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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#381

Post by JohnBooty »

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #365
collegeburner wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you can provide some perspective here: it seems almost universal that people who start these medications never find a dose that provides durable benefit over the long term. Makes sense; we acclimate to a new dopamine baseline, right? Almost everyone I know ends up on a significantly higher dose than they started with. And the stories of feeling like a zombie when off meds are very real and pretty freaky.

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.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#382

Post by _4pjx »

swozey wrote: post #277
muhblah wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, also had this discussion with a colleague (obviously not having ADHD) who thought he understands what I’m (having ADHD diagnosed) talking about and I argue he does not. I then almost started to doubt my own perception abilities InsertHugeFacepalmHere

If you ever forget or wonder if you have ADHD vs being inattentive, just look back at its affects on your romantic relationships and how much it damaged them or made them more difficult. How often a partner probably told you that they felt neglected or forgotten, or how often you'd wind up in a rabbit hole and forget that you also have to nourish that relationship.

Oof. This hits close to home. I have ADHD and my partner recently ended a four-year relationship for several reasons but feeling neglected and like she had to fight to get my attention was one of them. We didn't consciously realize this was a major problem until it was too late. And now reading this thread I'm realizing wow yeah I really wasn't doing a good job of paying attention to her and her needs even though I cared a lot about her, now this is something to be aware of and put effort into changing in my next relationship.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#383

Post by intelVISA »

RugnirViking wrote: post #352
atcalan wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2839459/#:~:tex... . Correct. fMRI studies show stark prefrontal activation differences between ADHD and neurotypical brains. I have run fMRI studies for air traffic controllers, who have the opposite experience from ADHD. Very high working memory and processing speed.

> Very high working memory and processing speed Are both of those really clinical markers for ADHD? as in, adhd would be expected to have low working memory and low processing speed? My understanding is its more about executive function I.E. deciding to start tasks. admittedly my experience is coloured by my own clinical diagnosis of adhd plus anecdotally good working memory and processing speed

One imagines it's like a fast CPU with great L3 cache but nobody plugged the actual RAM in so you gotta use spinning rust as swap for bigger workloads.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#384

Post by johnfn »

Aurornis wrote: post #301
Teridee wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my company, we have daily standups and they throw off my whole morning. I only really work effectively when I am left to it and so have outlook/slack/messages turned off during periods where I am trying to focus - has got me in trouble with management a few times but I am not sure what else i can do. The piece was a good read but its so personal to me that it doesn't really help sadly.

This exact complaint is very common among juniors I’ve mentored: A single meeting can destroy their productivity for hours following the meeting. The most successful advice I’ve found is to find a way to reset after meetings without using your computer . For whatever reason, they’re emotionally drained after meetings. They get back to their computer and reach for Reddit or Twitter or something for a low effort snack,…

I've tried all these tips and more. I've gone as far as taking a run after meetings. Nothing really works. I've come to conclude that the problem is the meeting itself, not the way you recuperate from it.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#385

Post by P_I_Staker »

atcalan wrote: post #292
conception wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven’t tried any sort of mindfulness/meditation program, I’d recommend one. I like Ten Percent Happier and enjoyed the app and its content (not affiliated in any way). Being able to think about nothing is a skill/habit/muscle that needs to be learned and practiced. My mind still can churn but at least now I have the tools and some ability to tell it “not now” and quiet it some. It’s been pretty dramatic, espe…

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.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#386

Post by charles_f »

Great post! I don't know if I have ADHD, but I have struggle with getting into focusing and staying focused if I don't get into the zone, a lot of that speaks to me.

> For me, having multiple monitors has been a game-changer; it allows me to spread out my tasks visibly and switch between them as needed without losing track

Fun, I have had the opposite revelation. I had several monitors for years, and what made a difference was switching to just a wide one, plus some hygiene around closing windows I don't use. Using a nice background helps, as it motivates me yo have sufficiently little content that I can see it.

