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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#731

Post by TheRealHB »

Qiaogun wrote: post #729
gregsadetsky wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's the idea! Looks good ; )

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#732

Post by TheRealHB »

loco5niner wrote: post #712
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…

ChatGPT got me a similar HTML based solution with this prompt (F11 for full scren): Create a simple web page with a red blinking LED in the top-left corner. The LED should start blinking at 150 BPM and gradually slow down to 60 BPM. The initial size of the LED should be 40px, and it should completely disappear during the "off" phase. Additionally, include a red box shadow during the "on" phase of the blink. Please us…

These days with GPT and the lot there is really no reason not to try stuff. Nice one!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#733

Post by TheRealHB »

loamaa wrote: post #701
maliker wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ChatGPT coded up a simple python script to do this for me if anyone would like to test it out. Here's the script: https://gist.github.com/dpinney/a3c0b1f333ef89748fa12d057a55...

Thanks for this initial go at the blinking LED script! I went ahead and tried to add some quality-of-life features to this that I wanted. I've never used pyqt before, so I admit I had help from google and copilot figuring out methods. Anyways, here is an updated version that has a few more configurations for background color, circle color, slowdown period, graceful window resizing, and graceful shutdown. https://gist…

Looks good!

Try doing one on a physical device too... My settings are just related to fade after reaching target or turn off immediately, Led colour (my ESP32 has a RGB onboard) and blink or pulse. Then there is a Start & Stop rate (150-60) as standard and IF sensor is connected or has data (heart) those values adjust too.

Nice one!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#734

Post by coldtea »

coldtea wrote: post #138
throwaway2990 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering doctors hand out Ritalin like skittles then you have to be pretty stupid to truly believe 75% of the population magically developed adhd over the last 70 years.

> Considering doctors hand out Ritalin like skittles That's the "kids these days" myth. The reality is that to get diagnosed with ADHD and get to get medication is for many a long process, for most neglected until too late despite obvious signs. > you have to be pretty stupid to truly believe 75% of the population magically developed adhd over the last 70 years. Or you know, aside from the fact of more awareness (so…

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01171-3

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#735

Post by sagebird »

sonicanatidae wrote: post #270
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…

OMG. I could not do this. I hope it's useful to others, but not for me...at all. The biggest distraction for me, when working/focusing, is movement at the edge of my vision. You know, like most websites with their moving ads, or fly-out videos that no one asked for, etc. I'm glad you found your silverbullet, but that specific approach would wreck my productivity.

What if instead of a blinking led, it were a warm incandescent bulb, shaded by a diffuser? Bulbs have some on and off ramp time naturally but maybe this could be purposefully exaggerated so it pulses instead of blinks. Wonder if it would be as effective though.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#736

Post by nmm »

tpmoney wrote: post #612
timeagain wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

There are lots of ways "can't function socially, at work, and/or take care of yourself" can manifest even if you're in the top 5% of the income distribution. For example, that person's house might be an absolute disaster zone, with overgrown lawns, tasks piling up and a million tiny piles of bills and papers to be done "later". They might need 4 separate alarm clocks in 3 different physical places in order to wake up…

> They might need 4 separate alarm clocks in 3 different physical places in order to wake up on time every day

I don't know if I have ADHD, but I've always been terrible at getting out of bed.

It bugged me so much I ended up building an app[0] to force me to get up. If I didn't get up and scan my toothpaste barcode within a few mins of my alarm, I'd have to pay $10.

It also has cheat detection so I can't just turn off the phone to avoid getting up. Alarms are stored in the cloud and lock 1 hour before going off so they can't be changed.

Many of my users tell me they have ADHD so it seems likely I fall somewhere on the spectrum.

[0] Nuj Alarm Clock - https://nuj.app

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#737

Post by regularfry »

RoyalHenOil wrote: post #664
regularfry wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's a question of whether it has lyrics or not. No lyrics? Absolutely fine. Lyrics? Instasquirrel.

Even music without lyrics is distracting to me, but lyrics (if in a language I understand) definitely make it much worse. Oddly enough, non-musical sounds (like birds or cars) don't affect me at all. I think it's the complex pattern-matching in music that is a problem for me. Of course, that's also what makes it so delightful to listen to.

For me it's more that the language processing centre in my brain is strongly single-threaded. Some non-verbal sounds do engage it, but there's a complexity threshold. Magpies chattering to each other do. Some classical music does, but not all by any means.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#738

Post by TheRealHB »

gcatalfamo wrote: post #666
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, but I have photo-sensitivity and continuous blinking would give me an headache. But I used to reproduce a similar behaviour with music (repetitive)

I didn't like the blinking at first, so I made it pulse instead (smoother) but was never to the point of headaches. that said, sound should work if you can keep a headset ; )

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#739

Post by gosub100 »

RoyalHenOil wrote: post #640
gosub100 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the first time I tried antidepressants I had this effect. I even knew about the placebo effect, and I knew they take multiple weeks to do anything. but yet the day after I took the first pill I started wondering if things were getting better and I was trying to deny it, but it felt like a change. (spoiler: it had the opposite effect and once they took effect I could barely get out of bed lol). It was just incredible…

I wonder if the placebo effect is actually hope. I wouldn't be surprised if you felt better even before you took your first dose; I can imagine you started feeling better just having a prescription in hand.

Imagine what it must have been like for "primitive" civilizations: "Oh my son, your hurt back has gone on far too long. I'm taking you to the tribal elder who will prescribe a remedy and do a spell. Once he finishes, all your pain will be a distant memory". And it works (for some duration).

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#740

Post by P_I_Staker »

Difwif wrote: post #39
upupupandaway wrote: post #10

I swear that every time I read an article by somebody who claims they've been diagnosed with ADHD, it is the same formula: "when I was a child...", "I didn't know what it was", ..., "I was finally diagnosed with ADHD", then finally "I have super powers no one else has so I will use them to my advantage". I would love to see an ADHD version of the horoscope/personality tests administered by Stagner and Forer. I predic…

I have been personally diagnosed with ADHD and have benefited from medication but it doesn't come without its costs. My wife was diagnosed when she was very young and we've had a lot of time to run self experiments and discuss ideas. I don't think people want to hear this but I believe so many people think they have ADHD because of a lack of discipline. Even people with ADHD will understand what I'm talking about. So…

> I believe so many people think they have ADHD because of a lack of discipline

People don't want to hear this because it's incredibly biggoted.

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