Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone • Hacker News Board

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#81

Post by mklepaczewski » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 3:29 PM UTC

ilovecaching wrote: post #37

Anyone have tips for how they manage their ADHD, specifically when you aren't able to get yourself motivated at all with the task at hand or feel like you have too may balls to juggle? I really struggle with yak shaving and perfection being the enemy of good as well, my ADHD often devolves into OCD like behaviors.

For procrastination - body doubling. It's very effective, easy to test, and works immediately. After an hour, you will know whether it works for you or not. You don't need to read a book or train for it; you don't get better at it. If you procrastinate a lot, this is the first method I would suggest.

I don't know if I have ADHD, but I'm definitely a chronic, severe procrastinator. I've been looking for a method to overcome it for 20 years. Finally, I tried body doubling, and it was like magic: suddenly, I became productive. I immediately made a drastic decision to hire someone to sit with me every day. I was a software developer, so going from 2-3h billable hours to 6-7h/day was well worth the expense. I hired a stay-at-home dad, and we connected every morning to work together (well, I was working, he played games and watched Netflix ;-)

Now, disclosure and shameless plug. Body doubling was such a life changer for me that I co-founded https://workmode.net/ - basically body doubling as a service for chronic procrastinators. It's tailored to people who need it for work (basically full-time body doubling). If you want to give it a try - we have 1-click demo session.

For acute (non-chronic), mild procrastinators, Focusmate might be a good choice too.

For other methods, I recommend reading https://solvingprocrastination.com/

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#82

Post by falcolas » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 3:31 PM UTC

b7r6 wrote: post #49

I've been diagnosed with ADHD 4 times by 4 separate qualified clinicians and stimulant medication undoubtedly makes me more effective, so asked and answered I guess. But I sort of philosophically struggle with the "disorder" bit of it. I live in a box with a glass wall facing other boxes with glass walls and type into a computer screen any time that I'm not actively going to the gym or doing something outdoors becuas…

I've long fantasized what the story of "Grog, the hunter-gatherer with ADHD" would look like. It's... not pretty.

- Stepping on a branch while hunting because of a fractal pattern in the nearby tree.

- Get drop-kicked by a puma because they spent too much time looking at the ground while trying not to break a branch while hunting.

- Getting distracted and missing their ability to ambush prey.

- Their spear breaking because of a lack of maintenance.

- Spending weeks trying to improve their spear and forgetting to eat/sleep/drink regularly.

- Poisoning themselves/another because they started glossing over the details while picking mushrooms.

Control over concentration has never been solely a modern day requirement.

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#83

Post by ghusto » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 3:35 PM UTC

_Super_ unpopular opinion; I think ADHD is largely a scam, as this guy claims:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-pharma-s-manu...

People react very strongly to this view. I have a theory on why that is, but won't rile you up even further by posting it.

I'm not trying to be controversial, but American pharmaceutical companies have started lobbying European countries governments to get kids diagnosed early with ADHD (as it is in America), and it's terrifying. Teachers are just letting it happen, because; surprise! little Timmy is so much better behaved now that he's on pills, and dealing with 30 kids is hard.

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#84

Post by dwaltrip » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 3:48 PM UTC

throwaway4aday wrote: post #11

iLoveOncall wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already changed to "totally unrealistic" before you commented, but yes, I believe that 30% when the prevalence is at 5% for high estimates is so far beyond reality that it can be laughed at.

By that measure it's totally unrealistic that the average height of NBA players is 6'6"

I don’t think this is the greatest counter example, as there are far fewer NBA players than big-tech engineers.

Small groups can differ significantly from the population average more easily than large groups.

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#85

Post by cc101 » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 3:57 PM UTC

I was astounded by the popularity of the term ADHD on HN. There are 48,000 posts and over a million comments. If you want to verify this, use ADHD not adhd in your search.

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#86

Post by pksebben » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

ryukoposting wrote: post #20

dijit wrote: post #5

I have a pet theory that the role of old school sysadmins (what we refer to as DevOps today; yes Sysadmins coded, or the good ones did, I will die on this hill) was strangely attractive to those who would assuredly be diagnosed with ADHD. You have endless areas to noodle on solutions to avoid issues; you work hard to avoid working hard (strong ADHD trait) and interruptions are either fine and they fuel you completely…

It affects your insurance? MORTGAGES? What the hell? In the US, the only external downside of ADHD is when you change doctors and the new one automatically assumes you're trying to swindle them to get Adderal, so they make you do another psych evaluation that will inevitably say the same thing as the last one. Defibutely doesn't affect mortgages. I doubt that it would affect vehicle licenses.

it affects vehicle licenses globally; with any psych diagnosis you're restricted to single engine VFR flight iirc

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#87

Post by amanaplanacanal » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 4:15 PM UTC

ghusto wrote: post #83

_Super_ unpopular opinion; I think ADHD is largely a scam, as this guy claims: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-pharma-s-manu... People react very strongly to this view. I have a theory on why that is, but won't rile you up even further by posting it. I'm not trying to be controversial, but American pharmaceutical companies have started lobbying European countries governments to get kids diagnosed early…

What the article says is that he thinks it is overdiagnosed, not that it is a scam. This may or may not be true, it's hard to tell. With ADHD, as with autism, there is likely a spectrum. And given that stimulant drugs show some benefits to almost everybody, where do you draw the line between "needs them to function normally" and "needs them to function optimally"?

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#88

Post by dorchadas » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

owlninja wrote: post #32

I know it's not true but lately it seems like I am alone in NOT having ADHD.

Not only that, but it seems like any time I mention struggling to focus on some task, I instantly get told, no, I do have ADHD and need to get tested for it. Like, no, I just don't want to sit here and correct these math equations my code couldn't copy right.

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#89

Post by throwaway4aday » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #76

AnEro wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so annoying to have people that think they are just doing the 'don't throw the baby out with the bath water' but being honest how good can an executive function disability be? It's like everyone is climbing a mountain, and they are wearing snow shoes, but I'm stuck with normal boots or worse. However, when I start having fun climbing I plucked off the ground by a ski lift that takes me to a random place up the m…

There was a recent article in nature (I think) that talked about dislexia and adhd as being allowed by evolution because in larger tribes or civilizations it provided a benefit for the tribe/civilization to have people with those specializations despite the downsides. I will say that my hyperfocus as a software developer was almost all upside until I had to support multiple efforts. The talking over people lack of ti…

I've always felt there might be something to the Hunter vs Farmer hypothesis[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_versus_farmer_hypothesi...

Re: Developer with ADHD? You’re not alone

#90

Post by ghusto » Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 4:28 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #87

ghusto wrote: post #83

_Super_ unpopular opinion; I think ADHD is largely a scam, as this guy claims: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/big-pharma-s-manu... People react very strongly to this view. I have a theory on why that is, but won't rile you up even further by posting it. I'm not trying to be controversial, but American pharmaceutical companies have started lobbying European countries governments to get kids diagnosed early…

What the article says is that he thinks it is overdiagnosed, not that it is a scam. This may or may not be true, it's hard to tell. With ADHD, as with autism, there is likely a spectrum. And given that stimulant drugs show some benefits to almost everybody, where do you draw the line between "needs them to function normally" and "needs them to function optimally"?

Over-diagnosed, yup I'd agree with that, but I'd stick to my original "mostly a scam" statement.

The pharmaceutical companies have taken a real disease, and spun it into a scam where they're pushing for wider and wider definitions for diagnosis.

It's happening in Europe right now, but it's more apparent for those watching because we're not used to this frankly evil practice over here. And it is evil, because you're essentially getting kids as young as five hooked on speed.