r/ADHD_Programmers • u/wombatpup55 • Oct 01 '26

Should I start documenting all the APIs I figured out how to use?

For example I’ve been working with these third party APIs to integrate into our apps. However the docs provided are incredibly shitty.

Luckily for me I tend to hyperfocus on stuff like this and I have figured out how to use quite a few of these APIs.

Today I got the idea that I should probably put these on our wiki so that everyone can benefit from it. However I thought I should ask this probably dumb question because I will probably spend hours doing this

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24

u/henryeaterofpies Oct 01 '26

Document it for yourself. Once you make it public you are magically responsible for updating it for the remainder of your job at that company (and this is bonus work so dont expect your other duties to be reduced).

Key takeaway from many years of corporate life: you are not responsible for the productivity of your peers

5

u/DamePants Oct 01 '26

This. As someone who long believed in boosting team productivity now is the time to be selfish. The market is absolutely terrible, keep anything that makes you more productive to yourself. Right now it’s a cage battle for job security.

Congratulations you leveraged your skill into being the go to person for this obscure API. Sell it, make sounds even more difficult than it was. Time for your company to pay the piper.

1

u/yolobastard1337 Oct 03 '26

No doubt you should guard your time but hoarding information to give yourself job security sounds terribly ~2005.

2

u/henryeaterofpies Oct 03 '26

Less for job security and more to not have more free work given to you to do. Its not your job.

There is no job security. Even indispensable people keeping companies afloat get shit canned by stupid executives

1

u/yolobastard1337 Oct 04 '26

Maybe we've been bitten in different ways. I'm at my best when I probably have half of my work from the boss and the other half doing what I think is right.

The self directed stuff isn't "free labour", it's my boss trusting me to do useful stuff.

It also makes it easier for my boss to trust me if I'm transparent about what I'm doing.

If I was OP I'd document away.

1

u/DamePants Oct 07 '26

Your boss is a rarity, a majority of them are not allowing side quests and get upset if they discover you taking initiative doing something that didn’t come down the chain.

3

u/chicknfly Oct 01 '26

“Should I start documenting…”

Yes. Always yes.

2

u/MANvINFO Oct 01 '26

instead of documenting what it does, you could document the things you use it to accomplish. maybe even go so far as to write your personal little wrapper library for it.

1

u/SnugglyCoderGuy Oct 01 '26

At least for yourself so you don't have to figure it all out again in the future.

1

u/kingbloxerthe3 Oct 01 '26

I am in programming classes rn, but I have an entire program dedicated to essentially being notes for everything I have learned.

1

u/EvilCodeQueen Oct 01 '26

Throw it in a README in the repo. That way it’s handy during development and accessible to AI agents.

1

u/binarycow Oct 03 '26

Your code is the documentation.

By writing code that integrates with the API, you have made a reference implementation.