Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by navjack27 on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @09:10AM (#38276755)

Yup! I wish more people who say they have ADHD could have that experience. If someone says they have ADHD but they are unmedicated and they already are holding down a decent job but are only recently kind of struggling with something they called distraction or issues with focus... Then I say they don't have ADHD because it's so much more than that. It is issues with actual executive function. It is being unable to put your shoes on because you can't keep a straight train of thought because someone else is distracting you and you can't help but following all those threads of distraction while you are trying to perform a manual task.

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Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by dijit on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @09:43AM (#38277078)

This is not fair, there are definitely people who struggle with ADHD and do so with the belief they are lazy or internalise their issue as a problem that is due to personality or not being organised enough.

My psychotherapist said something along those same lines but it was in order to force me to answer the question why is it a problem.

For me, in my life, I have always "worked" during the day in an easily distractible state and without being able to commit effort to anything substantial or focus. I self-medicated with caffeine to get anything resembling focus and did all of my actual daily tasks in a 3hr window when I got home and worked into the late evening. Usually with a massive sense of guilt about how I didn't really do anything during the day.

This was ADHD, I could not control when or how I focused. It gets worse with open office environments, but that's not the cause. I have an issue with executive function and delayed gratification. I do not have the ability fundamentally (even when motivated!) to task my brain with working.

But I can hold down a job and have done so for 16 years at this point and I am very successful in my career. That is not a good judge, you work around your issues if you have them- in my case I just don't have anything resembling a life outside of work in order to paper over my executive function disorders.

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Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by sureglymop on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @09:44AM (#38277096)

I wouldn't go as far as to neglect someone elses experience because as with other disorders, people with ADHD can all be quite different. I understand you because for myself it absolutely affects my executive function and I've been diagnosed as a young child, pretty much coping ever since. Could I get a decent job and hold it down though? Yes, probably. Getting and staying in a job has many many more factors and making that part of the criteria only makes things more complicated.

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Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by aidenn0 on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @09:45AM (#38277099)

I don't know, I held down a decent job without meds before starting a family. I definitely have days where my executive functioning is as bad as you mention, but it varies. I've known many people with worse ADHD symptoms than I have, but I'm also not a marginal case. I'm also fortunate to have a rather high IQ.

It took me 11 semesters (plus two summer terms) to finish my undergrad with a low C grade average. Prior to kids, I would get to work between 7 and 8. If I was having trouble focusing that day, I'd leave between 4 and 5pm. If I was having a good day for focus, I'd stay as late as 10pm. Two "good days" in a week would put me at over 20 productive hours, which is a pretty solid foundation for being at least in the "not fired" category. If I didn't have two "good days," well that's what the weekends are for.

Reading the above, I think I understand why "burn out" is mentioned in TFA as something ADHD can lead to...

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Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by notfromhere on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @09:58AM (#38277268)

This isn’t accurate. Holding down a job is not a criteria because people learn to compensate.

But those compensation mechanisms eventually stop working and I guarantee that persons life outside of their job is a complete dumpster fire.

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Re:Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer by P_I_Staker on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @02:02PM (#38280866)

I wish you wouldn't say things like this. It seems to fuel a popular narrative that's leading to underdiagnosis and treatment.

There's a good chance that much of the ADHD behavior is being written off, eg. as a moral failing, when it's really a disorder that's really harmful to the person.

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