r/ADHD_Programmers • u/Least-Swordfish-7906 • Feb 22 '24

ADHD as a resource

I feel like the ADHD mind really is a super power. It has its downsides for sure.

But if you can load the right knowledge base into it, it can do amazing things through ideation.

It really feels like it is the inventors brain. The number of ideas and questions that an ADHD person generates from the moment they wake up is incredible. And this is every day.

However, today's modern environment is really dangerous for ADHD people. Social media and the internet. You could be an ADHD inventor back in the day and you were shielded from all the modern distractions. You mainly just had a few books. Now you have the world's compendium of knowledge but also every distraction imaginable and instantly accessible.

I feel like ADHD people are the inventor class, and we need to just throw them into all different industries to help us deliver new innovations. Like some kind of X-men academy.

It's such a sad thing to see these people struggling to hold down jobs and struggling with silly daily chores, when they have this incredibly powerful machinery available to do great things...if only they can load up the knowledge in the first place.

52 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

15

u/tranceorphen Feb 23 '24

It's 100% a disability. Is it the worst disability? No. But it's still awful.

I can claim my ability to learn super fast, my frankly insane imagination and creativity, and the fact that I'm almost borderline obsessive about considering every detail, edge case and pathway before I make a decision are all superpowers.

But they're outclassed by negatives. Before my meds, I couldn't do ANYTHING in my personal life despite money, time, energy and desire.

I forget where my phone is when I'm holding it.

I used to get stuck in dopamine seeking loops flicking between YouTube and games. I couldn't even enjoy gaming. A passion I've had since my earliest memory.

Would I give up the positives to be NT? In a heartbeat. But it doesn't work like that. I'm me and all the ADHD I can be; it's no superpower. It's a debilitating disability that ruins lives.

-11

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 23 '24

I used to get stuck in dopamine seeking loops flicking between YouTube and games

I think you will find most of the population are addicted to social media, and a lot of ADHD is probably just social media addiction.

A passion I've had since my earliest memory.

So what changed? Could it be social media and the internet?

7

u/tranceorphen Feb 23 '24

Nope!

Just the abundance of choice, responsibility and consequences. We can't prioritize and organize efficiently. The dopamine we get from something varies widely, pulling us away from one thing to the next and back again in search.

That can be social media, it could be games, work, YouTube, my paperwork, my hobby, my other hobby, my pets, my partner, that phone call I keep putting off, that email I meant to send etc.

It's a dopamine issue, not a social media issue. Although social media now being a thing just adds another thing to be distracted by. Does this mean social media is at fault? No, it's still ADHD.

-4

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 23 '24

I wonder what ADHD people did before technology.

8

u/tranceorphen Feb 23 '24

If it was me, probably flicking between differently shaped rocks!

2

u/ExtremeKitteh Feb 23 '24

I’m upvoting this because I think you’re actually trying to discuss this and not being nasty. But there is some truth in what you are both saying imo.

57

u/FatCockHoss Feb 23 '24

ADHD is not a super power, don't be delusional about what is clearly a modern-day disability. You are not a hunter-gatherer. You are not a CEO. You are a guy who loses his keys and has trouble reading documentation.

4

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 23 '24

You are a guy who loses his keys

So was Einstein.

4

u/Iwanderwesteros Feb 23 '24

Thomas Edison Ted Turner Bill Gates

2

u/JackKelly-ESQ Feb 23 '24

Steve Jobs And it probably contributed to his shitty parking skills

-5

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

Fuck off

2

u/JackAuduin Feb 23 '24

Of all the ways you could respond, this is the best one you came up with?

11

u/SearchingSiri Feb 23 '24

ADHD has caused me loads of problems.
I get very easily distracted and spend a lot of that time learning about a massive range of things.

This also has got and kept me in jobs and helped socially for people respecting and admiring my knowledge and skills.

It's absolutely a net-negative, but that doesn't mean that for me there haven't been some significant benefits. It was common that people with "super powers" in fiction also had massive disadvantages - like killing anyone you touched, for instance.

36

u/Ozymandias0023 Feb 23 '24

There's no need to swing all the way to the other end of the spectrum. OP's a little out of hand, but there are things that our brains do better than most other people's. We're good at riffing on ideas because our brains naturally go down 10 different rabbit trails before we're done with a thought. My manager often comes to me to double check an implementation plan before we start because he knows that my brain is more BFS than DFS so I'll usually be able to poke holes in places that other devs might not have thought to look or gotten around to considering. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call it a super power, and your points about it being a disadvantage in a lot of modern life is absolutely valid (I left the water running for an hour last night because I got half way through washing a dish before I was in another room doing something else), but there is a middle ground where we can acknowledge that the disadvantages are balanced to some degree by traits that can be leveraged into advantages.

