Nothing is more indicative of a bullshit job than the interview - <AUTHOR> http://programmingisterrible.com/post/116698171738/nothing-is-more-indicative-of-a-bullshit-job-than

<comment><AUTHOR> This part definitely rings true to me: "We have very little idea about what makes good code, so it should come as no surprise that we have little-to-no idea how to find people who are good at coding, along with the dozens of complementary skills."

</comment><comment><USER2> I don't think you can judge a company just by the questions they ask in interviews. Judging a company by the way the _interviewers_ interact with you is perfectly valid, but I wouldn't treat the questions they ask as indicative of anything more than how bad they are at interviewing.

Company's generally suck at interviewing. It isn't what most/many of the interviewers were hired to do and it isn't their core competency. You don't want them to judge you based how good _you_ are at things that have little to do with programming. Conversely, you should cut the interviewer some slack on things thing that have little to do with what _they_ do every day.

You and your interviewer have agreed to meet for a date at what turns out to be a bad restaurant. Make the best of it and look past the food.

Google had an admittedly poor interview process* (the puzzles turned out to be useless at predicting anything) yet Google is generally considered a perfectly nice place to work.

* They found that interviews poorly predicted performance of the candidate.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seriously? More indicative of the amount/quality of resources available to the hiring process.</comment>


$50 a Month for 1Mbps: How AT&T and Verizon Rip Off DSL Customers - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/08/50-a-month-for-1mbps-how-att-and-verizon-rip-off-dsl-customers/ <comment><USER2> I experienced this firsthand in Westwood (LA) of all places. If you moved from the dorms to off-campus apartments, chances were one or two ISPs would have a monopoly on your building. In my case the "lesser" of two evils was Verizon DSL @5m down/768k up at around $52/month. (IN 2015!!!) A short walk from "the birthplace of the internet."

A stark contrast with the hand-me-down internet in the dorms (I was getting >500mbps down, >200mbps up out of the wall via standard cat5e to my desktop).

<comment><USER3> Apartment building systems are rife with profiteering. One company gives the landlord a kickback to be the only provider in the building and they has free reign to be as shitty and overpriced as they want. Your landlord is making money, the ISP is making money, nobody has an incentive to change the system.

Maybe it's different now, but when I lived in apartments nobody advertised "good internet" or "competitive ISP choices" in the listings. It's something you can't discover until you've already signed the lease and moved in.

It's kind of a missed opportunity from the resident's point of view. You could wire a building with Cat6 and run a mini-ISP connected to some bulk transport to provide faster service at a lower price, but that's more work and requires some technical expertise. Plus, it's so easy to just get that Comcast kickback every year.

<comment><USER4> > It's something you can't discover until you've already signed the lease and > moved in.

I always call the local ISPs to ask about getting a quote for the new address before I've moved in.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, but they'll lie and say they have service (because it is in their "service area") and you won't discover the truth until the installer calls to tell you that the building manager won't give them the key because they're with the wrong company. This happened to a friend of mine. He was pretty pissed that his $60 gigabit cable modem service was impossible and he had to buy some 15/5 link for $80/month from a different company instead.

<comment><USER5> Good reason to demand it be written into the lease.

<comment><USER3> I love the mental image of you walking into the leasing office and going:

"I'm very happy that the apartment is finally available after sitting on the waiting list for 3 months in this competitive market. Lets get to signing the lease so I can move it. But first I'm going to have my lawyer add quick clause where you guarantee competitive broadband internet options for my unit on penalty of substantial fine."

I imagine their reaction being similar to if you had walked in with your head on backwards.

<comment><USER5> Yes, but other than voting with your wallet, there is no other solution short of legislation.

<comment><USER6> Surely you must see that legislation is the only solution, as voting with your wallet is useless in such captive markets (someone else will snatch that apartment right up, ISP be damned).

