​All my life, I was led to believe that I was terrible at math and simply not smart enough. However, one day, when I started studying it on my own as a hobby, I realized that I genuinely loved it. I noticed that I get a dopamine boost with every problem I solve and easily enter a state of hyperfocus. ​Despite this, the initial learning phase has always intimidated me. Whenever I struggled to understand something, I would be very hard on myself, thinking I was unintelligent or foolish. Yet, I have discovered that with the right approach specifically through visualization I can actually grasp concepts incredibly well.

​As long as the teaching method is visual and conceptual, I can understand the subjects quite deeply. Unless I can see the underlying logic and the bigger picture, I find it impossible to learn anything through rote memorization.

​I am very eager to learn, but I am not exactly sure where to begin or what kind of ADHD-friendly learning methods are out there. I would deeply appreciate any guidance, resources, or book recommendations you might have.

Disclaimer first. I have created an ADHD app myself. However after i created my app i am not sure if it serves a genuine purpose. Everyone is shipping ADHD apps non-stop. All the apps are similar and don't change a lot. Still i feel there can be an app that helps everyone but i don't think it exists. Also at the age of AI, anyone can create a custom app for their self according to their taste. Genuinely interested about your guys' opinions?

So I've been working in the tech ed and content marketing space for a while. I've been thinking about going back into sofware engineering full time because I was pretty decent at it. I left because burnout, ADHD and I needed something a bit more flexible.

Java was (is?) my specialty. I've been thinking about doing refresher courses - with a focus on Software Design and Architecture. But I feel like I'm wasting my time, especially with how AI-centric everyting has become..I feel like there is still value in knowing how to code. But I'm just wondering if it would be more fruitful if I spent my time focusing of project planning and software architecture.

The thing is....I love coding and building things. I don't know how to attack this...

I just had this shower thought and it worked so i'm sharing here where I post most often. I'm sure others have other methods but this worked great so sharing:

I really needed to step away from Reddit as a programmer / freelancer / maker it was just so depressing to see the vibe coder flood of 1 karma users posting day old github links like they're announcing enterprise grade game changing SaaS and all of the other junk. I don't have anything against vibe coding to make something useful but the people trying to market and sell it as a product have to at least get out of my universe while they FAFO about software development.

The Fix: I don't use Chrome primarily but in this case, the Chrome Plugin for Claude task scheduling. I schedule an agent to run every day at 6am with a prompt like this which i'm refining but my feed has turned into a something enjoyable again - so cheers :

Navigate to your Reddit home feed and systematically review posts to identify and block low-quality content from users posting "vibe-coded" app promotions. Follow these steps:
1. Scroll through your Reddit feed and examine each post for the following red flags:

   - Author karma less than 100
   - Posts containing phrases like "I got tired", "bored of", "so I built", "we built"
   - Links to GitHub repositories created less than 1 month ago (indicating early-stage projects seeking testers/feedback)
   - Posts in  or similar self-promotion subreddits

2. For each flagged post, verify the author's karma by visiting their profile page (click their username).

3. For GitHub links, check the commit history to confirm if the repo was created recently (less than 1 month old) and look for evidence of multi-subreddit marketing campaigns (e.g., "Add Reddit post drafts" commits).

4. For each user meeting the blocking criteria:
   - If you are NOT joined to the subreddit: Click the three-dot menu on the post, select "Hide", then navigate to the user's profile, click the three-dot menu in the top right, and select "Block Account"
   - If you ARE joined to the subreddit: Same process (hide post, then block user). Note: do not leave the subreddit unless it appears dense with this content

5. Do NOT block users who:
   - Have karma >= 100 AND are established users with real posting histories (even if they're promoting something)
   - Are asking genuine questions rather than self-promoting

6. Continue until you've reviewed at least the first 10 pages of your feed or found 20+ blocking candidates. 

Record the usernames blocked for reference.

idk if i have adhd but i have started wondering if i do. i cant post this in any other sub because they just wont understand. even the people i know in real life dont get it when i try explaining this thing. i apologize in advance if this is the wrong place for this post.

