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Comment by rimunroe | Hacker News Reader

> You must not had ADD :-). I currently have 2630 tabs in my main window (I admit I may need to prune that down _just a bit_).

People with ADHD ("ADD" is a very outdated term) aren't always disorganized. In fact, they're often organized to an unusually high degree (sometimes to a fault). I've been diagnosed since 1996 and I rarely have more than 10 or 12 tabs open across all windows at a time. Paying close attention to organization and establishing routines to cut down on distractions and reduce the possibility of variation in daily activities are very common coping strategies.

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> People with ADHD ("ADD" is a very outdated term)

The old naming scheme made more sense than the current one. Under the current definition there are three types of ADHD, of which the "inattentive" type used to be called ADD because it doesn't have the "hyperactivity" trademark. So for that type "ADHD" is a misnomer that causes people to not even consider they may have it.

That's a fair point and I'm probably just being overly touchy. I have ADHD-C and (perhaps unsurprisingly) favor ADHD-* nomenclature for distinguishing inside the umbrella. I think a large part of my aversion to "ADD" is because in the past I've mostly heard it used by people who saying they're "so ADD" when describing normal behavior (the same way people refer to being "OCD about X").

'ADD' does seem more likely to be used in that flippant way by people who don't have it, but IME ADHDers who self-describe with the term 'ADD' are just older, and for whatever reason have some kind of identity attachment to the nomenclature that was current when they were diagnosed.

That makes sense. I think the earliest evaluation I have is a 1996 one (probably for school accommodations) which uses "ADHD". This tracks with the 1987 terminology switch.

I heard they wanted to change it to just ADD in the DSM5, but it would apparently cause a lot of trouble in various statutes that specifically reference ADHD.

I'm on 1018 right now, I think you're the first person I've ever seen with more open tabs than me ))

I've actually been working hard to have less open tabs every evening than what I had when I started work. Maybe in 1018 day I'll close that last tab. And yes, there is a reason that every single one of them is open.

Genuinely curious, what are some of the reasons you keep them around?

Every time I read about someone with that kind of tab count I immediately wonder:

1) if they have that many persistent tabs and actually need (probably the wrong word here) them, how many tabs do they actually close?

2) Does closing a long standing tab invoke a physiological/emotional response?

I'm only poking a little fun with #2. I have to actively overrule my subconscious when it comes to a few categories of physical things. Small electronics and computer parts/peripherals are a couple of things that if I don't verbally tell myself "you won't ever need this random old PC case panel thumb screw" I could very easily end up in hoarder territory.

  > 1) if they have that many persistent tabs and actually need (probably the wrong word here) them, how many tabs do they actually close?

I don't have any persistent tabs, I can open and close e.g. Gmail whenever I need. Rather these are all tabs related to some project or another that I've been interrupted in the middle. Most of them I just need to copy some definition or idea to e.g. Anki. Others may have lists of potential solutions to potential problems. For instance I know that I have a bunch of tabs dealing with OCR open somewhere - those I just need to copy the URLs and I could then close. I just need a spare week to do all these little things.

  > 2) Does closing a long standing tab invoke a physiological/emotional response?

Haha, no. Some tabs are more important than others, but if they get lost I can move on. I just might need to redo research that I've already done.

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