Comment by dondraper36
6 days ago
Even though I agree with the premise of the article, as a person with ADHD, doing nothing else while being blocked by someone is very impractical.
Maybe that works in huge companies, but most managers I have worked with are unlikely to agree with zero concurrency in software engineers :)
Also scoring on the ADHD spectrum and having a pure knowledge worker job, I have to say, that knowledge work is actually not reliant on attention at all. One can get productive and not fired in many ways. Working in research is IMHO a nice niche for a neurodiverse community. I would say: a fitting job is all you need.
As a side note: I have actually a lot of attention (so it is not scarce at all) but not always at the thing that just needs to get done atm.
I got to work on research in my previous job which was a lot of fun. Ultimately the company pivoted to a direction which was less interesting to me (which I don't blame them for, you need to build something people actually want to buy and the original vision wasn't that), but I hope I can find a research position like that again someday.
Speaking of ADHD, sometimes I wonder whether that might be a false positive self-diagnosis in my case.
About 10 years ago, when I consumed much less media content like Instagram or YouTube, everything was different in that I used to be an avid reader of fiction, which I now can hardly do without losing focus.
> Speaking of ADHD, sometimes I wonder whether that might be a false positive self-diagnosis in my case. > > About 10 years ago, when I consumed much less media content like Instagram or YouTube, everything was different in that I used to be an avid reader of fiction, which I now can hardly do without losing focus.
I have recently at the age of 45 went through the trouble of getting myself 'diagnosed'. The whole process and theory is IMHO all very hand-wavy. I guess it boils down to the fact, if one's neurotype is incompatible with one's life you can call it illness and you need to give it a name to get treatment/help. In my case I don't want to take drugs, however, I am more self aware, which helps a bit creating less damage to myself and others (hopefully). It helps a bit also giving it a name myself and looking for better tools. While I certainly had trouble in my youth (which mostly my mother covered for me), it wasn't that much of a trouble in between, but as I grow older m ability to compensate by staying up all night to wait for some focus is decreasing. Regarding distractions: for me it is rather HN than YT, because it keeps my brain busy without pushing too much trash and ads into it as a side effect.
It's a threshold thing. The easier you make reading, the more likely yo are to do it.
I've been using e-ink readers for about a decade, starting with the first Kindle (the one with a tiny keyboard) and now a Kobo Libra Colour (because f. the dude who can rent a whole city for his wedding).
I can pick it up, open the cover and it's _exactly_ where I left it the last time.
It weighs exactly the same whether I'm reading a 100 page novella or the latest Brandon Sanderson 1500 page brick. My eyes don't get tired because the display only updates on page change and it can ONLY read books, there's no way for me to get distracted by a notification.
Now I've started to train my brain to pick up my e-reader when I have the urge to start doomscrolling some algorithm shit hole. I've gone through 4 books in the last month already =)
That's also very much task-dependent. When I have a task that I find either intellectually challenging or with a critically important outcome, I am usually hyperfocused, and even pausing for lunch is an annoyance.
With less rewarding tasks, however, I would say attention and discipline are exactly what I wish I had more of. Writing documentation, listening to other people talking in calls, etc.
I saw a nice 4 quadrant chart about this somewhere (but can't find it now).
Basically when a task has JUST the right urgency and/or difficulty level, my ADD superpowers engage and I can Just Do It.
But anything outside of that I just get bored and instead build a tool to filter and enrich RSS feeds, because it tickles my brain the right way.
I can kinda force myself to focus, but not always.
I can totally relate. Even going to the toilet is difficult on hyperfocus. Stupid thing is that to make things 'interesting' for my brain they often have to get overdue, adding unnecessary stress until that point. But it is all about acknowledging that in my case and working with it. I guess other people are a lot further down the spectrum or have jobs where this does not work. But I also know how much this ability actually helped me in the past (and annoyed other people I guess)