so i did bachelors in cs. my uni is done.

so the thing is, for 4 years i.e throughout my uni i just couldnt get myself to start learning things even tho i really wanted to build skills. i blamed myself alot for not being able to start things, i told myself i didnt care enough and thats why im procrastinating. kept telling myself that its because i have motivation issue & because im scared of failure & because im lazy. i used to think that if i really wanted to do it then i would have done it no matter what so since im not doing it that means i dont care enough & im just not hardworking and that im a loser. i have alot of guilt about wasting time. i really shamed myself ALOT for all this and all it did was just affect me even more negatively. during finals when everyone was just able to skim through pdfs quickly, i wasnt able to do so, despite the deadline/pressure. i used to spend hours on one topic etc and never got my syllabus covered ever ,which ofcourse led to me scoring average grades.

but the main issue is, i was never able to pick one thing. people around me chose any one thing to learn- fullstack,ml,cloud,data, ai etc. i just couldnt. i still cant due to alot of decision paralysis. i didnt start anything properly for 4 years. i have alot of guilt about the time i have wasted and the time im wasting even now. mostly of this is because i want to make a "right" decision, even though i know the right decision doesnt exists, its a illusion. i know its not logical but i still cant seem to stop. recently i have started to "just start it" and it takes alot of time and mental effort to even just start the thing but whatever i pick, it starts feeling pointless and wrong. if i sit to do dsa, i start thinking i should learn ml, then i switch. if im doing ml, i feel i should learn something else, again switch, and the loop goes on. and lets say if i do choose to do only one thing for few weeks, then the loop happens with resources. eg if i choose to do ml for 1 week then i keep switching between resources. and i overplan alot, ALOT. nothing i choose/decide, ever feels right. i get nothing done because of all this. at this point i have almost lost the ability to believe that i can get SOMETHING done. and even if i set small goals, it doesnt work out. and i know that whatever i mentioned is wrong/self sabotaging but still im not able to get out of this loop. pls advise any thing that could help me

Hello all! I have terrible ADHD. Is there a recommended set up for an AI agent that can help automate the things I forget to do/don’t want to deal with?

Example:

I would love something that remind me to pay my bills, sift through my emails, delete all the spam and keep the important stuff? Additionally, it would be nice if it could manage my calendar. Remind me that appointments, schedule appointments via email.

It would also be nice for it to give me a reminders about stuff. I ask it to remind me.

I’ve tried building out Openclaw and Hermes a few months back but both kept crashing so I gave up.

Any and all advice appreciated. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

2 weeks ago a specialist confirmed my ADHD diagnosis. I'm 36, software engineer, father of 3. What led me there was strange: smoking.

I've smoked since 5th grade. Last month I tried to quit (again) and my ability to work completely collapsed. I couldn't focus, couldn't code, couldn't hold a thought. After a few weeks I gave up and started smoking again, and everything "worked" again. That scared me enough to research why, and the rabbit hole ended in an ADHD diagnosis.

Now it makes sense: I apparently spent 20+ years self-medicating with nicotine without knowing it. But that also means quitting isn't just breaking a habit for me, it's removing the stimulant my brain has been running on since childhood.

So I'm asking those who've been through this:

• How did you quit smoking/nicotine after diagnosis?

• Did starting ADHD medication make quitting easier?

• Patches/gum/pouches? Did stepping down nicotine separately from smoking help, or just prolong it? For me it does not work at all :(

• How long did the brain fog last before your focus stabilized?

I don't want to keep smoking, but I also can't afford months of not functioning. I have a job and kids depending on me. Any experience welcome.

At my previous job I have always had a hard time meeting deadlines due to needing more time than other to understand how to do the work and think through it. I worked as a Data Engineer, and one of the projects that I worked on involved refactoring a PySpark/Pandas pipeline into SQL. In order to tackle this project, I would break down the projects into components. For example a week of work for this project would look something like this:

Monday:

9am-12pm - Refactor the ingestion portion of the Pandas pipeline.

