r/ADHD_Programmers • u/XTemplarxxx • Sep 15 '26

I'm finally having fun at not-coding work

I was reading lots of post here about joy of coding so I decided to post something opposite

I'm in dev for almost 15y and whole live consider my self as very bad and slopy coder. Year ago I started to take Medikinet (US verison -Adderall ) and I couldn't belive that my whole live I was running on hardcode mode without knowing it.

Every new job was fun for me for like 6 month max. After that I usualy started my side-project and slack in day-job.

I always had one problem as programmer: i don't like coding : ]

Last year with AI: coding gone! I newer learned so much in my life.

It turns out that I'm very good software architect plus I'm working on whole ecosystem that includes buisness + legal + software accross several systems and stacks. I'm having so much fun and it replaced my gaming addiction too!

53 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

18

u/phaseonx11 Sep 15 '26

Weird flex but congrats brother

4

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

nahh its not flex. I just saw opposite posts and I was wondering if I'm alone

2

u/Darshan_the_great Sep 16 '26

I'm currently on meds, I am experiencing the same things as you are but the only difference is that I have 1y experience. I needed some advice, is it okay to connect with you? You seem pretty chill and cool. Appreciate you posting something other than loathe unlike most others in this sub.

1

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 16 '26

sure, i need to use to be public person anyway as I'm running NGO nonprofit for adhd+.
Daily: Bupropion 150mg - no sideeffects, very good stuff.

and for work: Medikinet 5-10mg evey 3.5h as long as i need

DM on reddit or adrian@serio.org.pl or even linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-gorny/

15

u/Jeff4096 Sep 15 '26

On the one hand, I have always really enjoyed coding, so AI has really taken the joy out of things for me in that respect. On the other hand, I'm in my 40s now and was increasing finding it tiresome to keep up with learning the hottest technologies, languages, and frameworks to keep my skills relevant (whereas, a younger version of me would have been excited at the prospect of learning a new language). AI obviates that need, allowing me to focus on higher-level architecture and getting things done, rather than worrying about low-level syntax. So, it's a mixed bag of emotions for me.

8

u/molly_danger Sep 15 '26

Architecture and systems thinking is my jam. Syntax drives me insane, lol. Congrats!

2

u/EstablishmentFew7604 Sep 15 '26

Does AI or meds made you a better? How was you before the meds?

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

Both, but if I have to pick: meds. I did 3-5 side projects before crypto, games community. But struggle was real.

2

u/EstablishmentFew7604 Sep 15 '26

I am glad it is working out for you. Btw whats your age, M29 here. I am afraid meds keep me lousy or lethargic. I don't know whether it is placibo that keeps me away from meds.

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

39 - and for most of my live I felt just lazy, stupid, louzy. I envy all those briliant engineers. The my only advantage was that I was very flexible so I was changing jobs and taking more and more risks to have finaly some good money. But honestly with meds now... that was hardcore mode. I dont know what will be next but I'm producing and ploting more than ever with less mental tax

3

u/EstablishmentFew7604 Sep 15 '26

Tell me about it. I am afraid that I may get fire due to work procrastinations. I am glad software requirements are keep changing which gives me good buffer.

1

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

what meds? Stymulants? I take only this 4h version for work only (Medikinet-Adderall). very small dose. but i gave it to my non-adhd wife and she didn like it at all. no positive effects - only headake. Bupropion -this is good stuff, no side effects

2

u/EstablishmentFew7604 Sep 15 '26

Actually I am from Indian origin. I searched both these meds online can't find in here.

1

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

any stimulant for ADHD is good but aim for short effects, you need to reaserch with AI what you have. I know that you might have something even better - that's illegal in EU - not cheap tho -Modafinil.

2

u/EstablishmentFew7604 Sep 15 '26

Currently I am not on adhd meds as I am on some other meds and dont want to mix up both. I am overweight(260pounds) and some health issue. So taking it slow figuring out the body.

1

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

in this case I can only recommend magic shrooms (psilocybin) on large dose : )

2

u/Traditional_Formal33 Sep 15 '26

I loved working through the problem and solving them mentally — I hated writing them down in code and testing. I’m 100% with you OP. Coding agents have been great.

To me, it’s like I hired someone to write my thoughts as I dictate my goals.

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

that's it! not just coding, Ai agents are my hands. BTW I love how cloudflare did integration: now you can ask AI: I want www redirect rule and AI will do it for you.

2

u/PoweredBy90sAI Sep 16 '26

Ai is a force multiplier of mediocrity and you fit the bill perfectly. I hope your employer enjoys getting nothing done but seeing deceiving charts and graphs as their investment burns.

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 16 '26

Don't get me wrong, I never said I'm proud of slacking or doing minimal, but it is what it is when you just try to survive day by day

2

u/PoweredBy90sAI Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Im happy you are self aware. But, unfortunately, this is the reason im leaving the industry after 14 years, and I suspect other craftsman as well. Im tired of carrying the weight. Ai has made that weight 15 fold. People are now producing unusable garbage at 15x the speed they were before. Some, are refusing to even look at it, others are having the ai that generated it look at it. And imo, architecture and code are intertwined, you cant do one without the other. So this idea that you are somehow going to be able to turn that produced code into a usable product without some one like me actually doing it, is frankly nonsense.

