP and ADHD, yet haven't been referred and think all. It's not clear what they'd even do.

Manage medicine. Sign IEPs. An Ed. D is best for the cognitive behavioral therapy. Neurologists will typically know ADHD better than non specialized psychiatrists. Some GPs, like mine, are well versed in it and can manage it. Indeed it seems like regulations kill any hope of helping ADHD afflicted. You really need a caring person to help you. Remember, you take your medicine before it's in your system. I see it like this. ADHD keeps you from paying attention to indoctrination, but doesn't stop you from learning, so you are dangerous.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#597

Post by Lazare »

chx wrote: post #233
blitz_skull wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but ADHD is different for everyone. Most if not all of the strategies mentioned work for me. > stolen art It looked AI-generated to me.

And AI art is theft. Hell, even a18n have admitted it! https://i.imgur.com/auBNG0N.jpg

I have grave reservations about AI art, but...nope, that doesn't follow.

It's true that there are a lot of (human) artists in the US. (Something like 80 million, broadly defined.) And it's also true that the art and media each artist views shapes the art they create, including art and media we see quite incidentally - graffiti, ads on bus shelters, paintings in the hallways of office buildings. And in the course of the year each of us will view thousands upon thousands of such pieces of art and meida.

So if we had a licensing scheme such that every artist had to make a non-negligible payment to the rights holder of every bit of media they view, then artists, collectively, would be liable for hundreds of billions of dollars in royalty payments. 80m aritsts * 1k pieces of media * $5 license fee is $400b; that's just basic math.

This calculation is, very obviously, not an argument that all art is theft. It's just some math about a hypothetical licensing scheme, and that's all a18n were doing too.

You may think (and I'm inclined to agree) that a human paging through an artist's ArtStation profile is fundamentally different than an LLM using it as training data, but that's an argument not addressed by a18n in that quote.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#598

Post by kamranjon »

earthling8118 wrote: post #589
kamranjon wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in the US - go to Zoom care - talk to a doctor, fill out a survey - walk out with a prescription. I don’t use medication anymore but when I first discovered it, it changed my life for a time - and in the US it is incredibly easy to get prescribed from my experience.

When did you do this? This is absolutely not the case currently.

Maybe it’s dependent on the location? It absolutely is the case currently where I live and it’s not just Zoom care, basically any primary care provider has a survey for this, it’s kinda how it’s diagnosed.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#599

Post by meristem »

This will probably have zero traction, yet:

1.ADHD is often misdiagnosed in women

2. The drop in estrogen around perimenopause/menopause worsens symptoms. It leads to late-life diagnoses as women's coping strategies no longer work as well.

3. Perimenopause starts 10-20 years before menopause; women in their 30's can suffer from perimenopausal symptoms.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#600

Post by hirvi74 »

andrew-dc wrote: post #461
throwoutway wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking of this in bed last night. I could focus more using our terrible messaging system prior to Slack. And there was less banter, pessimism, pile ons, etc that now show up in threads. Sometimes I regret replying in a thread when it goes 50+ messages deep and you get pinged on it each one unless you mute

Just wanted to say how much thinking I get done as soon as I lie down in bed with the lights out. Of course, Sometimes, this goes off the rails, and I can't sleep. But generally it is a testament to having little to no sensory input, (in the dark, lying in bed) to be free to think clearly. ;)

A psychiatrist I love to listen to on YouTube, Dr. K, says that what you are explaining is caused by not giving the brain enough rest time (overstimulation). He says rest time is necessary for the brain the kind of sort through/debug things.

Much like sleep, if you go without for long enough, you will randomly start sleeping whenever you get the chance. So, when your brain is constantly "on" and your brain finally gets a chance to calm down, it will start running through all the shit that was blocked out due to being overstimulated.

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