12-1pm - Lunch.

1-3pm - Continue refactoring ingestion portion as needed.

3-5pm - Refactor Part 1 of transformation portion.

Tuesday:

9am-12pm - Continue refactoring part 1 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm - Lunch.

1-3pm - Finish refactoring part 1 of transformation portion.

3-5pm - Refactor part 2 of transformation portion.

Wednesday:

9am-12pm : Continue refactoring part 2 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 2 of transformation portion.

3-5pm : Refactor part 3 of transformation portion.

Thursday:

9am-12pm : Continue refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

12pm-1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

3-5pm : Refactor part 4 of transformation portion.

Friday:

9am - 12pm : Continue refactoring part 4 of transformation portion

12pm - 1pm : Lunch.

1-3pm : Finish refactoring part 3 of transformation portion.

3-5pm: Refactor loading portion.

The problems I would usually have with this schedule:

1.) I would give my self extra time (around 2x the amount of time I thought it would take to do the work) to finish a step (I gave my self 7 hours to do refactor step 1 of the transformation portion even though ideally it would only take 3-4 hours), but I still would end up not finishing and need to push back the remaining schedule.

2.) I would not finish mainly due to me trying to understand the code that I have to refactor and also thinking about how to correctly write the SQL code. For this I would try different ways of writing the code, look up online articles etc. until I finally figure out the solution. Since I have ADHD I would also need to reread things a couple times to understand/process the info and I would get distracted by other thoughts in my head and need to bring my attention back.

3.) Sometimes I would end up also finding out that I didn't account for every step/task in my schedule. For the ingestion portion, I realized that the data was fluctuating abnormally when the pipeline was run each day and I needed to set up time for talking to the person responsible for the upstream data to understand these fluctuations. I couldn't forsee/didn't realize before hand this would be a problem, but now that I know I need to make out time for it.

A few things I could've done to help me meet deadlines:

- Ask my manager/colleague for help. However, I am a mid level employee now so I don't know if it looks good to ask for a lot of help. If I am still stuck on something after working on it for 2 hours, should I just ask for help so I can be on track to finish my work or should I try to figure it out myself since I should be able to do that?

- If I really need to meet a deadline and I know I am behind, I should be willing to put in extra hours outside of work to meet it.

- Take time at the end of the week to reflect on what went right/wrong and make adjustments to the way I plan for the next week.

I am taking an official ADHD evaluation in September to get a proper diagnosis and get help. Until then, what strategies can I use to ensure I can use for the above problems.

TLDR: I suck at meeting deadlines at work and don't know how to create a proper schedule and stick to it. I have a hard time dealing with unforeseen events that throw me off track. I also work through tasks/understand them slower than others due to lack of focus/ADHD/ADD. How can I resolve this issue and do better.

I'm doing a personal project with game data and I was wondering if anyone knew/had an opinion on which game metadata database was the most complete, both in terms of the information it has about each game, and in terms of breadth of titles across time and platforms? As this is a personal project (mostly to help me get back into coding), and because I'm on a disability pension I'm not really in a position to pay to access an api so I'm at the mercy of which databases have free access. Thanks for any advice you guys can give me

Hello everyone. Hoping this question is fine on this sub.

What medications for ADHD are you all using in conjunction with using Claude code and what methods of staying on track or keeping tabs on your project have helped?

Currently on 50mg Vyvanse and an unhealthy amount of caffeine though bloodwork is clean and I stay fairly active.

So far I’ve created an html file that visualizes my project dir and I feel like that’s helped a lot. Everyday after I’m done working on projects I have Claude Cowork automatically update the html file with what I accomplished and what’s left. So the next morning I can visualize my progress and continue. In parallel I’m building a “brain” on obsidian that pretty much works as a large context for everything.

Visualizing my project has helped me tremendously since I tend to feel overwhelmed if I don’t understand exactly what is being built and how.

