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Comment by kayodelycaon | Hacker News Reader

As with most posts of this type, it assumes you are neurotypical and not dealing with other issues that compromise executive function.

This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just important to point out there is a prerequisite condition that must be met before this advice becomes useful.

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I've got ADHD and this.

I couldn't be happier this came across the HN feed today, because it seems to accurately answer so many questions I've had about my performance on personal projects recently.

I spent months working on the next version of https://vo.codes, and I've only got about five hours of frontend work to do before launching it. I've sit on it for a month now.

What I think is happening is that I'm worried about my next project in virtual production (which I'm picking back up). I'm worried I've fallen too far behind, that the incumbent powers have already won and that I'll be wasting my energy. But I still think I have tremendous value to add, and that there is a discernable path to success, and that I'm holding myself back by worrying about vo.codes. It's caused a sort of deadlock.

This has helped me make sense of it and approach it a new way. Hopefully it's the nudge I needed to unblock myself.

Anxiety, ADHD, internal resistance. I shouldn't blame myself so much.

I think you're worried that all of the stimulating part is over in launching it will be the boring part. I have ADHD too I hate the ending part of any project I've ever done and I've never finished anything. My favorite parts are setting up projects organizing projects and figuring out a workflow for projects. Making them and doing the actionable part is reasonable but actually finishing it and still having Steam and interest to finish is close to impossible and I haven't figured it out yet and I'm 32 years old.

Okay I just read the article. Yeah this reads as some sort of a baby's first getting to know thyself kind of thing. I've already done that kind of personal soul searching for myself and that's why I don't beat myself up about these kind of things. Oh yeah I realized another thing that usually Sparks my motivation like if there's a technical article or a review of a piece of computer hardware that I want to do... Being frustrated at the current other works covering said thing not being good enough in my eyes... Frustration in general being angry in general motivates me in a healthy way. "You covered this this and this but you didn't say this about the windows install or this about how this was set up and you didn't cover this" and my first impulse is never too go to the comment section it's to go on Amazon or Newegg and buy the thing and then review the thing better. Not even just review stuff for my website but I mean a lot of other things are like that with me it's weird. I love finding stuff where other people explained it just wrong or did something just wrong in my eyes and then I go and do it better or correctly. That is if my motivation takes me all the way to the end and I finish it.

I haven't read the actual article yet but whatever this internal resistance is I mean yeah... I have internal resistance about like everything at least what I'm guessing this person is trying to mean. I'll reply to this after I read it and see if I was right but I mean like... The easiest thing for me to do is to wake up sit on the couch take my meds and start watching YouTube. I'll know I want to work on my own personal projects or whatever on my computer and I'll be saying in my head over and over "get off the couch. Go work on that stuff you want to work on." And I just don't... Until I do and then when I do it's 12 hours later and I've accomplished a whole bunch of work and I've neglected myself. It's a fun time

I can relate very closely. It's almost spot on.

I think part of it lies with the final tasks being perceived as easy and routine, which is difficult for my brain to view as anything other than "busy work".

Of course much of the nature of the work can be that way, but in aggregate can be challenging enough to spur interest. Until the end, that is.

One hack I have is to have larger plans in mind for what needs to be done after launch. The next arcs of work. Make them big, and then finishing can feel like you're not even close to done.

Hahaha "busy work"! Yeah that's why in Middle School I basically failed every grade because I would argue with my parents for hours about the concept of homework being busy work. This obviously got worse after I overheard a teacher talking about some sort of a quota for homework that they were supposed to be meeting as teachers...

But yeah for sure blaming yourself or calling yourself lazy or saying you don't know how or any sort of negative self-talk when you have this kind of brain is just not healthy and it's something that I wish a lot of other people with ADHD would realize that they should not be doing

It's a challenge, because on the one hand, the negative self-talk can be motivating, in a not so great way (ie., hyper-vigilance)...but also, we've got society continually calling us lazy, uncaring, unmotivated, etc. to the point of even denying that ADHD is a real condition.

