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Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

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Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#251

Post by dkh »

TylerE wrote: post #70
dkh wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Southern California where there was no shortage (until recently, at least) of very early-stage startups, and for years I exclusively used startup-focused sites like AngelList (now Wellfound) when jobhunting. The largest startup had 12 people when I joined. I worked for a company of 40ish once, but they weren't primarily a tech company and engineering consisted of only 3 people. I should perhaps disclaim tha…

Going with, in general, a company with less than 50 employees doesn't have to meet many of the requirements larger ones do when it comes to things like the FMLA.

Yeah but the demand for talent was such that, for at least a long time, the benefits and perks at startups usually exceeded those of the bigger companies. This may not be the case now, but I still think what you describe is not true often enough to be considered a general truism

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#252

Post by solardev »

yungporko wrote: post #245
solardev wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an IntelliJ user (and lover), it also gives you annoying update prompts basically every time I open it. There's always some plugin or another needing a reboot. It has a lot of pros and cons compared to VSCode, but upgrade politeness isn't one of them. The frequent reindexing will often take you out of the flow too. It's very easy to move faster than IntelliJ can keep up with, especially on a slower computer. And i…

have you tried the "new ui"? it's super clean and completely different, very reminiscent of vscode.

Yeah, I use that daily. It's better but still subject to some of the same issues I mentioned in my post.

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#253

Post by skinner927 »

npunt wrote: post #81
dkh wrote: post #16

As an engineer for 10+ years with pretty severe ADHD (unmedicated, I cannot usually even read more than a few pages of a book before either losing focus or feeling drained) I have always been aware of how much my performance fluctuates based on the cognitive load of dealing with the code I am currently working with, and how it is displayed. I half-jokingly tend to describe it to people as having a "small brain buffer…

This idea of a 'small brain buffer' is why I love writing small atomic notes in wikis [1]. It lets me break problems down into simple pieces that I can later assemble upward in abstraction, rather than try to hold complex ideas in my head and compile them together in one big document. The buffer waxes and wanes, and I need to be able to adapt my writing process so I'm productive no matter where it is at the moment. […

You should check out TiddlyWiki as it’s designed around the concept that small linkable notes are the best way to organize.

https://tiddlywiki.com/

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#255

Post by kendalf89 »

vanderZwan wrote: post #54
dkh wrote: post #16

As an engineer for 10+ years with pretty severe ADHD (unmedicated, I cannot usually even read more than a few pages of a book before either losing focus or feeling drained) I have always been aware of how much my performance fluctuates based on the cognitive load of dealing with the code I am currently working with, and how it is displayed. I half-jokingly tend to describe it to people as having a "small brain buffer…

> unmedicated, I cannot usually even read more than a few pages of a book before either losing focus or feeling drained Tangent: ADHD is strange. I have it too, and yet when it comes to reading my symptoms appear to be the exact opposite (when I was younger I could not stop reading books until I finished them, even if I ended up skipping an entire night of sleep for it). I wouldn't be surprised if in the next decades…

I have the same experience with books. For me I believe it's due to a complicated synergy between my autism and my ADHD.

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#256

Post by brailsafe »

brucificus wrote: post #110

I had something flickering in my IDE the other day while I was trying to learn my way around a large monolithic codebase at a new job. I couldn't executive function well enough to stop/hide the flickering, and I couldn't ignore it. I eventually had a meltdown and left the room (wfh, thankfully). It took me hours to recover. Having a tidy, visually "muted" workspace - both in a literal sense (the IDE) as well as a con…

Manager: "I sympathize, and don't have ADHD, but everyone else seems to be answer slack messages immediately, so why can't you?"

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#257

Post by godelski »

throwanem wrote: post #215
godelski wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I, and I suspect many others, like terminal based text editors like vim (or emacs, whatever. Our war is against GUI before each other). I find IDEs have too much going on and any little blip on the side shifts my focus. Whereas with vim/tmux/zsh I can highly and easily customize my environment to... __me__. About everything an IDE offers I also get[0], but with more ease in having it placed where I want a…

> I'd love if I could make notes to specific lines of code in a popup or split and that the note has a mark on that line wherein I can go back and forth. Emacs does this with a feature called "bookmarks". I don't use vim particularly so can't vouch for anything, but https://github.com/MattesGroeger/vim-bookmarks looks like the same concepts I'm thinking of in a vim-flavored implementation - maybe worth a look.

Wow that looks like what I want! Even found someone (nvim) doing with popups (https://github.com/winter-again/annotate.nvim). Thanks!

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#258

Post by still_grokking »

formulathree wrote: post #219
dagmx wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your code is not what I’m describing at all. You’re just talking past me without actually trying to understand what I’m saying or reading the specifics. A Python instance is effectively a dictionary. The contents of that dictionary can be mutated at runtime to disagree with the type that is specified. This is perhaps an antipattern but it’s not uncommon. Attribute lookups can be dynamic as well without any typing. Th…

>A Python instance is effectively a dictionary. The contents of that dictionary can be mutated at runtime to disagree with the type that is specified. This is perhaps an antipattern but it’s not uncommon. Yes I know. but the you will see the code addresses this. Mypy caught the monkey patching. Look at it. I added a property to an instance dynamically and mypy caught it. >You may say “oh but that’s uncommon or bad pr…

[flagged]

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#259

Post by still_grokking »

formulathree wrote: post #239
still_grokking wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Modern python is no longer dynamic. Of course it still is. The type hints have no runtime semantics whatsoever. The actual type-checking still happens at runtime in Python, and is not related to any static checks. Out of the perspective of Python's interpreter the type hints don't even exist. They're like comments… Static type checking is not part of Python! > Python also has ADTs which match it in power to rust. A…

>Of course it still is. >The type hints have no runtime semantics whatsoever. I clarified my meaning in another comment. You're right, I meant to SAY modern development involves type checking with python. But not with the interpreter. My mistake for not being clear. >All Turing-complete languages match each other in power… I obviously mean type checking. Additionally what you're saying isn't even true. Not all turing…

[flagged]

Re: Effect of perceptual load on performance within IDE in people with ADHD symptoms

#260

Post by spanktheuser »

btilly wrote: post #181
bob1029 wrote: post #122

Even "lite" editors like VSCode, NP++, Sublime Text, etc have become distracting for me. Every time I fire one of these things up, my mental state is eliminated by being forced to dismiss some "hey we got a new version for you :D:D:D" bullshit modal. To whomever is responsible for adding these to apps: please stop. No one is enjoying your shenanigans. It is a text editor . Empathize with the user: People with far les…

I've always hated IDEs. And I hate most UIs - they are a nightmare for me. I never connected it to ADHD. But I have to say that vim is a godsend to me when I try to do anything serious. And if you are able to reach me whenever you want by Slack, I'm not being productive.

I'm a designer & product manager whose taste runs extremely strongly to minimalism, simplicity, and clarity in user interfaces. A late-in-life diagnosis of ADHD revealed why and linked it strongly (in my mind) to my ability to enter a hyper-focus mode when visual distractions are reduced.
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