<comment><USER5> Yes, of course, but until then, that is the price to pay in the desirable markets.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My dad was at the end of the line with DSL in rural north FL. Similar prices for a few MBps. Finally switched over to ATT unlimited cell service, getting 40 MBps with some kind of deal on direct tv. So much better. He has dual directional antennas points them at various towers trying to get best signal.

Rural cellular is the future. Currently posting this from the mountains of NC on Exceed satellite as there is no cell service at this campground...

<comment><USER8> I'm curious how that connection to a sat net works with a normal consumer laptop. Or do you have some fancy General Dyn laptop?

<comment><USER9> No satellite service is mentioned in the GP comment. I expect they're just using a fixed 4G modem that has Wi-Fi.

Satellite services also generally consist of a box with a couple of LNB connectors on one end and an Ethernet socket on the other end that you'd run to a Wi-Fi router.

The likelihood you'll ever find a direct-wired satellite link built-in to one machine, outside of a ridiculou$ly-expen$ive military setting running equipment based of 15-year-old designs, is about 0.05%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Crazy. I was paying some insane amount to TWC before AT&T came to town over a year ago. AT&T had a signup deal for 1Gbps fiber symmetric for $70/month. It's over a year later and that's what they still charge me. There's no expiration AFAIK. You can't get this rate from them currently and I think they only offered it when they thought there was going to be competiton from Google. But I don't care why. It's solid service at a reasonable price.

(BTW, I still have my free Google Fiber t-shirt but Google still isn't anywhere near my home.)

Also, TWC is Spectrum now and I can't get them to stop mailing me promotions for service which is still slower and more expensive than AT&T. (Spectrum Internet Gig 1000/35 is $125/mo. There's a $20/mo discount promo good for 24 months.)

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm still flabbergasted by the state of US ISP. From the historical leader of computers, the 'free market' .. you get crippled pricey access. It's beyond me that nobody managed to tilt the status quo yet.

<comment><USER9> _Pays you 54.5c per minute for the rest of your life_

($78,480 per 24h)

(AT&T's CEO earned $28.7M in 2017)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I currently pay $68/month for 3Mbps down, 1Mbps up from Verizon DSL. They're my only option for internet except for satellite. Our local cable company would need to run half a mile of cable to our house to hook us up, so they refuse to serve us.

Downloading at 1GB/hr and paying the same price as our local cable company's gigabit is sad in 2018.

</comment><comment><USER13> I currently pay $78/mo and I barely get 1 down it's frustrating. It's the only option I have.</comment>


Show HN: gobbledygook – A browser add-on to tackle "password fatigue" - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/manzdagratiano/gobbledygook

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi all,

I created an add-on for Firefox/Chrome to tackle the problem of password fatigue across websites. It only requires the generation of an initial key, and does not store either your password or the "proxy" password. Detailed documentation about the internals (which also addresses some concerns about how JavaScript Cryptography is used) is at: [http://manzdagratiano.github.io/gobbledygook/](http://manzdagratiano.github.io/gobbledygook/)

I hope you find it useful! Please feel free to open issues on GitHub if you see any gaping flaws in the design.

<comment><USER2> Love it, any chance for a native implementation?

<comment><AUTHOR> Am working on the Android version at the moment, since not being able to log in onto your phone would be mighty annoying :). There is a standalone Python script in the repository which does exactly the same thing but without a UI. I did not initially go with a native implementation due to usability concerns - one will have to flip back and forth between the browser and the application to use it; although, now that I think of it, something running perpetually in the system tray would also fit the bill. I will definitely port it in the near future!</comment></comment></comment>


2016 Annual Report - <AUTHOR> https://watsi.org/2016/?utm_source=2016&utm_campaign=annual%20report&utm_medium=email <comment><USER2> This is a really nice idea for a transparency report.

I got the email from Chase Adam and he says:

"This year, we're doing something different. Instead of using our annual report to share 2016's shiniest numbers, we're using it to share the most problematic ones — for example, the $54,242 in fraudulent donations we had to refund."

It would be great if this caught as a trend for companies (at least some of them). Publishing these kind of numbers could give great insight into how certain organizations are run.

