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I think Slack is a silent killer of productivity, and terrible for an ADHD brain: You're either "engaged" and "available" (meaning you respond to messages in s

I think Slack is a silent killer of productivity, and terrible for an ADHD brain: You're either "engaged" and "available" (meaning you respond to messages in semi-real-time, pretty much nixing your ability to do deep work) or you feel like you're missing a lot of conversation that's going on behind your back, because you're heads down with Slack closed. Slack is good for (shitty) managers of remote teams, because you can see who's "in the office", and randomly ping people when your lack of planning skills means that you are working on something that you forgot to get an answer for in a deliberate way (instead of buzzing by their cube as you used to do)...but for developers I think it's a poor bargain. There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters.

throwoutway 3y ago
I was thinking of this in bed last night. I could focus more using our terrible messaging system prior to Slack. And there was less banter, pessimism, pile ons, etc that now show up in threads. Sometimes I regret replying in a thread when it goes 50+ messages deep and you get pinged on it each one unless you mute
- andrew-dc 3y ago
  Just wanted to say how much thinking I get done as soon as I lie down in bed with the lights out. Of course, Sometimes, this goes off the rails, and I can't sleep. But generally it is a testament to having little to no sensory input, (in the dark, lying in bed) to be free to think clearly. ;)
  - hirvi74 3y ago
    A psychiatrist I love to listen to on YouTube, Dr. K, says that what you are explaining is caused by not giving the brain enough rest time (overstimulation). He says rest time is necessary for the brain the kind of sort through/debug things. Much like sleep, if you go without for long enough, you will randomly start sleeping whenever you get the chance. So, when your brain is constantly "on" and your brain finally gets a chance to calm down, it will start running through all the shit that was blocked out due to being overstimulated.
- hughesjj 3y ago
  I only get pings for direct @'ing, is this not the norm or are people acting you regardless?
  - throwoutway 3y ago
    If you reply on a Slack thread, then every reply on that thread pings you
rlemaitre 3y ago
Hi, author here, You're right, but unfortunately, when your company uses it and teams are distributed, you don't have the choice, and you have to find some tricks to accommodate.
- vorticalbox 3y ago
  I disable the `pop up` notification and just let the counter in Ubuntu dock tick up. This lets me see that there is a message without the distracting words in my face.
skywhopper 3y ago
While I know it's different for everyone and every workplace, I think Slack can be both good and bad for ADHD! For me, while the distractions of Slack can be a problem, just as often my issue is less distraction than just needing an external motivator to get started. In that case, a sudden DM asking for an update or a request for help in a public channel may be the only way I ever get started actually working. (Obviously, this works best if your job is more about helping others in general than about getting specific tasks done.)
rchaud 3y ago
> There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters. And devs will just set up a Slack bot to send an automated ping each time a task status changes in those tools.
WendyTheWillow 3y ago
I really don’t see what is specific about Slack that makes it uniquely worse for ADHD sufferers. Every tool that is built for async communication will have the problems you listed.
- pseudalopex 3y ago
  You meant sync? Email doesn't have presence indication. Few people expect near real time responses to GitHub discussions.
  - WendyTheWillow 3y ago
    No I mean async. Slack is async. A phone call/Zoom call/in person conversation is sync. Presence indicators are irrelevant and trivially defeated. Besides, what part of ADHD makes you unable to be generally "around"? Not aware of an ADHD symptom that makes it difficult to literally be on a computer at all... People's expectations that you respond instantly have nothing to do with which app you use. They'll expect that via email if that's your work's culture.
    - pseudalopex 3y ago
      > Slack is async. A phone call/Zoom call/in person conversation is sync. Chat clients and Slack specifically are designed for sync primarily. GitHub discussions and email are wholly async. Basecamp has a chat feature not chat focus. I don't know Twist. > Presence indicators are irrelevant and trivially defeated. Presence indicators were relevant in the 1st comment. And what would victory be in this context? > Besides, what part of ADHD makes you unable to be generally "around"? Not aware of an ADHD symptom that makes it difficult to literally be on a computer at all... No one said anything like this. > People's expectations that you respond instantly have nothing to do with which app you use. They'll expect that via email if that's your work's culture. You said instantly. Not me or the person who wrote the 1st comment. I believe data I saw over your assertion. Nearly 2 in 3 people in very different companies said expectations changed soon after their company or team started to use chat software. This excluded companies where near real time responses were expected already. Our tools shape us is a well known observation. And that was not even the type of expectation I meant. The 1st comment talked about missing conversation while focused on tasks. This leads to being left out of decisions and so on.

