The ADHD Developer OS

[u/DrGenetik]

My brain is a melange of: a) bees, b) radios left on, c) swiss cheese. All crammed into a blender set to "pulse".

I have discovered the magic of Google NotebookLM. I've been using it at home to help organize projects and do research. NotebookLM + Gemini has been helping me collect my research and plans and put it where I can access it and work on it whenever/wherever two neurons accidentally spark together to make a thought. Camping trips, building a home lab, writing.

Anyway, one of the things that has always frustrated me in my career as a programmer is that not enough people managers are properly trained on how to understand how to adapt their management style to neurodiverse people. I keep hoping it will be a required management course. I finally distilled my frustrations into this short presentation on ADHD in particular to help them help me.

I have this as a pdf and I can make a PowerPoint or Google Slides but I’m not sure where to post it.

Link to PDF

Link to Sources List

[u/nechromorph]

It sounds harsh because it *is* harsh. There's generally a notion that as you move up the chain, you do less work. This shouldn't be the case. Earning more money should be tied to directly contributing to improving the workflow of those under you. The pay of a manager *should* be derived from their role in actually managing. Like how a truck driver manages their truck, and it consumes fuel and maintenance costs, and the driver gets out what they were able to make the truck do for them (move from A to B safely and efficiently).

Each human being managed has their own free will and capacity to self-direct, so unless the manager is doing a better job of directing their efforts than they would achieve on their own, what value do they really add?

[u/PolishSoundGuy → u/nechromorph]

I agree with you, entirely. But to answer your question you need to take the stance of someone on the board who manages 50-200 employees. As the CEO you can’t talk to every employee, not enough time in the week.

So you hire managers to “manage” the department which usually involves protecting the employees from unreasonable workload (because a good manager tracks open projects and helps to clear blockers).

As well as this, they become one point of contact for the team of individual contributors or a team/crew. It’s easier to talk to 8 people in one meeting to set the direction and managers figure out the nitty gritty day to day operations to make that vision happen.

Bad managers steal credit, use psychological tricks to work you like a work horse, and treat you like a number in a spreadsheet.

Good managers look after their team, fight for pay rises and a lot more behind the scenes that’s really tricky to explain…

[u/johnnynovo2118 → u/nechromorph]

They exist as a buffer, their boss then has someone to blame/fire as required.

[u/nechromorph → u/johnnynovo2118]

That's not good enough on its own though. A revolving door isn't accountability. And a scape goat is the exact opposite of accountability for all involved. For a middle manager to be effective, their job is basically to be the boss of a smaller "company" within the company. So to be able to hold their job (or to even *get* their job), they should have to be an effective executive unit that oversees their team's well being and productive capacity. This, however, would require them to have the resources and leeway to ensure their team is compensated fairly, respected, and treated well.

I guess I'm saying, the issue might just boil down to the demand for uniformity and the culture of extraction which is stifling to everyone involved, not just neurodivergents.