Kudos to Watsi for making such a risky move.</comment>


Toonz Software Used by Studio Ghibli Being Made Free and Open Source - <AUTHOR> http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech/toonz-software-used-studio-ghibli-futurama-made-free-open-source-138111.html <comment><USER2> Hopefully by "Open Source" they're meaning something OSI compliant, and not abusing the term as some others have done.

<comment><USER3> I found OpenToonz GitHub project page[1]. There is no code yet, but it seems that they will publish as an open source software. I hope they also prepare English documents.

[1] [https://opentoonz.github.io/](https://opentoonz.github.io/) (Japanese)

<comment><USER2> Good find. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Any download links yet, or are they still putting together the free version?

<comment><AUTHOR> The toonz website says: _Effective Saturday March 26, the TOONZ Studio Ghibli Version will be made available to the animation community as a free download._ \- so a few days yet. (site is [http://www.toonzpremium.com/](http://www.toonzpremium.com/), is linked in the cartoonbrew article.)</comment></comment>


Delicious Founder Joshua Schachter's Tasty Labs - <AUTHOR> http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20101124/joshua-schachter-goes-from-delicious-to-tasty/

<comment><USER2> I get it. He named the company this way so magazines could write titles like this.

Well played, Joshua... Well played.

<comment><USER3> Accident, not cleverness, I assure you.

<comment><USER2> Wonder if handso.me is still available ;-)

edit: handso.me, andso.me, ndso.me, dso.me, and so.me are all taken... Dammit!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Yay!

Also, we're hiring!

<comment><USER4> Needs more Bahamas :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> _Schachter_

</comment><comment><USER6> But should I go with Alpo or Iams?

<comment><USER7> Our users have favored Iams :) <http://www.zootoo.com/company/iams/products></comment></comment>


Original Apple 1 setup – demo of a working piece of history (2012) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKiMPCRILpc

<comment><USER2> Amazing that working Apple I computers are selling for 600k+ (e.g. [http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/25/apple-1-671-4k-auction- ne...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/25/apple-1-671-4k-auction-new-record/))

</comment><comment><USER3> This is incredible. It's crazy to think how far we've come since the Apple I. It's really cool that some of these still exist.</comment>


DigitalOcean: Untrusted Connection warning? - <AUTHOR>

The warning shows up in all browsers including mobile Safari.
Screenshot from Firefox: http://awesomescreenshot.com/0da3n7xp74
Chrome & Safari have slightly different error messages. <comment><USER2> Judging from the cloudflare references in that screenshot you might be looking for this: [https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en- us/articles/200170566-M...](https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en- us/articles/200170566-My-SSL-isn-t-working-Why-not-)</comment>


How Many X86-64 Instructions Are There Anyway? - <AUTHOR> https://stefanheule.com/blog/how-many-x86-64-instructions-are-there-anyway/ <comment><USER3> IEEE Spectrum in the early 80's had an article on minimal instruction sets. The author made a salient point that 7 instructions did most of the heavy lifting, another 7 did the most of the rest required. He did highlight that one mistake made with instruction sets was not separating the addressing modes from the instruction itself.

There have also been various projects looking at the micro-instruction based machines and noting that extremely complex instruction sets could be designed so that the actual requirements of a programmer or project be placed in microcode. One example was an instruction to search a tree structure for a required value (as a single machine instruction).

Not that I can do anything about it, my conclusion over nearly 4 decades is that we have failed to take advantage of the increasingly denser silicon to make higher level machines, in particular machines that recognise the difference an instruction and a data element.

We can write very high level software languages but all have to be run on extremely low level hardware. Too much commodity and not enough variability.

<comment><USER4> Are you talking about Very Long Instruction Words (VLIW)? IIRC, that's the concept of having the scheduling done in the compiler. Instead of the compiler spitting out op codes and operands, each part of the instruction space controls specific functional units. So if you stick something in the adder, the documentation might specify the next x instructions need to be nops so it can complete.