throwoutway 3y ago

I was thinking of this in bed last night. I could focus more using our terrible messaging system prior to Slack. And there was less banter, pessimism, pile ons, etc that now show up in threads. Sometimes I regret replying in a thread when it goes 50+ messages deep and you get pinged on it each one unless you mute

andrew-dc 3y ago
Just wanted to say how much thinking I get done as soon as I lie down in bed with the lights out. Of course, Sometimes, this goes off the rails, and I can't sleep. But generally it is a testament to having little to no sensory input, (in the dark, lying in bed) to be free to think clearly. ;)
- hirvi74 3y ago
  A psychiatrist I love to listen to on YouTube, Dr. K, says that what you are explaining is caused by not giving the brain enough rest time (overstimulation). He says rest time is necessary for the brain the kind of sort through/debug things. Much like sleep, if you go without for long enough, you will randomly start sleeping whenever you get the chance. So, when your brain is constantly "on" and your brain finally gets a chance to calm down, it will start running through all the shit that was blocked out due to being overstimulated.
hughesjj 3y ago
I only get pings for direct @'ing, is this not the norm or are people acting you regardless?
- throwoutway 3y ago
  If you reply on a Slack thread, then every reply on that thread pings you

rlemaitre 3y ago

Hi, author here, You're right, but unfortunately, when your company uses it and teams are distributed, you don't have the choice, and you have to find some tricks to accommodate.

vorticalbox 3y ago
I disable the `pop up` notification and just let the counter in Ubuntu dock tick up. This lets me see that there is a message without the distracting words in my face.

skywhopper 3y ago

While I know it's different for everyone and every workplace, I think Slack can be both good and bad for ADHD! For me, while the distractions of Slack can be a problem, just as often my issue is less distraction than just needing an external motivator to get started. In that case, a sudden DM asking for an update or a request for help in a public channel may be the only way I ever get started actually working. (Obviously, this works best if your job is more about helping others in general than about getting specific tasks done.)

rchaud 3y ago

> There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters. And devs will just set up a Slack bot to send an automated ping each time a task status changes in those tools.

WendyTheWillow 3y ago

I really don’t see what is specific about Slack that makes it uniquely worse for ADHD sufferers. Every tool that is built for async communication will have the problems you listed.

pseudalopex 3y ago
You meant sync? Email doesn't have presence indication. Few people expect near real time responses to GitHub discussions.
- WendyTheWillow 3y ago
  No I mean async. Slack is async. A phone call/Zoom call/in person conversation is sync. Presence indicators are irrelevant and trivially defeated. Besides, what part of ADHD makes you unable to be generally "around"? Not aware of an ADHD symptom that makes it difficult to literally be on a computer at all... People's expectations that you respond instantly have nothing to do with which app you use. They'll expect that via email if that's your work's culture.
  - pseudalopex 3y ago
    > Slack is async. A phone call/Zoom call/in person conversation is sync. Chat clients and Slack specifically are designed for sync primarily. GitHub discussions and email are wholly async. Basecamp has a chat feature not chat focus. I don't know Twist. > Presence indicators are irrelevant and trivially defeated. Presence indicators were relevant in the 1st comment. And what would victory be in this context? > Besides, what part of ADHD makes you unable to be generally "around"? Not aware of an ADHD symptom that makes it difficult to literally be on a computer at all... No one said anything like this. > People's expectations that you respond instantly have nothing to do with which app you use. They'll expect that via email if that's your work's culture. You said instantly. Not me or the person who wrote the 1st comment. I believe data I saw over your assertion. Nearly 2 in 3 people in very different companies said expectations changed soon after their company or team started to use chat software. This excluded companies where near real time responses were expected already. Our tools shape us is a well known observation. And that was not even the type of expectation I meant. The 1st comment talked about missing conversation while focused on tasks. This leads to being left out of decisions and so on.