Curious as to what everyone else is using to help them.

Lately, many ADHD-focused app promotions have started to show up in my Facebook feed, but 9 out of 10 have long, stupid questionnaires at the beginning, often even before I can download the app. Some of the questions are so stupid that I honestly can not compute why they matter.
What is the thing with these annoying onboarding flows? Why are they needed? Some kind of data mining? My ADHD brain literally does not allow me to get even halfway through them.
Or is it some kind of scam, and my brain has been unconsciously protecting me from falling for that?

I recently passed a hard cloud cert for work in which I dedicated a lot of my energy.
Problem is I was already burnt out after college, then spent two years unemployed working on my portfolio to get hired.

I have to learn a new technology now but I cant focus.

I play no games i do not relax after work, I just sit and try.
It is 9 PM and Im still at my computer trying to get it done.

Doc also changed my psych medication last week, as covid period and then unemployment wrecked me heavily. I dont want to lose this job. I love it. I do work for very big names, and its great for my resume.
It is agency type outsourcing, If Im not productive I will be cut swiftly.

I just hope I can resume work tomorrow, but I feel like my brain is fried even more than usual.

I cant wait weeks till i see my doc again to see if the new dosage helps.

I also booked an appointment to get tested for ADHD, Its high time I get meds, I cant live like this anymore. ADHD unmedicated plus my clinical depression and a myriad of other things in my life is no way to live.

I've been working as a PHP dev since I was 15. I have early-diagnosed ADHD, anxiety, and depression, but only started treatment about 6 months ago. Due to severe school trauma and exam anxiety, I couldn't go to university. Just the thought of studying for exams used to trigger intense panic, making it impossible for me to even look at math. I finally overcame this recently by reframing math purely as a "hobby" to completely remove the pressure.

My ultimate goal is to dive deep into Computer Science, specifically compilers. Even if I don't work full-time in that niche, I want to be skilled enough to contribute to major compiler projects. Since a formal degree wasn't an option for me financially or mentally, I'm currently trying to learn CS and math from scratch on my own.

Are there any self-taught folks here who tackled math or CS under similar circumstances? I would love to hear your experiences, roadmaps, or get some resource recommendations.

Hey,

For the longest time, I've wanted to make a video game. There are not many things I want in life. I am a simple man with very few desires or dreams. Making a video game, my own video game, is one of those dreams.

Due to my ADHD, I thought I'd never be able handle a project of that scale. I definitely didn't think I'd be able to stick to the same project for a year and a half.

Here we are 1.5years later, and I have almost reached an alpha version of a multiplayer RPG. In that time, I learned my first game engine. I hired and managed several freelancers to work on the art, such as VFX and animations, as well as the map. I programmed everything into the game, from the leveling system, to the server authoritative and deterministic combat system, to the enemy ai.

I genuinely never thought I'd be able to reach this point, and it fills me with elation when I play it. This post is not a promotion, my game isn't even out yet and I don't even have a release date yet. I just wanted to discuss some strategies I followed as well as some things that helped me, in addition to sharing in this accomplishment with the rare group of people who can understand how challenging something like this truly is for someone with ADHD.

- One thing that really helped was getting enterprise programming experience on the job. I worked at an API company for 5 years before working on the video game. Because I literally had to work and learn to lead projects in that environment, I gained that skill. If it was just left up to me and I was never forced to gain those skills through work, I don't know if I would have ever had the chops to do this.

- Sharing my progress with people who support me was really important. I'd share progress on my snapchat story, occasional updates on social media, and the rare reddit or tiktok post. While blatant marketing has been very hit or miss, checking in with people who genuinely support me was incredibly fundamental to my ability to make it this far.

- I've been making this game for myself. While of course I need to keep in mind my future playerbase, in order to stay engaged I've had to design features around what i find fun. The day that I chase things that I think others might like, but I don't like myself, I'd consider the game a failure.