How would you go about identifying whether you have ADHD or not ? Any tips ? I really really suspect I have it but I have never talked to anyone about it.

If you want to know if you have it or not you should go get tested by a professional. If you suspect you have it then either you have it and they can help, or you don’t but they can help you improve whatever it is that makes you suspect you have it.

> I really really suspect I have it but I have never talked to anyone about it.

Please let me add another to the voices saying that the advice you take on a medical matter should not be that of a random internet stranger. Please do talk to a professional about it!

Work with a professional. From numerous anecdotal stories, if you do have ADHD, taking medicine such as Ritalin or Adderal will radically alter you (in a good way). 15+ years ago, I had a psychiatrist who insisted I had ADHD. I took Adderal for a couple years. It did absolutely zero for me. Not one iota of change. I know others who swear by it. There was another comment in the thread about anxiety and hyper vigilance being a problem with similar symptoms. After much work, it's safe to say this was more my issue. There's a book called "Driven to Distraction" that is decent as well.

There are several different manifestations of the disease, so be aware of that. Some that present with hyperactivity, some that don't. Look up the symptoms and see if they ring a bell, then go to see a specialist.

Unexplained underachievement.

I don't think looking at outcomes is a fair assessment at all.

I academically excelled, have a successful career, an early employee IPO exit, and a spate of really interesting side projects.

Yet I struggle with leading a normal life, prioritizing, sporadic and extreme hyper-focus, and frequent loss of interest. (If something doesn't interest me, I just won't do it. I have to pay people to do taxes, and I sometimes wish I could pay people to do my job or parts of it.)

Anecdotal, but I think your characterization could be misleading.

Without ADHD you would probably have an even more accomplished career. I remember a study that showed that the higher the IQ the older you are on average when diagnosed with ADHD, also high IQ masks some of the executive dysfunction. Anyways, as you said, you have a problem with intention, and this is precisely what can lead to underachievement compared to your peers without ADHD. Hyperfocus is really Perseveration, which might have some superficial benefits but the inability to switch from an interesting task to a boring one that has a delayed reward / penalty (i.e taxes) is usually a net negative in life and can have catastrophic consequences in your life.

Yea I agree. I am actually reasonably accomplished in my life and career but I procrastinate like hell and there are times when I am just not doing anything. Perfect example is today. Been browsing HN so far when I have a few tasks to complete for my business. My own business where I know this will be make an impact but I am just not doing it.

See the point is that you can be reasonably accomplished thanks to your talents, interests and intelligence, but let's take the very same you and remove some of the procrastination. It is reasonable to expect that it would be an even more accomplished version of you (even though you might pick up some tangentially interesting stuff that might be useful when browsing HN). To people who do not understand ADHD, your behaviour will be looked at through the lense of "if they just applied themselves...", "they are really smart but just so lazy...". That's what I mean by "unexplained underachievement". It is a useful signal for caretakers. If Johnny is so smart, then why does he end up doing everything at the last minute, inviting stress in his life that will probably shorten his lifespan by 5 years?

The fear of finishing in real. The last push is always the hardest.

In other words, the article leaves aside the possibility that you might have ADHD, which is present in an estimated 7% of people in a clinically significant way, and likely far more to a degree that wouldn’t satisfy the DSM, but is still a handicap.

Anxiety will do it too. So will hypervigilance, which presents with ADHD like symptoms but arises from trauma.

My procrastination dropped a lot once I medically intervened on ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression. I wonder where I'd be now if I had taken these steps 20 years ago.

20 years ago, the science was a lot less conclusive on ADHD. The drugs were far less sophisticated as well. Today, the condition is highly treatable (90%) with medication.

Many with ADHD also suffer from this problem also. So it is a useful article either way.

You say that, but as a person with ADHD, I couldn't help but just skim the article. Not useful at all ;)

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