The idea being if scheduling is done at compile time, you can update the compiler and update the scheduling/performance. Unfortunately, creating compilers for these systems was incredibly difficult, hence the failure of ix64/EPIC.

<comment><USER5> Qualcomm makes a VLIW DSP called "Hexagon" used in their SoCs [1]. It's a pretty popular chip used in lots of phones.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualcomm_Hexagon#Code_sample](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualcomm_Hexagon#Code_sample)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The knee-jerk answer upon seeing the title was: "Too many".

So many of these instructions I never see anyone use, ever.

No doubt there are some folks using them, but as mere mortals, do the rest of us really need all these features to control our small amount of commodity hardware? As a user, I have modest goals. Is it not true that Torvalds wrote his kernel with a similarly modest goal in mind: control over his own commodity computer?

The situation resembles that of an overcomplex software program where a majority of the features are unused by an even larger majority of its users. In other words the depth of features benefit only the very few people who use them.

Given the choice between several alternatives with differing levels of features I tend to opt for software that is less featureful and hence more simple. Call me simple-minded if you wish. The same goes for processors, although when it comes to hardware how much choice to we really have as end users? (Hobbyist boards excluded.)

For a taste of some non-x86 assmbler, I enjoyed experimenting with a MIPS simulator still found at spimsimulator.sourceforge.net. I can report that the non-GUI portion at least still compiles relatively cleanly on BSD. This simulator has been mentioned on HN several times.

I have a no problem with using a processor with fewer instructions even if I have to sacrafice something by making that choice -- I leave it to the experts to detail those sacrafices and why I would be a fool to make them. NB: I am already a fool so it may not be worth the effort.

How many HN readers have tried RISC-V? A poll for those who have not: will RISC-V inspire you to purchase a new computer?

<comment><USER7> From my understanding we can't get much higher sequential instructions / second than we already have.

So the instructions have to do more each (CISC), or we have to do a lot of instructions in parallel. Maybe RISC could shine in massively parallel processing units.

<comment><USER8> Although the Intel CPUs have a CISC instruction set, internally they are converted to RISC like uOPS in the early instruction decode stage. So an CISC instruction that increments a memory location is converted into uOPs to load from memory into an internal register, increment of that register followed by a store to memory. These days, the uOPS are so powerful that they do the opposite at times like merge adjacent compare and branch instruction into one uOP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> LLVM's answer to this question is about 14,600. This comes from treating memory and registers operands as different (i.e., add %rax,%rbx and add %rax,(%rbx) are two different instructions, although note that add %rax,%fs:16(%rbx,%rdi,4) is counted as the same instruction as add %rax,(%rbx)).

I will also point out that LLVM's list is not exhaustive--it's definitely missing a few operand types for a few instructions (e.g., nop %rax).

</comment><comment><USER10> This is the wrong way to go about it. x86 mnemonics bear little resemblance to the encoded binary machine code. For example, what x86 lumps into a single "mov" mnemonic, is actually half a dozen different underlying instructions, e.g load, store, reg-reg, and a few special cases.

It's the wrong question too. Perhaps what you're looking for is: "What is the number of combinations in which an instruction can be decoded?" This would need to lump together all the multi-bit fields (such as immediates) as one (or a few if there's special values). This would be a measure of the expressivity of instruction set, and somewhat a measure of the encoding efficiency — how much it can cover the execution unit inputs?

It's a much easier thing to answer for most of the "RISC" oriented architectures, e.g ARM 32 and 64 bit. It's basically the set of valid binary encodings of instructions, compressing together all the immediate values.