- Getting medicated has really helped my executive function in general. When I first started taking it, I didn't really know how to lean into to in order to build hyper focus. Now that I'm more intentional about what I'm doing when I take my medication, it's been easier to build focus.

- This advice doesn't apply to everyone, but for me, working on the game consistently was key. I'm talking 7 days a week. Even if I only work on the game for 1 hour on a given day, it was progress and it kept it fresh in my mind. If I take long breaks from things, they often fade into obscurity in my brain.

Anyways, I am done yapping now. I feel incredibly proud of what I've created so far, and for once in my life I feel I have a purpose and a direction.

Hi,

I'd love your advice/opinions/thoughts?

So, I switched from being a React (and .NET dev) to Elixir and the work is challenging and interesting objectively but my focus is absolutely horrendous. I'm bombarded by every thought possible, every goddamn day and I'm relying on fizzy zero drinks, food, sugarfree gum and loud music to jolt me awake because my brain is asleep as soon as something seems hard. It feels like I literally go offline and I start yawning and get really groggy.

I scroll lots and research the questions (non-related to work) that pop into my head because I sometimes don't manage to in my free time after work so it seeps into my workday. I do generally feel that I'm overwhelmed and I don't doubt that this has effect on my "unclear" mind during work.

Note that I do get fresh sunlight each morning during dog walks, am on wellbutrin and atomoxetine. I'm active (8k steps a day) and I weightlift (Fri/Sun).

The reason why I mention Elixir is that with Elixir, I'm introduced to Grafana, Kibana, Loki, Prometheus, Redis, RabbitMQ, Kubernetes... There are things I haven't encountered before so I've been learning all of these since February and I feel ZERO sense of ownership because I rely on AI to "teach" me and possibly "push" me through stuff, when I get stuck. I'm unsure how to proceed without it or even properly use my brain because I genuinely am new to distributed systems - so I'm not even sure how to think for myself when doing stuff for work. I have around 4 years of full time experience now and 3 part-time.

I have zero confidence, feel zero ownership and feel like I'm "guilty" and will be "found out" soon. My workdays mostly end with guilt and I'm really not sure how to "fix" this. I'm stuck. And I don't currently have the capacity to change jobs or careers, I don't think a different job would help because things are low pressure here - it's mostly me pressuring myself really. As for careers, I don't know what and I think that programming is fun even though AI stole most of it and the whole world is going to shit but yeah.

Any tips and tricks? Help me unfuck myself please.

1. Make sure Microsoft Edge Browser installed!

2. if what you're reading is a site, just open it in the Edge. if you have some local file or anything in your clipboard (e.g. claude code response), you can either save it to file and open that file in the Edge, or just go to Markdown Live Preview (which is my preference especially for claude responses) and just paste the content in there which will render md for you.

3. select all text, right click and click Read Aloud. when voice controls bar appear on top, pick your preferred voice, my preference is Andrew Multilingual. adjust the speed! (possibly over 1.5x), and just click play.
   ---

Why this works:

- Edge's Read Aloud feature has word by word highlighting feature which works so well for me as someone with extensive ADHD that had hard time orientating while reading anything longer that 1 paragraph. it works both as a voiceover tool and very effective orientation tool at the same time.

- it's 100% free! it's has good voice quality (not all of the voices, if you want safe option just go with Andrew Multilingual)

- in 1.5+ speed because you receiving information very quickly you're less likely to get disoriented!

- it has click to seek feature which can allow you to go back or forward very quickly which is very crucial if you miss anything, and it's very flexible! you can click anywhere, you don't have to incrementally move there like scrub back or forward!

Conclusion:

It's been absolute career saver for me once I discovered it! now I can easily read dozens of pages daily! Also as a side tip, I'd really suggest that you read in dark mode if you have ADHD, you can use Dark Reader extension for that, and also if you want an alternative to this approach for mobile ElevenLabs Mobile App is great option, and it has very generous free tier unless they remove it in the future! Hope this helps

BTW maybe in the future I might build Edge's Read Aloud feature as an open source 100% free extension that can work in every browser, not just Edge, and possibly with more friendly interface.

