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Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

shimmer.care

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Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#51

Post by christalwang »

theCodeStig wrote: post #43

I’m an adult with combined type ADHD. I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization. No matter how well intentioned, and I know that you are. One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method . It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than f…

Glad you found the system that works for you! Not an easy feat and not many folks have gotten there. And thanks for sharing your exact system, no doubt it'll help people here. The doodles you're seeing is probably for our other product and social media. The new Indy app has a celestial theme in dark mode, and we'll likely make other modes later! For a lot of our members, they've noted that the calming nature of it helps them settle into a reflective state (vs. our coaching app is more bright and uplifting!).

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#52

Post by Nevermark »

christalwang wrote: post #45
Nevermark wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am going to second the comment you are replying to. Strongly. Why are you (indirectly by omission) asking a cohort of people who need information to be direct, to redirect? That's a serious market/message mismatch. > Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality That is what the snake oil industry does. Or enterprise sales. Even cults. ("Look at what…

Fair, feedback heard from multiple people here on: being more direct, concrete, credible. I'll take this back for the next iteration of the landing page!

I very much hope you can help people! :)

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#53

Post by mikestorrent »

christalwang wrote: post #44
desmondl wrote: post #39

This new product might be better, but Shimmer was publicly criticized exploitative when it launched. I saw those criticisms at the time, gave the product a fair chance anyway, and unfortunately found them to be accurate. I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promis…

I'm sorry you had a poor experience! 2022 was the year I got diagnosed and the app definitely wasn't nearly as good as it is now, and I'm sorry you went through those bugs. But more importantly, I'm sorry about the experience you had with your coach. We take these flags really seriously and since then, we've put in several rounds of guardrails in the hiring process, with ongoing contract renewals with our coaches, an…

Thanks for giving a pretty solid real answer here.

While I have you: any advice for how to suggest to someone else that they consider your app? I'm met with defensiveness at every suggestion I make; the app seems compelling enough to me as a neurotypical person though, and I'd love to see them try something like this.

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#54

Post by mikestorrent »

n8cpdx wrote: post #46
alienreborn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind sharing your system that worked for you in detail or re-direct any good posts that detail them? Appreciate it.

Here is my template from obsidian that I use for my weekly reflection - customize reflection based on your values and priorities. I have goals to improve work-life balance, social connections (social isolation was a factor driving poor outcomes, and through deliberate consistent effort I have solved this problem). Hyper scheduling: https://dev.to/maxpatiiuk/series/32301 (I stumbled upon this and implemented a form of…

I have a ton of respect for your approach. That said, as someone without ADHD, it seems somewhat odd that an inability to kick off executive function would be well addressed by adding an additional activity that requires executive function. Like, if I had to plan my day out with this document before doing things, I think I'd grow to dread the process, and be even more stymied - i.e. if it was hard to go clean the kitchen, why wouldn't it be hard to go write my dayplan?

Yet, I do hear this sort of thing works for people. I'd love to know more about what you experience and why this helps.

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#55

Post by alturp »

ndiag_adhder wrote: post #23

As a privacy concious ADHDer, it is a sad reality that OP's product is never going to be something I can trust enough to use. Anyone has any experience of similar/alternative local-first FOSS alternatives / replacements, or resources on how you figured out how to build workflows that worked with you with non-ADHD focused tools? I have come to the point where I am going to be losing my job very soon because I have 0 e…

Unfortunately, it is not FOSS but I find Obsidian with kanban plugin a killer. They do release their Android app from Github, and some custom ROMs allows you to disallow network permission. Also for Linux version, you can use Flatpak release and run it without network permission. Not very ideal, but I find it working for me.