> While the open office layout is often praised for fostering collaboration, it can be a minefield of distractions for someone with ADHD

And interestingly again, I like going to the office because a) few of my colleagues are going, b) I have much less distractions there than at my place

> Amazon’s Silent Meeting Technique

From my short tenure at Amazon, this is one thing I miss to an obsessive degree. These are great. But switching to other companies and failing to advocate for it, I realized that people don't like reading. They want to be fed content. I dread when something is documented through the recording of a meeting, I want a doc. I hope to find such a culture again!

> Obsidian isn’t just a note-taking app for me; it’s the cornerstone of my daily organization

I like the idea in concept. I even built an extension for Obsidian that parses all your notes for to-dos and presents them as an interactive board and backlog (Proletarian Wizard). I have used that for a few years, but I usually drift enough from my todos that it's not very useful. The other problem with all these syncs is that they are one way only, so it'd make me anxious that the info is scattered between my system and the central one. Like the idea though.

> Team members are encouraged to block off periods in their calendars

Does that work for anyone? I have been doing that for years, through probably 5 or 10 teams, and so far my main observation is that people don't give any consideration for my own agenda. The moment my calendar is busy to beyond 50%, people start sending invites on time marked busy. I think they mostly don't even check, or sometimes even worse they take notice and send something in the likes of "you were marked busy but I hope you can join".

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#387

Post by TheRealHB »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #65
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…

Fascinating! A few questions: - once the LED has slowed down to 60 bpm, do you keep it at that tempo for the rest of the day? for a few hours? do you ever go back to 120 bpm and then go back down? - generally speaking, how did you come up with the idea? - do you think that a software version (i.e. some blinking pixels in the top right corner of a monitor) would work, or is the intensity of the LED (i.e. the fact that…

Sure,

Here is what I did to my current v.3+

- Once it reaches the lowest rate, the LED goes off after a 30min timer set, it fades the light over that time under the same blinking rate. So I won't notice. - The Idea comes from desperation really, mostly curiosity on why sound beats from upbeat music had a effect to improve mood, i.e. work more at gym. Also the idea that your brain will take patterns and try to synch with. Check PubMed (few articles about) - I started with a software version (v.1 and v2) and then a hardware one. No idea why, but hardware (as a side device) works really good. I 3D printed a tiny case and it is discreetly below my iMac screen powered by the USB. Look like an old modem but tiny.

Finally...

- I added the heart monitor (a cheap cable and wrist sensor) to see if I could shorten the time to achieve the lowest rate of blink based on my heart response instead of waiting the time or trying to read brainwave pattern (I try measuring voltage and electric wave form, from a headband I bought and returned after a rapid test) but the signal would mix with the work in front of me, so useless and expensive.

Using heart rate looks cheap, non-intrusive and effective to shorten the time, it goes 1/3 of time to get lowest, could use an apple watch vs cable and sensor but I'm cheap.

; )

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#389

Post by coldblues »

deafpolygon wrote: post #266

Had me until "Obsidian" - absolute worst thing ever for my ADHD. Hours spent tinkering ... experimenting with plugins. I was on the verge of developing plugins before I realized: I wasn't getting anything done. I gave up and went with OneNote. The freeform canvas is a godsend for my ADHD (I am able to lay things out spatially left and right), but I'm not able to tinker with it as much anymore.

You should try Logseq. What you do is just write. Don't actively think about it, organization will come naturally. Just liberally use tags and backlinks to find your notes later. That's all.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#390

Post by suzzer99 »

Teridee wrote: post #112
keyle wrote: post #33

This hits home. I think we need to really take a hard look at today's world of tech and how we communicate and collaborate. I find that, if time allows, I get a massive productivity boost after 4:30pm and everyone is either winding down or leaving. All the sudden, the walls flatten, the horizon deepens and I enter a deep state of flow. Around 10 AM, after an elongated "stand up", I should be ready to go... And yet it…

At my company, we have daily standups and they throw off my whole morning. I only really work effectively when I am left to it and so have outlook/slack/messages turned off during periods where I am trying to focus - has got me in trouble with management a few times but I am not sure what else i can do. The piece was a good read but its so personal to me that it doesn't really help sadly.

I'm the opposite. I have ADHD and I function much better with meetings, talking it out with other programmers, and the cacophony of noise from an open office. Everything distracts me anyway, so I'd rather it be work stuff than my own thoughts about some awkward moment I had in 1995.
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