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Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

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Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#111

Post by DrewADesign »

mhurron wrote: post #71
thewebguyd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "let's give this my full attention for just 5 minutes, and if I still don't want to do it we can move on". I have to use this trick to help manage my ADHD. Of course, just actually starting for 5 minutes is a challenge in itself but while medicated at least I can. Giving myself a time limit as an easy out works wonders, and after 5 minutes I'm probably going to keep going.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Mitigation strategies start to look a lot different when you have a better sense of adjusted capability. I expected it to be something I felt when I started a task, or how I felt about starting tasks— like if you’re stronger it’s easy to sense that you can pick up heavier objects, and picking up heavy things doesn’t feel as burdensome. That’s not what it was like for me. It still feels just as shitty and annoying to do things I don’t want to do, but once you realize how much better you are at staying on task and doing the work to completion, and doing things that might have been a cognitive challenge before, giving up/avoidance doesn’t feel like the only choice anymore.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#112

Post by thewebguyd »

directmusic wrote: post #109
jnovek wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing to consider is that, once you are medicated, you have a whole new set of skills to develop. I remember when I started taking ADHD meds and I was like “wow I can focus now” and proceeded to focus with all my might on the wrong thing.

My rule of thumb is: Whatever I am doing when the meds start working is what I'm going to be doing.

Same. When I first started taking meds this was a hard lesson to learn. Yay I can actually focus on a task now. It just so happens that task needs to be whatever I'm doing when they start working.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#113

Post by sotix »

jnovek wrote: post #99
mhurron wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish you the best with that, but by the metric of 'if I can do it for 5 minutes I can probably keep going because I wanted to do it' would mean that I don't want to do, very literally, anything. To be fair, I only just recently (past month) talked to my doctor and started treating it properly so I'm still in the tweaking the dosage phase.

Another thing to consider is that, once you are medicated, you have a whole new set of skills to develop. I remember when I started taking ADHD meds and I was like “wow I can focus now” and proceeded to focus with all my might on the wrong thing.

That interesting. I can hyperfocus without medication just fine. It's the choosing what to focus on that I take medication to solve.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#114

Post by waterheater »

iamben wrote: post #106

If you're near any of the cities they run events in, I highly recommend https://pitchblackplayback.com/ There's something deeply connecting (and often very moving) about listening to a record and having your attention forced on it. So much that I usually start by thinking "I hope they turn it up," and by the end, when it has your sole focus, it's almost deafening.

Some years ago, I snagged a great deal on some Sennheiser HD600s. After also acquiring a Schiit stack (Magni + Modi) and finding high-quality audio sources, I would close my eyes, lay down on the couch, and just listen...actually, I'll call it perceive the music. No other audio experience compares, just like a huge screen which fills your vision is truly the best way to experience a movie.

Virtually all people on the planet perceive the world with their eyes but push the other four physical senses into the background. There's good reason for this reality, of course: of our five physical senses, the eyes are capable of providing the richest information. And yet, most discussion around increasing perceptual abilities are vision-centric. Learning to perceive with your ears, smell, touch, and taste in addition to eyes should also be learned.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#116

Post by hinkley »

I feel like software would be a better place if more of us had discovered a sport of some kind early.

Sports understand overtraining. It even means much the same as in AI circles.

The trick isn’t avoiding measurement. The trick is staggering out use if any measurement. Today we are working on speed drills. Tomorrow we work on form. Ans in a couple days we work on endurance. Nobody but software developers are trying to work on their sprinting every goddamned day.

We are the insane ones.

Re: Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself

#117

Post by SonOfLilit »

lisper wrote: post #33

> In Spanish, you “lend” attention. In Swedish, you “are” attention. In Hebrew you "place [your] heart" (lasim lev).

Mandarin Chinese: 注意 (zhùyì) - "note/record intention" Spanish: prestar atención - "lend attention" English: pay attention - "give/spend attention" Hindi: ध्यान देना (dhyaan dena) - "give meditation/focus" Arabic: انتبه (intabih) - "be alert/awake" ...

https://pastebin.com/3ghPnjb9

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