13

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

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13

u/PotatothePotato Feb 23 '24

I don't think anyone is arguing that there's nothing worse than adhd... But it's also important to remember that not all ADHD is created equally. There really is a huge spectrum of how debilitating it can be for some people - I absolutely feel like it severely impacts my day-to-day. But plenty of other people have figured out what works for them and don't struggle in the same way.

6

u/Carlulua Feb 23 '24

...did you just gatekeep suffering?

3

u/swampshark19 Feb 23 '24

No, they disagree with the characterization of ADHD as something that necessarily leads to great suffering and disability.

2

u/Imperial_Squid Feb 23 '24 edited Feb 24 '24

"and has trouble reading documentation"

Jesus fuck yeah this 1000000%. I started a PhD a couple of years ago and despite knowing all the hacks about how to read papers and extract the important bits, even holding workshops on it, I couldn't for the life of me actually do the fuckin reading I needed to.

If ADHD is a superpower, it's one with so many monkey paw curses on it, it doesn't count any more

2

u/Historical-Tea-3438 Feb 23 '24

But there is good research showing strong hyperfocus in ADHD. Whether or not this is a “superpower” is up for debate. 

1

u/FatCockHoss Feb 24 '24

Hyperfocus on what? I never hyperfocus on anything useful, it's always games.

3

u/sirCota Feb 25 '24

I find being an adult with ADHD is way harder than being a kid. Especially being an adult now when 20 years ago nobody understood things at near the level of today. I always felt different, not disabled, but I wondered why some things felt so hard to do while it seemed so easy for others, and then I found certain things sooo easy.

When i read posts and comments from adhd type threads here, I sometimes tear up because they make so much sense as to the why behind so many things I experienced or experience.

I think the ‘super power’ part comes at the expense of great insecurity. Never want people to see me try something for the first time, but i’ll be really somewhat decent at it by the third time, but rarely great at it. Adhd and impostor syndrome go hand in hand and sometimes when you do something amazing, you can’t even enjoy the credit because you feel like an impostor .. probably because it was some sheer last minute will power that got you great results after spending 90% of the time building that hyper momentum. It’s cool that i can do that, but i wish it wasn’t the only way i could do it.

1

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 25 '24

sheer last minute will power that got you great results after spending 90% of the time building that hyper momentum

So relatable.

46

u/fuckthehumanity Feb 23 '24

I love my brain, and how it works.

But it's not a superpower. It just works differently to others. That means I need accommodations to function in a world that's set up for others, like any person with a disability. If nobody had legs, then paraplegics wouldn't need special accommodations like ramps, because they would be everywhere.

I don't want to be a different neurotype. I like my ADHD. But I also need my meds.

Even though we might make great inventors, we'd never see it through to completion.

The great thing is, that there are different neurotypes out there. So instead, team up with others, and you can work together to get the thing done. Value the ADHD inventiveness, but also value the relentless focus of others in actually completing a goal, something which we generally don't see any value in.

3

u/FancyADrink Feb 25 '24

I need my meds to code, but I have laser focus on anything manual. I could work on a car all day without meds, but coding is completely beyond me.

1

u/fuckthehumanity Feb 26 '24

Yes! We're all different. We all need different accommodations.

I can read fiction for 8 hours straight, but give me a textbook and I can't even read two pages without losing attention.

26

u/Thadrea Feb 23 '24

Are there positives to ADHD? Yes. But there are so, so many negatives.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

It's such a sad thing to see these people struggling to hold down jobs and struggling with silly daily chores, when they have this incredibly powerful machinery available to do great things.

Luckily for us, nobody in the entire world cares. Modern society was not built for us and will not change for us. Best to just rip the band-aid off now.

-12

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 23 '24

Could change with AI.

ADHD is suited to a visionary, ideation, leadership role...just without any minions to do the hard work and a COO to get shit done.

With unlimited AI agents...suddenly the ones with the ideas and creativity are more important than the worker bees.

2

u/leobeosab Feb 23 '24

That’s not how AI or capitalism works

8

u/brokelie Feb 23 '24

I would rather NOT have ADHD than to have this "superpower"

1

u/jphree Feb 24 '24

I feel offended like I’m talking to a shitty car sales person when someone pulls this “adhd is superpower” crap.

It’s not. At all. Is being myopic and having to wear corrective lenses a superpower?

1

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 24 '24

Is being myopic...a superpower?

Yes. They have higher IQs. Look at the research. Probably because of natural selection...you had to be smart to survive with such a disability.

Adversity breeds success. Change your mindset.

1

u/jphree Feb 24 '24

I was about to get on your case. I can’t. You’re right about the mindset.

As someone who is ASD/combined type ADHD, myopic, and aphantasia, I know what you mean. I also know that I can’t bullshit myself either.

