Earlier quoted context omitted.
ADHD is both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/17/joint-over-and-underdi...
Sorry I don’t accept this as a legitimate reference.
Why not?
How I Run a Company with ADHD
471–480 of 515 posts
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't consider it an incurable mental illness. It's not a sickness, it's just a genetic variation in how the brain is wired. Having a certain percentage of the population with ADHD was probably an advantage in our evolutionary past. There are a lot of good things that come alongside it, like hyperfocus, greater creative thinking, and an increased ability to multitask. It's only really a big problem in our modern soci…
I appreciate what you're trying to do, but it's not about what I think. It's about what the rest of society thinks, especially the legal system and people hiring programmers for jobs. I don't imagine judges look kindly on someone who is officially diagnosed with a mental illness deciding not to take any medication for said mental illness.
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Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW, I was the same, until I ran into some issues at work. Talking to a medical professional was eye opening. It's worth having he conversation, at the very least. I was very skeptical after being diagnosed. Then I forgot to renew my prescription the other week and it was utter chaos. I can't believe how much focus and discipline I used to lack.
How did the professional help?
I was referred to a psychiatrist who had me fill out a questionnaire, and we spent about an hour iterating through my life beginning from childhood. The questions they asked, individually, felt meaningless, but trends emerged fast.
I get that these questions can be gamed if you're just seeking a prescription, but in my case I'm generally quite hesitant to take these sorts of drugs. I have close friends who had many very messed up years due to struggles with ADHD medication.
Now I feel like I'm living life with my eyes open. Far from perfect, but I am able to have ownership of my issues.
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget find the perfect static site generator, realize you might as well use Wordpress with a nice theme, try out a plugin that does badly, write manually, decide to make it a plugin, learn how Wordpress does plugins (it's not great!), get annoyed by theme so build one yourself, find out what this 'css grid' thing is all about, sprinkle in some JS for something cool, use the fancy new features despite not needi…
I've been out of web dev for a while and am supposed to be doing a site today, check my comment history for how well that's going. My design process has resembled your comment quite closely.
While I do still run into this exact problem, I do think I've learned something along the way.
Basically, it boils down to: commit to either doing most of it yourself, with carefully considered bits of outsourced help, or go for an outsourced solution and deal with the bits you need to change.
The former usually is more fun, and probably works best for stuff you need to work on (as in, alter) over time.
The latter is less fun, but if you can handle working within the boundaries presented and if the thing you're doing is throwaway or relatively unchanging, it's probably the best way to go.
When it comes to CRUD web stuff, for example, I find that Wordpress is often the best way to go, even though I hate most of it with a passion. But the fact is that with just a few plugins (Advanced Custom Fields primarily!), it's often one of the best solutions available for a typical website, especially if it has news/blog type stuff and if it's not mission-critical to yourself or the client.
The same applies to smaller 'units' of code. Every time you add code that isn't your own, you add limitations and risks, but in practice it's often worth it. The skill I'm trying to improve is to know when to make what choice in this regard.
(to be clear, when I choose Wordpress, I'm basically accepting that almost the whole thing is a dumpster fire. Most of my work then involves isolating myself from the resulting mess, whether by avoiding WP's templating/querying system, or making sure a site runs on its own server. And yet it's still worth it at times)
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that was diagnosed with ADHD at 37, ADHD is what society calls it when somebody has very little tolerance for paying attention to stuff they find boring. But seriously, I agree with the square peg / round hole comments. I don't believe ADHD to be an illness because there are plenty of environments where I could thrive, the trick was it had to involve doing something I loved. Fortunately for me, I loved com…
It a literal brain development impairment. We can look at the bright side, I do too, but it is a biological difference in our brain construction from the norm, and it has wide ranging impacts that go far beyond our ability to do work. Do you have extreme bouts of emotional distress? Emotional / angry outbursts? Blurt things out that get you into trouble? Experience difficulty with dating? Lose shit constantly? Partic…
Thank you, it was such a great video.
Worth the 3 hours.
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#476actually, why think that ADHD is a disease in the first place? the causal/neurobiological basis for ADHD is unclear, and it is possible that such behavior is statistically normal given the environment. whenever someone claims that he has adhd, i strongly suspect medicalization / overdiagnosis
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
You may or may not have some ADHD tendencies, but it’s not uncommon for people to miss out on diagnosis as children. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 19 or 20 because my perfectionism (which was/is directly tied to the anxiety/major depression I was diagnosed with at 14, but self-diagnosed at 9) sort of overrode the traditional symptoms. I did well in school (because I couldn’t NOT have perfect grades). I excelled at w…
> I play puzzle games on my phone. Jesus, I did this a lot in my previous job, and couldn't explain it to my colleagues. Always felt so judged.
Yeah, people will sometimes judge, but I try to explain the why.
“I’m doing this so that I can pay attention. It sounds counterintuitive but it is not.”
I had an editor once (I should note, he went on to become my mentor), get really frustrated that I wasn’t “paying attention” and he quizzed me like we were in school and I just rattled off a complete list of everything that had been discussed, as well as some ideas that hadn’t — and he kind of looked stunned. I told him (again), dude, there’s a method to my madness.
He never got mad at me for “playing on my phone” in an editors meeting again.
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#478Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember hearing something about how ADD is now not considered qualitatively different from ADHD in terms of what it does to you, and that it's just "ADHD with a bit less hyperactivity". Would definitely be interested in hearing your wins running a family and managing this
Just had to cut out a long digression in true ADD fashion. I'll save it for my future blog! So in short list format, just sharing some methods I employ, sans digressions: 0. Awareness. Took way too long for me to reach it. 1. What is mentioned in the article: prioritisation! That needs to lead to routine. Hard work this, but most important, as I have to be able to engage auto-pilot for "non-interesting" tasks. 2. Sle…
How do I find/subscribe to this blog? Definitely interested. Email's in profile.
Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try Vyvanse or one of the other high grade, extended release alternatives to Adderall. Lots of people have had issues with Adderall, especially after the patents expired and it started being made almost exclusively overseas as a generic.
Long term usage of those drugs will cause GERD. I know first hand
How long is long term? I have a friend that had problems with GERD until he started taking Adderall. It seems that he is not alone. Something about stimulants seem to help digestive problems for some people.