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#56

Post by n8cpdx »

mikestorrent wrote: post #54
n8cpdx wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is my template from obsidian that I use for my weekly reflection - customize reflection based on your values and priorities. I have goals to improve work-life balance, social connections (social isolation was a factor driving poor outcomes, and through deliberate consistent effort I have solved this problem). Hyper scheduling: https://dev.to/maxpatiiuk/series/32301 (I stumbled upon this and implemented a form of…

I have a ton of respect for your approach. That said, as someone without ADHD, it seems somewhat odd that an inability to kick off executive function would be well addressed by adding an additional activity that requires executive function. Like, if I had to plan my day out with this document before doing things, I think I'd grow to dread the process, and be even more stymied - i.e. if it was hard to go clean the kit…

TickTick gives me reminders to do some of these things - daily reflection is a “habit” and weekly reflection is a recurring task. That helps me not forget. There’s still value in doing the daily plan regardless of whether I do it right after I wake up (things are going well) or if I do it many hours later when I realize my day has not gone well and I want to get back on track.

The calendars and checklists really help with not forgetting things, and getting back on task once distracted. I can have 100 adhd moments; the system can’t prevent that, but it can help me find my way back to shore when I’m lost at sea.

I don’t really struggle with kitchen cleaning, but sometimes I do set out to clean the kitchen and end up folding laundry or scrolling instead. I can do that but if I haven’t checked off “clean the kitchen”, I know to come back to it.

The weekly reflection is a chore but I set aside time for it, and I keep doing it because it works. I can spend an hour doing deep reflection, or I can rush through it, there is value either way. It is really just a check list, and check lists are very ADHD friendly.

Separately, I find that physical and mental health improve performance regardless - so a system that improves these factors _is_ a system that helps with ADHD. Getting to bed on time, and building the system that produces that outcome, is an ADHD-friendly system. I struggle with this, but I try to get better over time by experimenting and adjusting.

The reality is that the system will not solve ADHD problems, the system is just a tool - you still have to do the work. Same for the app that is being shared.

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#57

Post by Aurornis »

mthoms wrote: post #20

Some ADHD folks have something called "justice sensitivity"[0]. Put plainly, we get more bothered than neurotypical folks by actions and events we view as morally wrong. I can't say for certain that this is caused by my ADHD or not, but I have a "sensitivity" to dark patterns. That is to say, dark patterns bug me more than they probably should. Hiding the pricing until after signup is a dark pattern. It's a clear cas…

"Justice Sensitivity" isn't a condition or a binary trait that you either have or you don't. It's a measurement in some psychological studies where they ask subjects to rate subjective injustices. The study that page links actually shows the ADHD kids having lower perpetrator justice sensitivity so it's not really that simple either, which I'll expand on below.

That Edge Foundation website isn't a good resource. It's SEO filler content for them to feed their coaching sales funnel.

The actual study it linked is more informative. They surveyed a group of kids about their reaction to different scenarios of injustice and also ADHD traits. They found a positive correlation between ADHD and sensitivity to injustice from the victim perspective, but substantially lower sensitivity to injustice from the perpetrator perspective.

Given that this study was purely in 10-19 year olds (mostly children) and the opposite results for victim and perpetrator injustice, I suspect it's just measuring emotional maturity among the kids. The study also noticed a high correlation with angry and anxious responses, which further supports the correlation to emotional and interpersonal maturity.

Re: Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains

#58

Post by n8cpdx »

Battleshack wrote: post #49
egiboy wrote: post #28

I’ll give this app a try later.

Subtle joke right there, if I may venture? I think technological systems for managing ADHD are targeted mainly towards J-type personalities (Myers-Briggs). As a hard P-type, I generally perceive Systems as detrimental to my well-being. A take which of course is riddled with both fallacies and exceptions (so don't hold me too harshly to it). What's holding me back from checking out any sort of recommandation is the fe…

This seems insightful. I was going to comment elsewhere that some people seem to find structured systems really bothersome, whereas I personally just do not. But I am an INTJ, if anything. The idea of not taking a systems approach feels incredibly foreign, to the extent I can’t even really imagine where one would start.

How do you approach improving your personal outcomes related to ADHD without developing a system?

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