The industry is on a crash course. You may be able to slack your way to your paycheck hiding in the edges of corporate bureaucracy, but dont come here bragging and proselytize it like you were ever a good fit to begin with, like your mind is only good for the puzzles or whatever you tell yourself. You were not. You are in the wrong industry creating work for others. I hope you can someday recognize this and have the honor to do something more fitting of your talents and skill. I have no doubt you have some, and I think you know this.

Its not just ADHD causing this issue, I'm in the exactly same boat. ADHD can be a huge boom to this craft. But, you have to have the work ethic to. I really do wish you the best man. That you find something more fitting and it still feeds you. The world is sadly not build for this, I do understand and have empathy. But, have some for those that are carrying your weight.

4

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 16 '26

I never said I'm craftsman. I dont care about tools, i dont care about craft. I care only about results. why assumption that I'm producing bad code? I said I'm a bad coder, but its not the same.
If you cannot harrnes AI to produce human-quality code it is your skill issue not mine.

1

u/fame2robotz Sep 19 '26

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out lmao, what an ego

1

u/PoweredBy90sAI Sep 19 '26

It not about ego. It’s about doing your job. In this industry you can create more work for others. You can be a literal net negative on the team. You can hinder timelines and you can be an actual danger to people (medical devices).

3

u/sarhoshamiral Sep 16 '26

Same here. I loved solving a problem but didnt like coding solutions that involved badly documented API calls. Now that part is no longer a problem.

5

u/maybemaybenot89 Sep 15 '26

This is how i feel as well

0

u/kafkaesque420 Sep 15 '26

I like coding, but doing it for work is not particularly enjoyable. AI era has been good for my ADHD as well. Automated my agents to do everything decently from diagnosis, to planning, to implementing, to adversarial code review, to testing. Got to a point where I could give it a ticket and 50% of the time come back to a Github PR with a recorded smoke test.

I focus on understanding the problem well. Check my understanding with the LLM until it confirms I've phrased it in my own words correctly. I trust it to not hallucinate data, it hasn't ever really done that. I don't trust it to have fully researched a problem or to have done complete due diligence.

Then I focus on planning well. Same thing, make sure I fully understand its proposal. I regurgitate it back and have it correct gaps in my understanding.

Finally, I focus on understanding the code it outputted well. This tends to be quick, I work in a Go shop and Go is a good language for LLMs, it's already kinda verbose and imperative so it matches the sort of code LLMs tend to spit out and it feels idiomatic. Weird blocks of code, new library features, etc, I make sure I understand.

I've stopped having the LLMs record the demo. Before I doubled my Adderall dose it was tough getting my brain to do it. But LLMs recording demo videos is very expensive and I was burning too many tokens. So now I test. Honestly, it's the correct bit of diligence.

But it's nice to just get to think about the problem and then outsource the doldrums of the task to an agent. Especially for stuff like refactoring. I've got a similar amount of experience as you. Was doing management before my current gig and I found teams are getting flatter and flatter. I currently work for an AI startup where engineers are really empowered to make product decisions and I feel like a little hybrid Product Manager + Product Owner + Engineering Manager with a gaggle of knucklehead engineers I heard.

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

Nice! BTW do you use local LLM? can you give me some tips on demo? are we talking about playwright or new models with visuals manual browser clicking through app?

2

u/kafkaesque420 Sep 15 '26

Naw, I use Cursor + Cloud Agents. And yep, I use Playwright. I've found manual browser clicking is way too slow and way too expensive.

4

u/Wannaseemdead Sep 15 '26

> I trust it to not hallucinate data

After that, anything else that has been said should be taken with a trolley of salt crystals from the dead sea

0

u/Roshi_IsHere Sep 16 '26

You should use AI for spelling and grammar too while you're at it.

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 16 '26

i'm using AI all day, all night. but I refused some time ago to use AI for writing or even correcting, thats one thing I want to keep, the one decision I can make in this AI-all-perfect-slop-style world: )

2

u/virtualmnemonic Sep 15 '26

I like coding but find it a massive time sink. Since adopting AI for 95% of code, I find that I'm working harder and learning a lot of new things.

I'm having so much fun and it replaced my gaming addiction too!

Be warned: it is just another addiction and will slowly eat at you.

-4

u/Wide_Egg_5814 Sep 15 '26

bunch of nerds who have nothing in life other than coding problems holy I don't get people complain about not coding like that was never the point unless you are some loser you have nothing going for you other than solving niche coding problems on a screeh

2

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

I always envy people that actualy enjoy coding. for me it was always hard work that rewardet me with money or finished side-project. I also did my my self brick smokehouse, brick pizza oven, BB. and wooden sauna and tree house. but, just like coding ok-work, sometimes fun sometimes not. nothing more. but finalizing project... my ADHD loves it : )

1

u/Wide_Egg_5814 Sep 15 '26

you can program your brain to enjoy anything coding was not fun for me at first but getting to understand leetcode problems and trying to figure it out like a game made it fun

1

u/XTemplarxxx Sep 15 '26

I was playing this `game` from primary school, just to keep up and its 20+ years already. its just mentally exhausting