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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#571

Post by timeagain »

nbaugh1 wrote: post #346
dijit wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well. 1. Self-diagnosis is not a diagnosis. 2. Things exist on a spectrum. The definition of it becoming a "disorder" is when it negatively affects your life enough. During diagnosis a psychotherapist will be tasked with identifying traits of ADHD (IE; Markers), you will not have all markers. Everyone will have some. Then those markers are investigated to discover how much they impact your quality of life. If it is a…

Exactly. So so so many people do not understand this element of psychological disorders

The D in ADHD is “disorder”, which normally means you can’t function socially, at work, and/or take care of yourself. Normally I don’t consider scatterbrained knowledge workers in the top 5% of the income distribution to be in that category. It is kind of fun so do work on speed though!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#572

Post by timsayshey »

smithcoin wrote: post #568
timsayshey wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inspired by this post I threw together a new open source desktop app that has an annoying always on top window that has a flashing timer, this seems to accomplish the same thing. https://github.com/timsayshey/cringe-clock

How were you able to manage the window always being on top? I thought you had to disable SIP for that on MacOS.

In Electron it's super easy. Just set alwaysOnTop to true: https://github.com/timsayshey/cringe-clock/blob/main/src/bac...

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#573

Post by mmatants »

hyllos wrote: post #5

Pauses. I am experimenting with basic scheme of 25 mins focus and then 5 mins pause. It is mind blowing how it lowers frustration and sort of ensures that I start work only on a clear task which I often tend to loose to easily. The biggest surprise are the pauses (no, no email checking or web browsing; get up and move around). While formerly I experienced it that I don't have enough time to do what I want to do, I ex…

To add a data point, I used to do Pomodoro timing (25+5 min) but now switched to 15 min timer with a loose 2-5 min break. It's still hard to actually pull out of hyper-focus/anxious perseveration sometimes, but the shorter timer period seems to match my task cadence better. And the non-timed break just vibes better because it doesn't feel like punishment then.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#574

Post by greenie_beans »

swozey wrote: post #440
greenie_beans wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was trying to walk someone through adding a docker build process to their CI and.... he just couldn't communicate/understand it through slack and he wanted to schedule a meeting. this sounds like pair programming imo. > Great, now instead of being able to respond while working on other things I have to cut out an entire hour of my day just for you. this reads as a bad attitude towards mentorship. sorry for that a…

Nope, I love mentoring. My frustration is not knocking this out over 10 slack messages right now and having to round back to it days later. I want it done and off my plate. I'm ADHD. I don't want lingering tasks floating around giving me anxiety when they can be done quickly. I'm going to forget it exists until 10 minutes before when it pops up on my notifications, then I'll have to context switch over to that situat…

i feel you. thanks for sharing your working style. i'm sorry i misread your comment.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#575

Post by bt4u »

piperswe wrote: post #481
TeMPOraL wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

N=1, I sleep better on stimulants than off them. No problem falling asleep after drinking coffee (usually it makes me more sleepy), or even taking a prescribed stimulant before going to bed.

Some of my best naps have been after taking amphetamines. My brain shuts up, and I can actually relax.

[dead]

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#576

Post by serialNumber »

aidenn0 wrote: post #330
m463 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a book once decades ago about ADHD, and it said lots of children are misdiagnosed with it. One of the very common causes is that kids who don't eat regularly (or eat sugar then crash) will encounter low blood sugar. The body reacts to this by dumping adrenaline in the bloodstream and ... voila ... an excitable kid with little focus.

It's both under- and over-diagnosed because the funnel for children is teachers who have basically been trained to refer the "problem children" for diagnosis. I have a son who has extreme anxiety, and kept getting referred by teachers for ADHD. Hyper-vigilance for danger can make it hard to focus on arithmetic, particularly in an elementary school classroom. The psychiatrist ended up putting a note in his file becaus…

I used to be your daughter! Super quiet, got all my work done on time, was seen as "gifted", but would lose absolutely everything (and I mean everything).

I really suggest some sort of setup to maintain structure as she gets older - being aware of a diagnosis or having medication / therapy would've really saved a couple painful years in university for me

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#577

Post by kristianp »

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…

Why does the rate have to start high and slow down?

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#578

Post by actionfromafar »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #544
TheRealHB wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use this approach of video heartbeat detection on a real product (recruiting tool) but not for my hack ADHD device, You can't really do video detection it in real time and properly, without overheating the cheap device. On the SaaS we did we use a recorded segment of video so we can analyse it afterwards, check the colour changes in the face of the subject and try estimate heartbeat with loose accuracy. More like…

I assume you are measuring the pulse/stress level of a candidate. Is this a proxy measurement for a lie detector?

Dear Lord, hope not.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#579

Post by SuperCuber »

TheRealHB wrote: post #420
gregsadetsky wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, super interesting! There was research some time ago (jeez, 10 years ago...) [0] [1] that used video and... computer vision algorithms to detect a person's heart rate without any devices. Wondering if it could be used here i.e. use your webcam instead of an external hardware sensor? Other thing - would you be open to publishing/sharing your algorithm / esp32 code (on Github or as a blog article)? [0] https://n…

We use this approach of video heartbeat detection on a real product (recruiting tool) but not for my hack ADHD device, You can't really do video detection it in real time and properly, without overheating the cheap device. On the SaaS we did we use a recorded segment of video so we can analyse it afterwards, check the colour changes in the face of the subject and try estimate heartbeat with loose accuracy. More like…

I'm definitely NOT attending an interview where this kind of tech is used. My heart rate is irrelevant to whether someone should hire me - and I say that as someone who doesn't even get anxious or nervous during interviews.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#580

Post by TrackerFF »

I'm diagnosed with ADHD, and it's been a struggle. You can say that it's more a struggle now than ever, with the medication shortage.

With that said, I always found it interesting that many psychologists are extremely polarized on the so-called hyperfocus. One I spoke with said that hyperfocus is contradictory to ADHD, while another said that it is indeed something that many with ADHD experience. These were psychologists with decades of experience, and have diagnosed hundreds/thousands of patients.

Diagnosis has seemingly become very hard the past years, with the spread of social media and ADHD "influencers". Viewers become fixated on having ADHD, memorize symptoms, and parrot these when undergoing diagnosis.

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