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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#721

Post by TheRealHB »

JaDogg wrote: post #463
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…

Oh no, now this is going to distract me until I built such blinking LED :(

Nice one! Be distracted! VERY distracted indeed.... then try it out to calm you down! Loop

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#722

Post by TheRealHB »

ChrisRR wrote: post #643
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…

I don't get this at all. What does the little flashing light achieve? I find minor irritations like this very distracting so I'm not really sure what the theory is

My guess is that may be working more like a simple "maestro" telling your brain orchestra and heart drummer to reduce the speed from Heavy metal to Ballad and that somehow makes easy to focus in what's in front of you?

I make no claims here, I did it for me and looks like it works, not scientifically based or proven, not even tested on more than 1. So, no idea if can or will work for you ; )

That said, I'm now curious with so many comments to see how it will perform for those building versions to test. Its a 20min project, free for those already with prototyping board around.

The key for me was to remove to my marginal angle of vision, not on the screen (like an app), the moment I moved outside and wasn't in front of it it work best. If you see it directly it does distract you indeed.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#723

Post by TheRealHB »

floydax wrote: post #708
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…

This got me so intrigued that I built https://github.com/vlameiras/tranquiled in order to have similar behaviour but in the screen itself. Nothing fancy, just curious to try it out!

Nice one! I will be curious to learn if that works for others too.

In my case v.1 and 2 were apps with a similar on screen red dot like yours. Much smaller and first placed at the status-bar (like the cock ":" blinking) then floating on screen lower left corner.

Things got interesting and worked best for me after I remove the light from the actual screen I must look at to work. Hence the device use, and then later the heart sensor.

The key (I guess) is to make you brain see it but not you (if that makes sense?). Something like you looking at your screen but can still see if an Ant moves nearby or your phone shows a notification. Near your screen but not on it ; )

In any case, great little test, and eager for any feedback you can get.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#724

Post by dannyw »

throwaway2990 wrote: post #641
dannyw wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A curated list of NSW High School Electives: * Dance * Drama * Food Technology * Industrial Technology Timber * Industrial Technology Metal * Music * Physical Activity & Sports Studies * Visual Arts

Have you attended those classes or just citing something you googled? Because they aren’t the same now as they were in the 50s or 90s. And those classes are like once a week now as academic classes are the main focus. This type of schooling still does not cater for kids who often excel in these classes but do poorly in general academics. But hey. Keep pushing those kids through the meat grinder!!!

I have, I grew up in NSW. They are twice a week while core academics are 3x. Even within that, science tends to be pretty practical.

PE is twice a week.

In year 11 and 12 you can fill your classes with electives if you want, you might not get an ATAR for university if you don’t do English and maths.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#725

Post by elcritch »

swozey wrote: post #458
gosub100 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you have the inability to read books? I notice that I simply cannot focus on reading a book to save my life. I can read internet comments and articles all day though. If I try to read a book I get annoyed that they're "not making their point" fast enough, especially with fiction and visual descriptions of people and places. I used to just complain about it, but now I wonder if thats actually pinpointing something…

I read a ludicrous amount of books as a kid. Stuff like The Wheel of Time, 1000+ page books. Now I just buy books and don't read them. I'll also buy audiobooks and bounce between them not really remembering much of the plots until I fall asleep. I think the instant gratification of refreshing reddit/digg(rip)/instagram and having completely new things to see/read has destroyed my long term attention span. I don't rea…

> Now I just buy books and don't read them. I'll also buy audiobooks and bounce between them not really remembering much of the plots until I fall asleep.

I'm sorta addicted to Audio books. I apparently listened to slightly over 2000 one year on Audible.

Though for me, I can have half a dozen books and remember most of the plot(s). Smaller details will slip my mind, but the overall plot gist is just like a fun puzzle for my ADHD brain and it's back within minutes. Though for the life of me I can't recall if I took my medication today.

> I don't really like watching TV ...

Ugh, I've gotten that way in the past few years. It's kinda annoying, and I can only "focus" if it's a really good TV show.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#726

Post by serguzest »

Podgajski wrote: post #59

I read that whole thing and didn’t read one word about nutrition? I’ve come along way to understanding the nutritional metabolic pathways that may increase the symptoms of ADHD. Pyridoxine, or B6, is the most studied nutritional factor when it comes to reducing ADHD symptoms. I’m not saying this is the only cause of ADHD, but if this works other things might work as well. Zinc is a good possibility on the list also.…

I think this and many research efforts seem like how blind men are describing an elephant. They partially capture the truth. It seems to me B6 is just one of many cofactors that affect the one-carbon metabolism (methylation) besides epigenetics that play a role in ADHD. Recently I have been reading/watching materials from Bill Wash. His findings on ADHD make more sense to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhdI6rqORv8 If you look up further online, I think you can find the biochemical rationale for these findings.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#727

Post by decodingchris »

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…

Thanks for sharing your hack! I made a chrome extension for myself and others that want to try it out. Would love your thoughts! https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/blink-effortless-fo...

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#728

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

mattnewton wrote: post #690
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you would blind the participants to the effect you are looking to measure. If they don’t know what to expect or what conditions there are, they can still get a placebo effect from random patterns. Maybe. Generally you'd do a manipulation check at the end to ensure that people couldn't identify what condition they were in. Additionally, that's single blind rather than double blind.

The researchers can be blinded by not experiencing the intervention and handing out identical looking devices. You’re right that you would need a manipulation check at the end but this experiment is totally design-able properly.

I still think that the manipulation check would reveal failures of blinding, but yeah it is doable (but we needed a while to come up with a reasonable design).

And more generally, my philosophy (as someone with a PhD in the placebo effect) is that harnessing any expectancy/placebo effects in one's personal life is totally reasonable, and if it works for people and there's low risk of harm then more power to them.

We shouldn't gatekeep potentially useful personal treatments based on the gold standard. It's kinda the medical equivalent of YAGNI, I suppose.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#729

Post by Qiaogun »

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…

I've developed an experimental ESP32 project that simulates a heartbeat pattern. But I don't have a heart rate sensor, I used my normal resting heart rate as a basis for the simulation. The project utilizes an ESP32 to create a LED blink pattern that represents a heartbeat, starting at a faster rate and gradually slowing down to a resting rate.

Here's the link to the project: https://github.com/Qiaogun/ADHD_Blink

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#730

Post by TheRealHB »

decodingchris wrote: post #727
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…

Thanks for sharing your hack! I made a chrome extension for myself and others that want to try it out. Would love your thoughts! https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/blink-effortless-fo...

Looks cool!
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