Implying you can control or induce these hyperfixations in a productive way is disingenuous at best, measurably harmful at worst.
If you work in a job that can use use the chaos in a productive way that's great, but I'm willing to bet you still face abnormally high difficulty with general life tasks, and consistently struggle to enforce a work/life balance.
You're not helping people with ADHD by posting this. You're establishing an unattainable standard for people that are already doing everything in their power just to get by.
It's also pretty cringe "mom says I'm a genius" shit
Pretending it doesnt have downsides is disingenuous.
This swerves way into "ADHD is a superpower" territory which is bullshit.
edit: For example, while I have a lot of these traits, I also can't remember to put a new trash bag in the trash bin when I take the full bag out to the garage, which is a 1 minute task. Despite reminding myself AS I'm removing the full bag. Twice a week. For years now. Because I will see something in the garage or think of something while doing the mundane task that completely derails my train of thought.
I do similar things when a task has two physically separate locations like taking out the trash.
While walking out with the trash I will repeat constantly "put in new bag" all the way to the garbage and all the way back, otherwise the task doesn't get completed.
if it's immediately rewarding
Hell of a caveat there.
Thinking about it, a manager who knows how to trick adhd workers to hyper focus on stuff could make a killer department 🤔
In my experience all it takes is a reasonable manager who can make progressive goals that are easily achievable which help build and develop a person while getting them engaged and acknowledging their hard work at each stage. It's much easier than tricking i feel
If more workplaces incorporated performance based snacks it wouldn't be!
Sure, if you want an even greater obesity epidemic.
Employers wants slaves and servants, not mentats. Yes, its fucked up
Where are these high functioning ADHD people? The adhd person I know I’m my life can’t really get things done in a reliable way.
Hello it's me, high functioning non medicated adhd (or some form of) person.
I do extremely well in my tech-centric job because of exactly what the post is talking about. I do fall short on longer term projects (forget about them until last minute) but most of my job is more in the moment, which works well for me and my skillset.
Edit: I guess that's ultimately the thing right, it's possible for the work or job to fit with an ADHD mind, but many jobs do not.
This description sounds extremely hirable. I’ll take 5 please.
That's a great way to put a positive spin on it, but be realistic. ADHD is not a super power, it's not all sunshine and roses, it is a disorder. You can sometimes harness parts of it for positive outcomes but it has a lot of negative results too.
Another thing to remember: your ADHD is not everybody's ADHD. Some people have less severe cases, others have more severe cases.
For every time you can hyperfocus on work, imagine every time you've hyperfocused on ants walking by, or a speck of dust, or literally anything other than what you actually need to do.
What do you mean? I'm totally supposed to be on Lemmy instead of working ...
That's called practice.
All totally true! It’s definitely not great, but I try to find the silver linings rather than beat myself up about the hard parts. Good point about my ADHD being different than others’
Honestly as a guy with ADHD in a small company this really is a gift
I am also pretty hyper-social nowadays
ADHD, great for exploring, hunting and making it back home. Not so great for cubicle work…
I've made it work surprisingly well in software development - I work in the architecture field and as long as I'm truly diligent about note taking (or am lucky enough to have a trusted coworker to lean on) I'm able to make it work.
Also, micromanagers are your fucking bane if you have ADHD - sometimes I'm not working, I accept that and do house shit when I can't focus... I still produce more output than most of my coworkers but I absolutely do need full brain breaks.
I cannot read this sentence. I have tried 3 times but nothing is reaching my brain.
It's definitely too long of a sentence just to say 'ADHD is a superpower and society is bad.'
Maybe it's time to put on some tunes and take a brain break.
Me nodding in somber agreement. And yet, at the same time, also reaching for the trap-door lever. you tried and that's what matters.
But what can you actually DO?
Anything that is more about talking to different parties rather than documenting and being the one to deliver. the more specialised people the better you connect, the bwtter. They will love your ability to see the patterns of the work place, your helicopter perspective. That will help them to test their ideas, to understand the concepts and what their task is all about. They will also love that you will not micro manage (as long as you dont end up hyperfocusing on their topic) and let them do their thing.
Don't be the specialist. Don't be the one that tries to have an eye on all the details, all the numbers. I tried to be an accountant for a while...
Also I can see this being useful in startups, right?
Ooh this is good. Yes I can see my ability to absorb wikipedia coming in useful here.
How do you think I should prepare myself for a role like this qualification-wise? I'm interested in STEM but the thought of picking one niche (say, chemical engineering) and devoting myself to it really hurts.
I was gonna ask this too. I've heard that some employers in the UK (perhaps in the Netherlands too) are actually explicitly asking for ND people in their job listings.
But you don't understand, Mr... Sandbag Tiara, was it? Can I call you Sandbag?
Sandbag, what we're really looking for in this position is someone who's really a people person, you know? Somebody who's a team player, ready to go the extra mile, fit in with our company culture because we're a """""family""""" here. Really shine in our three pointless but mandatory department-wide meetings per day, smile on demand, have a very firm handshake, and really help us close those KPI numbers.
The job in question is a backend software dev position, where the employee will theoretically never have to interact with anyone except their immediate boss, and has no reason whatsoever to emerge from their dungeon. But never mind that.
Software development is very collaborative and often involves daily and/or weekly meetings and frequent calls with coworkers.
I develop software for a huge company that everyone has heard of, and work by myself on my own projects with no collaboration required and incredibly small amount of oversight. I get to do it my way. Living the dream.
Many of my friends work in the scenario you described and do not like the whole collaboration thing!
The
childrenIT professionals yearn for theminesbasement... the cool, dark basement with soft lighting...makes me want to break out the old suspenders and palm pilot.
Are there things we can do to take advantage of this? Even on my meds I struggle to write my documentation, but the initial period of trying to find a solution and making a working POC is so great
Spend weeks automating your documentation
You will surely not regret spending that much time on something that probably wont be used
Assign it as a research collection task to a junior dev and forget to follow up.
(Fr tho, auto doc frameworks and related instrumentation are easily worth weeks. I will fight your manager.)
Those traits gave me two things in my IT contracting career, the ability to roll into a new position at the same contractor so I didn't have to job hunt, and the contractor wanting nothing to do with bringing me in as a full time employee. I saw it as a win/win
Pharmaceutical companies gotta $$$$$.
50% done work kills team productivity. Having to micro manage sucks for everyone involved.
These are challenges that must be addressed in most roles.
It's kinda both