<comment><USER11> Curiosly the capability of the x86 MOV is such that you can compile C code to _only_ MOV instructions: [https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator](https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator)

Inspired by this paper about Turing-completeness of MOV: [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sd601/papers/mov.pdf](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sd601/papers/mov.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I made a Python package which documents x86(-64) instructions in a ready-to- use way: [https://github.com/Maratyszcza/Opcodes](https://github.com/Maratyszcza/Opcodes) (also `opcodes` on PyPI). With this package, its easy to collect ISA stats, e.g.

      import opcodes.x86_64
      isa = opcodes.x86_64.read_instruction_set()
      print(sum(len(instruction.forms) for instruction in isa))
      >>> 6020

As an another example, here is number of instruction forms (e.g. mnemonic name + operand types) over time on Intel CPUs: [http://imgur.com/a/AVPcq](http://imgur.com/a/AVPcq)

</comment><comment><USER13> Maybe I should add that sometimes very different instructions get assigned to the same mnemonic. Like the venerable mov. Moving data from typical general purpose registers is very different from moving data to and from debug registers and control registers, and have different opcodes, yet they have the same mnemonic. You won't find them in typical programs because they need Ring 0.

</comment><comment><USER14> See also: [https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/how- many-x86-instru...](https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/how- many-x86-instructions-are-there/)

</comment><comment><USER15> I quite like RISC-V , it's simple, elegant and efficient. Undergraduate students can quite easily put together competitive in order cores. That itself is a testament to it. No wonder, considering Patterson and Hennessey literally wrote the book on computer architecture!

</comment><comment><USER16> In the undergraduate level computer architecture class I just finished, it was pretty much stated as fact that the simpler design and fixed instruction format of RISC based architectures makes them much more suitable for pipelining, and hence leads to better performance than those based on CISC. Why are x86/64 processors used for most high performance applications then?

<comment><USER17> _Why are x86 /64 processors used for most high performance applications then?_

Well, you should start from this and then work backwards because it's just an empirical fact that x86_64 is fast and that RISC isn't. There are many reasons for that, none of them fair, but in the end, it's still just a fact.

Yes, RISC-V is simple+elegant. If that's what you want, great. True, RISC-V is open source. If that's what you need, awesome. Now weigh those qualitative features against the cold hard $1B/year that Intel invests in making the mess that is x86 run fast. Add to that the billions that ARM+Samsung+NVidia+Apple+... spend on making ARM fast. It's not a fair fight. It really isn't.

But know this. If RISC had anything tangible, any fundamental advantage, then we'd be living in a RISC world by now and we aren't (Patterson+Ditzel was 37 years ago). If you want to think worse is better, sure. Whatever. If you want to call ARMv8 MIPS-ish, that's your constitutional right.

Skylake is a superscalar, speculative, out-of-order, renaming, hyperthreaded multicore beast. You may program it in x86 but those instructions get translated+cached as μops, very wide microinstructions.

BTW, anyone who thinks that μops are _actually RISC under the hood_ severely needs to re-read _The Case for the Reduced Instruction Set Computer_ and then say, _Inside Nehalem_ [1] or _Micro-operation cache: A power aware frontend for variable instruction length ISA_ [2]; microprogramming (vertical+horizontal) predates RISC by _decades_ [3]. These μops are wide, 150+ bits. Ain't nothing reduced about that.

In 2017, _believing_ in RISC is only slightly more acceptable than believing in Mill. Moreover, I say this as someone who went to Berkeley and read Patterson+Ditzel in 252. I _should_ preach the religion.

[1] [http://www.realworldtech.com/nehalem/](http://www.realworldtech.com/nehalem/)

[2] [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ronny_Ronen/publication...](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ronny_Ronen/publication/3337434_Micro- Operation_Cache_A_Power_Aware_Frontend_for_Variable_Instruction_Length_ISA/links/00b7d5270fd6e29740000000/Micro- Operation-Cache-A-Power-Aware-Frontend-for-Variable-Instruction-Length- ISA.pdf)

[3] [https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/uprog.html](https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/uprog.html)

<comment><USER18> In one of the Mill talks, I've long since forgotten which, someone asks Ivan Godard a question about RISC. His response is something like "there was a brief window in the eighties where if you had a RISC machine you could get the whole computer onto one chip." I don't enough experience to know if this is right, but it strikes me as a nice clean explanation. It also explains why x86 won since then, because a couple generations later it was possible to get the whole computer onto one chip with x86 as well.