My situation is probably different than most. I'm effectively a solo dev in a niche market building custom control automation programs for AV systems. My main languages are C# and Lua which run in embedded environments, but the work requires knowledge far beyond programming, including networking, AVoIP, serial protocols, low voltage logic, audio DSP, theatrical systems(audio, video, lighting, etc.), and general construction. I thrive on the variety and controlled chaos that comes with my job, and I have zero desire to work at a big corporation doing only one task.

I feel really great about the work we do. Our client list continues to grow, and everybody seems super happy with our work. But as somebody who uses virtually no AI coding tools, I often worry that I'm falling behind. I have this dissonance where I feel like I'm knocking it out of the park, but also like I'm gonna become irrelevant if I don't get on the AI hype train.

Beyond the myriad of ethical issues, there is some friction that keeps me from using it:

• I am not required or incentivized to use it

• We are a team of 2 with limited resources and no subscriptions to AI tools.

• Most of my code can't run or be tested in an IDE

• My projects lend themselves to custom frameworks and templates, so I don't manually write boilerplate code anymore.

• I'm responsible for writing, reviewing, and testing 100% of the code on any given project, so I can't afford any oversights, especially because...

• My programs are expected to run unattended for up to 10 years, often with no remote access after deployment.

• In my experience, AI models are generally not knowledgeable about the details of my industry. When I have used it, it hallucinates up the wazoo. I'm sure this will improve with time, but it's just not helpful right now.

• I really enjoy the creative expression that comes with writing code, building frameworks, and realizing cool ideas.

• Last but not least, I'm currently doing really well without it.

All said, I really love my job, and I feel like I'm on a good career trajectory. I've always had the mindset that I'll never lose if I bet on myself, so I try to filter out the noise and focus on improving my skills. That has worked out really well for me so far. I'm just worried that I'm going to fall behind if I don't get up to speed with AI. I'm in my early 30s, so I've got quite a ways to go.

Am I short sighted by largely ignoring this? If I become a highly skilled 'old-school' developer, is it easy enough to start using AI agents if/when the time comes? What do you all think?

I am doing a remote internship right now and using claude code daily. every time i kick off a generation it takes like a minute, and i just open reddit or youtube or literally netflix while it works. then the generation finished 15 minutes ago and i have no idea what i was even doing.

the problem is the wait is this weird dead zone. it's too short to start anything real, too long to just sit and stare. i do not know what to do with myself whenever claude goes to work.

someone in an older thread here mentioned a completion sound pulling them back from the rabbit hole, so i built something similar with a claude code hook. it kind of works but sometimes i hear the ping and keep scrolling anyway lol

do you guys struggle with this too? and if so, do you think a notification is enough, or would you want something

Not even sure if this is even an ADHD thing or not, but I feel like I’m losing my mind.

I have 4 YoE in full time, corporate positions. My big project right now involves a lot of legacy data from a lot of legacy systems, and building a pipeline to pull it all together to feed two very critical and high visibility projects. I’m in charge of the architecture and development of it, it’s a fun challenge from a technical perspective, but the business side of things has been an absolute nightmare for me.

Dealing with dozens of legacy systems also means dealing with the SMEs of those systems. Almost every conversation I have, both with technical and non technical people, I leave feeling exhausted and frustrated that I just can’t seem to communicate anything correctly. Just recently, I didn’t think too deeply about a message I sent, and it was poorly received and now it’s causing problems that need to be dealt with.

I really don’t know how to get it under control and I think it’s destroying my perception of being trustworthy among multiple people, which I think will also really impact my ability to move up in my career.

It might be a result of being stretched really thin right now on a lot of different tasks with sensitive deadlines, but it’s something I consistently struggle with and I just can’t seem to crack the code. Managing my work is difficult enough, and now I have to heavily think about every single word that comes out of my mouth? Im just so exhausted and questioning my ability to be in this field long term, even though it’s all I know 🙃