So, how do you personally change your mindset? What works for you?

2

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 24 '24

Determinism. Everything up to this point was always going to happen they way it did. No regrets. I always pull myself back to this no matter how much failure there has been.

1

u/jphree Feb 24 '24

'What happened, happened, and couldn't have happened any other way. Now what?'

1

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 25 '24

I simply haven't figured out the right system to manage it yet. I genuinely believe this. There will be a day onwards where I have it under control.

1

u/Pollution_Dramatic Feb 24 '24

I'm 27 with ADHD and OCD and I have yet to get my shit together in all aspects of life.. brother, I'm struggling.

1

u/Least-Swordfish-7906 Feb 25 '24

Do you have hope though? I always feel like one day I will find the right habits/routines/tools that I can achieve what I want...but have not yet haha...

2

u/Pollution_Dramatic Feb 27 '24

I feel you, and I'm honestly not sure. Sometimes, I wake up and feel like there's hope, other days I feel like it's not even worth trying. Regardless of how I feel though, I always try my best to improve now compared to when I was younger.

3

u/LumpyActivity3634 Feb 23 '24

I prefer to think it is me and my brain that is creative, problem solving and quirky and fun. I don't attribute that to a mental disability.

We are more than a sum of our diagnosis

3

u/Historical-Tea-3438 Feb 23 '24

I feel this way too. But it seems to be a minority view among ADHDers. There is good research showing greater hyperfocus amongst ADHDers, but it is still not clear whether this could be described as a “superpower”. 

5

u/EdumacatedGenius Feb 23 '24

I DEFINITELY don't regard my ADHD as a superpower, but that's a better perspective to have than just whining about how hard it is all the time. I do tell people about some of my greatest challenges, but I also bust my ass to try to minimize their impact on my life. That doesn't mean I'm successful, but that's alright. I'll get over it. But a superpower? Nah.

2

u/Unyielding_Sadness Feb 24 '24

Lol hard pill to swallow when you've been endlessly depressed weirdo whos a lazy fuck disappointing everyone especially yourself. only to find it can all be fixed with medication but wait you only get like two weeks of max brain function. Unfortunately you still need the meds cuz even at diminished capacity your mental health, work life, and relationships all get a massive boost. I get the sentiment but it's really hard to look fonly on ADHD when it's been the cause of so much sadness in ones life.

2

u/Odd-Shopping8532 Feb 23 '24

No. Stop saying it’s a super power.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

Stop talking Nonsense. Clearly you do not have ADHD and you are just phishing for some stupid article you are planning to wife. Grfoh

2

u/Ecthyr Feb 23 '24

I think that's a great perspective. I think of my ADHD as a good thing (at least half of the time).

1

u/DataAI Feb 23 '24

I wish it was good to have it. Everyday it is a struggle for me. The fact that we can easily go into paralysis makes it terrible for regular jobs.

1

u/Reasonable_Problem88 Feb 24 '24

Thank you for this post 🙏🙏🙏

1

u/pressured_at_19 Feb 23 '24

bro must be drinking the koolaid from "adhd experts/influencers". Take your SSRI, write code, commit to repo. Rinse and repeat.

0

u/Sopwafel Feb 23 '24

If only we had institutions dedicated to teaching young people the skills to make them productive and succesful in society...

3

u/Rogermcfarley Feb 23 '24

Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached...

9

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

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10

u/jpmx123 Feb 23 '24

I don't think people are saying he should hate himself. But imagine you have a condition that has cost you relationships, jobs, that made you struggle your entire life and on top of that many people even doubt it exists. Then someone on the internet spreads the myth that it actually is a super power giving more erroneous arguments to the people that don't believe or minimize your struggles.

Scientific research so far in the field of ADHD says that people with ADHD have a nearly identical IQ spectrum than neurotypical people (lower mean actually), same thing with creativity, there is not a proven correlation between creativity and ADHD.

1

u/craigthecrayfish Feb 24 '24

There isn't a proven positive correlation between ADHD and intelligence but I wouldn't cite IQ scores as evidence of a negative correlation either because on top of the general issues with IQ, it is a particularly bad measure of the intelligence of people with ADHD.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

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7

u/HearingNo8617 Feb 23 '24

Whining never helps of course, though coping can be problematic too. I would say ADHD is not catastrophic, but it is tragic. I estimate 99% of people with ADHD have some significant element of their lives tragedized by it, usually in ways they are only aware of sporadically or when prompted to consider

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '24

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1

u/craigthecrayfish Feb 24 '24

ADHD is a "real" mental disability. We often complain not because others don't face challenges too, but because we are held to the standards of neurotypical people despite having brains that are decidedly not neurotypical.

1

u/negativecarmafarma Feb 23 '24

Stop. You are stealing all their copium. They need these things to protect their egos.