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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#741

Post by P_I_Staker »

nraynaud wrote: post #42
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 got diagnosed with ADHD a couple years ago, and it has remained a shit show since then. It was a shit show before, but now medical appointments and crazy restricted medicines have been added to the mix (I ran out of an addictive antidepressant this weekend, not fun). It feels like everybody agrees I'm sick but nobody has an effective treatment for me. I went to see all the doctors who accepted to see me (it's not t…

These system is a civil rights disaster that needs to be torn down. If you can keep fighting it, continue.

I'm never going to get effective treatment, essentially due to doctors that wanted to bring a shitty attitude to the workplace.

In other words, I've literally never even been given the first line treatment.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#742

Post by throwoutway »

hughesjj wrote: post #543
throwoutway wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking of this in bed last night. I could focus more using our terrible messaging system prior to Slack. And there was less banter, pessimism, pile ons, etc that now show up in threads. Sometimes I regret replying in a thread when it goes 50+ messages deep and you get pinged on it each one unless you mute

I only get pings for direct @'ing, is this not the norm or are people acting you regardless?

If you reply on a Slack thread, then every reply on that thread pings you

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#743

Post by raindropm »

buzzwords wrote: post #190

This could not have been better timed for me. I was diagnosed with ADHD yesterday. Apparently for me, the working memory is a major issue. If anyone has any tips here I really appreciate it if you could comment your suggestions here.

Recently I use the 'block' technique the author of this blog write about: https://www.raptitude.com/2023/08/how-to-inherit-a-fortune/

It's basically pomodoro, but with different way to visualize about it, and it somehow feels...better? At least for my ADHD brain. The author wrote blogs for years, and just diagnosed with ADHD a couple years ago, and somehow his lifelong struggle suddenly explainable(you know, like many of us ADHDer did) That aside, his blog is usually a joy to read.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#744

Post by raindropm »

plutoh28 wrote: post #635

Call me naive but I find that the term ADHD has become far too general and overused. It’s a common scapegoat for what could otherwise be described as bad habits for a lot of people.

It could be, yeah, like many things, I guess — gluten, hormones, etc.

Maybe we'll find out later that all of this is just some big mass hallucination we all try to believe in order to cope with today's horrible work life. Though, for me, the symptoms described are so accurate it's scary, and they explain my lifelong struggles — it's a revelation, really. It provides a glimpse of the signposts I can look for when I need help.

I'll also keep in mind that any concept we have about ADHD now can also change when we have more evidence (or not), but I'm subscribed to it for now.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#745

Post by sumthingsumthng »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #689
sumthingsumthng wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

take good care of the kids nutrition. read up on it. take it serious. let it eat clean. don't fuck this up. the connection between ADHD and nutrition is brutally underrated, in terms of amounts per meal, intake of food additives and the mix as well. if starchy carbs, then very little fat and little protein. if meat, then no bread, no potatoes, no noodles or similar stuff at all. veggies are always fine except if the…

this is something I have long thought about. carbs make me batty. doing keto made my skin look much better, but also helped me focus, and I found it was easier to sleep. whenever I had cheat days and crushed like half a pizza I found I immediately was exhausted and had trouble focusing. also coffee vs. tea. switching to tea every other day instead of coffee really dove home how much of an impact coffee has on things…

interesting. will definitely take a look at caffeine's effect on serotonin. thank you.

most tea brands have a bad impact on my digestion and while I thought it must be the theine, which, as I learned, is just caffeine, I now believe it's connected to residue pesticides[1] since "homegrown teas" don't have the same highly undesirable impact.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36537161/

anything that screws with my digestion makes my gut, the literal and metaphorical one, itchy and I get nervous. similar things happen when I eat short-chained carbs in amounts over 100g in one meal but the negative effect disappears after an at least 13h fasting period or 16h+ if I drank liquor the night before. so I assume it has to do with enzymes released in the mouth and in later stages of digestion since I sometimes start to feel itchy even though I only started chewing oats for example.

I believe my sensitivity and ADHD are linked to the amount of enzymes produced by my body during digestion and or some genetic mutation in an enzyme associated with the respective metabolisms.

somewhat related: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printabl...

https://www.nysca.com/index.php?option=com_dailyplanetblog&v...

the lack of focus and the exhaustion after eating carbs are relatable, but again , only if the fasting period wasn't long enough.

I tried Keto, but it made me quite a bit slower, which wasn't bad in terms of performance, but my cognitive processing speed was so much slower that I could not get used to it.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#747

Post by 71a54xd »

hirvi74 wrote: post #611
71a54xd wrote: post #356

I have ADHD and unapologetically take adderall. Yes, there's a stigma but there's also about a 6x improvement in my mood and ability to stay focused on a single task after I take 5mg. I've never developed dependency and generally only take it 3-4 times a week. I've also never really had to increase the dose. This came after two diagnosis from neuropsychiatrists both reaching the same conclusion. Being diagnosed at 22…

I'm in the same boat -- same age of diagnosis, same qualms, etc.. I am at the point in my life, a decade later, where I couldn't care less if there are longterm harmful effects. 1. I'm sure my unmedicated life would have continued to be equally unhealthy in different ways. 2. It's not like old age is sunshine in rainbows. I rather die in my 60s or 70s from a heart attack, with dignity, than live long enough to slowly…

Glad I'm not the only one who's had this experience!

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#748

Post by TheRealHB »

sagebird wrote: post #735
sonicanatidae wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've changed the LED to pulse at early interactions, blinking was too crude indeed.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#749

Post by loco5niner »

TheRealHB wrote: post #732
loco5niner wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Thanks! One new thing I learned after multiple iterations of: "That's great, but can you change this, or that". Once I was happy with the result, I asked it to produce the AI prompt that I could give next time to generate the same output, and that's what I put in my previous comment.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#750

Post by throwaway2990 »

dannyw wrote: post #724
throwaway2990 wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Missed this comment. So yeah grew up there. If you went did pe today it wouldn’t be anything like you remember.
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