Minor point: What you describe isn't usually called working memory. Working memory is what you can "keep in mind" at any one point. It lasts for a few seconds and then has to be refreshed, e.g. by repeatedly saying a phone number to yourself in your head. Working memory is more or less synonymous with short-term memory.

What you describe is long-term memory (everything beyond a few seconds is considered long-term).

Edit: Too slow. Some more justification: Very broadly, one hypothesis is that working/short term memory is stored in the currently present activity patterns of neurons, which fade/decorelate after a few secodns. Anything longer is thought to be stored in the weights of the synapses between neurons (there are alternative theories but I like this one).

As a person who has trouble focusing--

A.) Minimize visual stimuli in your work area. Get everything off your desk, and shove your face in a corner. (I've turned my desk to face away from the hallway.)

B.) Take notes as you work. I will write 15 minutes of code, take a note on what I'm doing, then get (purposefully) distracted for a minute or two. When I come back to my work, I can look at my note to see what I was doing and pick back up where I left off. It really minimizes the impact of distraction on my work. You can start out with lower chunks of "productive" time if you want. Practicing focus helps you to build up amount of time you can focus. Relevant talk on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0

Thanks for the advice, these ideas make sense.

The things you describe are long term memory, not working memory, I believe.

I forget things I don't use as fast as the next person (perhaps faster). The only difference is the speed of acquisition.

funny

> I am not super-intelligent, I have ADD, and generally consider myself to be lazy and distraction-prone.

I'd say that about myself

> However, for some reasons unknown, I have excellent working memory, which allows me to perform feats. Multi-choice exams? Can prepare for anything in few hours. Learn Scala (and another 5-6 programming languages) in a few months? Easy! I don't use password managers, as I remember all my long passwords. And credit card numbers. And phone numbers. This multiplies my intelligence quite significantly.

And I'd say I'm the opposite here. My memory is terrible. Sure, I can study short term for a subject, but it goes away pretty quickly. And I have to study. If I want to "just remember" something in day-to-day life, I have to write it down and reference it later, or I'll forget.

Have you tried any meds to ADD?

Yes. They make things slightly better, but they don't magically fix everything.

You mean legal cocaine?

Legal amphetamine.

Incidentally, the response of somebody with ADD to Adderall is completely different compared to response of a normal person to amphetamines. It is more like "relaxed concentration" than stimulation.

Therapeutic dose of Adderall is way smaller than "recreational" doses of amphetamine. It has to be carefully calibrated by therapist. Higher doses will lead to headaches and, paradoxically, tiredness and drowsiness — not stimulation.

"Higher doses will lead to headaches and, paradoxically, tiredness and drowsiness — not stimulation."

False. You're right in that it won't help them very much -- specifically because taking overdoses of amphetamines tends to lead to things like insomnia, tachycardia/dehydration, and mania/psychosis.

The effects I described were experienced by me during the calibration period, where I took higher dose than me and my therapist eventually settled on. Perhaps it might work differently for some people, but this is what I heard from other people who suffer from ADHD and tried to take higher doses.

My apologies, didn't realize there was a difference between two drugs that both flood your receptors with dopamine in almost the exact same brain regions.

They act similarly, but it's weird to call it legal cocaine. Cocaine also strongly targets serotonin and norepinephrine and is a lot more addictive.