4 ms·
what I find interesting is that when I use the ADD medication, I'm far more likely to go to bed and get up at a semi-reasonable time. Unsurprisingly, (as it'
by lsc 14y ago
what I find interesting is that when I use the ADD medication, I'm far more likely to go to bed and get up at a semi-reasonable time. Unsurprisingly, (as it's a stimulant) it also makes it far more likely that I'll work out.
But yeah. Frictionless organization. and don't hesitate to hire things out. I mean, think about what you want to do yourself and what you want to hire out, but don't think about it from a cultural acceptability standpoint. Think about it from the perspective of "how do I get a reasonable return for my time?"
A whole lot of my coping consists of changing my lifestyle to fit how I act (which is shockingly easy compared to changing how I act.)
When I'm not medicated, I simply have to plan my life so that what needs to get done gets done in fewer hours of effort. I'm going to screw off some of the time; medication aside, I haven't figured out how to change that. So, do I clean out the office? or do I pay someone else to do that? cleaning out the office will take just as much effort on my part (well, really, rather more effort) than configuring the routing and scheduling downtime for the move to the new datacenter.)
The other thing I've found is that I'm way better at context switches and unexpected emergencies than most people. I mean, it's not so much that I do well during those situations as that I don't do any worse than I normally do in those situations. I mean, I'm distracted as-is, right? so the pager going off isn't really that big of a deal. (and, well, the 'emergency rush' is one way to get non-medicated me off my ass.)
So yeah; I mean, if I was in a McDonalds kind of situation, where peak performance didn't matter... where I just had to perform at a minimal level, but show up on time and always meet that minimal standard? I would really, really struggle, no matter what tricks or drugs I used. So I spend a lot of effort trying to construct a lifestyle and a workstyle where my weak points don't hurt me so much, and where my strong points really help.
- JohnBooty 14y agoSo yeah; I mean, if I was in a McDonalds kind of situation, where peak performance didn't matter... where I just had to perform at a minimal level, but show up on time and always meet that minimal standard? I would really, really struggle, no matter what tricks or drugs I used. Haha. In high school and college, I struggled at some hilariously menial jobs before I became a professional developer! At one job, all I had to do was make toast on Sundays at a busy diner... the owner and I still laugh about the fact that I still sometimes managed to screw it up!
- arghnoname 14y agoThe hardest jobs I've had in my life are the ones that are generally least respected by our society. I tried really hard to do well, but I would tend to get fired in a few months. I was terrible at them. I do really well as a professional developer though, something that took me a while to get used to. It's funny how these things work. Like you I have ways of coping with my weaknesses, and those 'easy' jobs didn't provide much allowance for doing it. It definitely affects my politics, because I consider myself very fortunate that a career exists for me where I can leverage technology and intellect to do things quickly enough that I can 'waste time' freely. Not everyone is so fortunate.