Ask HN: Any Devs with ADD got tips on how they handle it?

7 points by keynesyoudigit 6 years ago | 3 comments

originally posted on r/cscareerquestions, but this seems like a better place.

TL:DR: I am a dev with ADD, looking for encouragement/advice from other devs with ADD. Y'all out there?

Long version- I think I have some heavy form of ADHD. I have trouble staying on scope on PRs, and understanding what other devs consider readable. I am subject to rabbit holes and not staying within the scope of a task. Sometimes I just get straight up distracted and check out youtube, sometimes I can stare at a PR for awhile and miss a stupid error. I'm looking into meds and I've implemented a few strategies that have really started to pay off (Remember the Milk as a type of bullet journal, checking in with myself every 2 hours with what I am working on, why, and how) but I'm curious to hear about other experiences and strategies people have used to survive. There's enough adults without ADD out there, surely we are somewhat employable!

cac1 6 years ago |

1) Get a professional opinion my friend. Look for a cognitive psychologist.

2) Remember the ADD is not a one-way street. It's a cycle. You will return to what your were doing. Concentrate of efforts that record your progress up to the point you were distracted and that make it easy to refresh your focus when you return. Word processors and graphic arts are wonderful for this. Visually structured programming is too. You want to complete a method at a higher level before working at a deeper level. That is, you want to define all the logical units of a method with comments before coding each unit itself. Make the effort to create logically complete camel case variable names. These programming practices will make it much easier to resume work.

3) You are susceptible to distractions, but the distractions themselves are not the problem. You are distracted because: a) you are bored. b) you are exhausted. c) you are emotionally disturbed by something. d) you are interrupted. e) you are inspired. You must recognize what is causing you to be distracted and deal with it, or you will struggle.

Good luck.

ak39 6 years ago | |

b), c) & d) for me.

I know I will be disturbed within the next 30 minutes so I put off the deep thinking required to begin coding that oh-so-crucial function or refactoring. Exhaustion is another one - especially exhaustion from emotional disturbance. Double whammy.

Good list btw.

jstewartmobile 6 years ago |

My personal experience from the other day:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22135940