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Comment by TechBro8615 | Hacker News Reader

The pills help but motivation is not some emergent property of normality. You first need to care about, and genuinely want to do, the task required to accomplish your goals.

I’m a fan of this quote from Steve Jobs – (paraphrasing) “every day you wake up and look in the mirror, do you like what you’re doing that day? If not, it’s time to do something else.”

The other quote I like is Jeff Bezos and his “picturing myself on a rocking chair when I’m 80, do I regret not doing this?”

If you can solve these problems then the pills become just a tool to help you execute on the solutions.

Source: Diagnosed with ADHD (because I asked for it - duh, this is the only way), never had a real job but fairly happy with my direction so far. YMMV of course. Be happy with yourself first and foremost and everything else will follow.

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ADHD is not a motivation thing. Generally speaking. You might struggle with motivation and that's okay, but framing it as a ADHD trait might harm others. Be cautious about that.

I was burned out and got into depression because I was going hard on myself for years. Blaming my motivation and asking myself if I even "genuinely want to do the task required to accomplish your[my] goals". Getting my diagnosis was a huge relief. Looking back, I have been motivated beyond everything. I put in at least double the time and effort of everyone else and got not a half out of it than others. Motivation was not the problem and it took me years to realize that. Finally: Actually, I am good enough.

I completely agree, I think that’s the point I’m making - motivation is separate from execution. No pill is going to make you want to do something or to accomplish some goal. You need to decide that for yourself, and only then can execution even make a difference in the first place.

In fact I’d say the clearest indicator of ADHD is a surplus of motivation coupled with a dearth of execution. You know you want it, but you can’t do it, despite being acutely aware of your day-to-day actions fucking it up. This is what medication helps with in my experience.

I feel like you are being downvoted by people without ADHD who aren't getting what you are saying.

For anyone wanting to learn more - welcome to my world: https://romankogan.net/adhd/

>> ADHD is not a motivation thing

It would depend on the individual.

A lack of focus from ADHD can translate to a lack of motivation due to a lack of progress.

That advice does not resonate with me; I can definitely see the point, but the how of getting myself to do "something else" (whatever that could be) consistently escapes me.

Thinking about how I might regret things I haven't done just gives me worse anxiety, not motivation to start doing stuff.

I'm also not sure how you're supposed to "be happy" if you already aren't. Controlling emotional states is not something you can actually directly do rather than trying to affect them indirectly through behaviour and exercises.

In your experience does the medication get more effective if you can find ways to work with it? I've been trying to make it work for a while now and it seems like it either does nothing or makes me lock on to some random tangential (usually useless) task I'm near when it kicks in. Really not getting a quieting like with caffeine, which has been disappointing.

When I first started working with my psychiatrist, she had me try several different stimulants and I found that the effect was surprisingly different for different formulations. My experience with a generic for Ritalin was a lot like what you described, but my experience with dextroamphetamine was totally different: it does quiet my mind down and I don't get pulled into hyperfocus nearly as much. The subjective feeling was different too; I'm not sure how to describe it, but the dextroamphetamine just felt softer.

I've found that the effects change massively with sleep quality. When I'm short on sleep for a few nights, it almost feels like the medication stops working. It still has an effect—I am noticeably more clumsy and forgetful without it—but it feels different and the higher-order effect on focus or executive function is less pronounced.

Another thing I've heard is that protein in the morning helps. I've tried drinking a protein shake for breakfast and it seems to make the day better in general, but with a much smaller effect than sleep quality. For all I know, it might just have been the case that I only remembered to have breakfast on days when I had slept well...

I’ve gone multiple years on medication, followed by years off it and then back on again. In aggregate I’d say it’s a wash, but the benefits of each phase are different.

In terms of raw productivity, it can definitely make things worse (like the comment I replied to). Or at least, it can replace one problem with another – suddenly your creativity is gone and your hyperfocus is completely misdirected.

Personally I’ve sought out the (re-)diagnosis at times when I felt creativity was less of a priority than execution. If you know exactly what you need to do and can commit to it, the pills can help keep you on track. But they are not the original source of the commitment.

I’m honestly not sure whether it’s worth it, but the dopamine it releases sure does its best to convince me that it is.

Its a tool. You need to be self aware enough to take the meds, and then consciously engage with tasks that you want to get done - this wont be a skill you have developed, as its likely never been possible/effective previously. You can, when medicated, actually consider what you need to get done, and then decide to act on those tasks.

You can also set timers/alarms to timebox tasks, and reign in hyper focus - it should be relatively easy to change tasks with the alarm interruption (vs. unmediated, where I find it practically impossible to move to any new task).

Have a plan before the start of each day, drink lots of water, exercise, eat, get plenty of rest. Maybe take a day or two off meds over the weekend, if it's burning you out. It's tough to get into a groove and don't last long enough but if your force yourself to do these things you can find a rhythm for a time and that's the best I've found.

This sounds like the meds dont work (for you). Try different ones, if they do not help much then depending on how clearcut the diagnosis was, consider that it might have been misdiagnosed.

Why would I ever want to contribute to this roiling cesspit of a society? Why would I ever be happy working to increase the share value of some faceless company? What value does the human species have when life is mostly pain? Why would I care to try in a world full of selfish ignorant entitled morons? While I work to be an honest decent human being others around me lie and cheat and have so little self awareness that it's like competing with a swarm of locusts. I cannot fathom how decent, intelligent people ever have motivation in this place. Let alone for something as utterly unproductive as programming for a corporate.

And these ludicrous notions of needing to provide because you are male and that's your job. Get lost. So the world wants me to perform in a certain way because I was born into it and will judge me harshly if I don't. Take a hike world. But my mind exists in a cage of hardwired pleasure responses and no matter which way you twist and turn you cannot escape the pain of not confirming to them. Get lost world you are too cruel and too stupid to be worth my effort and as a side note, I will not be dictated to by some mindless watchmaker.

Well, the society isn't just cheating locusts. It's also people like you. And like me.

Find your people, and you'll see a world worth contributing to.

I subscribe to the view that the notion of a dream job — as opposed to a dream vocation — was created by those you call mindless watchmakers.

That said, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There's a lot of middle ground. Is there place for you there? Not all work is corporate work, after all.

And if not, what would your vocation be?

Is there something you'd see yourself doing if the constraints of the world were not a concern?

If you struggle to answer this, the only thing I can recommend is taking a break from the rat race to heal and find your bearings. Therapy is something that helped me in this process, as therapists are like Stack Overflow for human problems (and, like with SO, it's quite rare to have a problem that nobody has already experienced and found a solution for).

Professional coaches are another resource that can help avoid stepping on the same rake again. It sounds like corporate isn't a good environment for you, and if you are still trying to find what is one, they can help to home in on the next step that would feel fulfilling (and, hopefully, provide income you can live on).

Best of luck, and if you feel isolated, reach out; you can find my info in the profile. Things really don't have to be this way.

I might be off in my comprehension, but I sense a tone of disappointment or cynicism.

In broad terms, taking humanity's current state as a starting point, what would the nearest (aesthetically? existentially?) acceptable point in the human-cultural phase space look like for you?

No intent to antagonize, but I am curious since I have passed through similar worldviews here and there.

Edgy

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