(I may have misquoted badly, in particular I'm not sure about the dates)

(edit: I found the talk, it's the last couple minutes of this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLNyMAi-0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgLNyMAi-0I))

<comment><USER17> Your dates sound about right. The eighties. Mead+Conway was just out and fabs of a certain size became accessible. The question then was _what could you do with these fabs and transistor budgets?_ Berkeley+Stanford did RISC+MIPS. Clark did the Geometry Engine at Stanford+SGI.

So what could you do with X transistors? But then X became stupid large. The 68000 (1979) had 40,000 transistors. Now the Apple A10 has 3.3-billion transistors. So you can imagine that architectural design assumptions dating from 1980 will need to be revisited.

<comment><USER19> > The 68000 (1979) had 40,000 transistors.

Where did you get that figure? I'm curious because the figure I've seen tossed around is 68,000 transistors (the story going that this is where the model number came from).

<comment><USER17> It's _much_ more likely (like infinitely more likely) that the 68000 name stems from the earlier 6800 8-bit product line. There's nothing definitive saying 68,000 transistors and I've read both 40,000 and 68,000. I believe that 68,000 was just marketing. FWIW, Motorola also employed 68,000 people in 1980 ( _approximately_ ):

[https://www.motorolasolutions.com/content/dam/msi/docs/en- xw...](https://www.motorolasolutions.com/content/dam/msi/docs/en- xw/static_files/history-motorola-annual-report-archive-1980-9p32mb-40.pdf)

The Geometry Engine had 40,000.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=gD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=68...](https://books.google.com/books?id=gD4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=68000+40,000+transistors+geometry+engine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHoqGEl8_TAhUN2GMKHfcTAKAQ6AEIIjAA#v=onepage&q=68000%2040%2C000%20transistors%20geometry%20engine&f=false)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is just looking at it from an assembly language point of view. Isn't it even more complicated at the actual byte level? For example, are an instruction, and then the same instruction but with a width prefix, different?

<comment><USER21> I'm not sure I would say _more_ complicated, but you're completely right things are bit different on the byte level. For example there are certain prefixes that can be added indefinitely. Because of that there is a maximum instruction length x86 CPUs will decode, which I believe is 15 bytes - <USER2> valid instructions will go over that without adding unneeded prefixes, but without such a maximum the instruction set is technically infinite in length.

That said, as far as the CPU is concerned (And keep in mind, x86 CPUs are stupid complicated so none of what I'm about to describe would really tell you how a particular x86 executes a particular instruction. This would apply better to simpler CPUs) an instruction with multiple widths is generally treated the same way for all of the widths. It decodes the opcode identifier for the instruction, and then would go on the decode the width from a separate part of the instruction. (Though I mean, commonly simple CPUs don't even support multiple widths). The hardware that handles that would commonly be the same or very similar. Debating whether or not that makes them "different" is just matter of definitions I think. But at the end of the day they are generally treated very similarly.

It's also worth noting that assembly langauge's aren't quite a one-to-one mapping. It's fairly common for the assembler to substitute an equivalent instruction for one you used in cases where it knows it is better, and it is also common that a instruction doesn't actually exist on the CPU, but the mnemonics for it exists for convenience. But this does mean that the assembly language can actually represent _more_ instructions then the CPU actually has, meaning the 'byte level' version can in some ways be less complicated, depending on your POV. I think for x86 this likely doesn't really make much of a difference though because the number probably isn't extremely high.

<comment><USER22> See: RISC-V not having a negate instruction, because it's encoded as SUB 0, $X. Similarly no bitwise-not because XOR -1, $X

<comment><USER23> Also no explicit register move instruction, it's ADDI rd,rs1,0. NOP is ADDI x0,x0,0.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Great read, thanks! Followup question: what's the distribution of transistors per instruction?

Taking your number that there are ~2k instructions in Haswell, and given that Haswell has ~1.4 billion transistors ([http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the- haswell-review-intel-...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell- review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/5)), that means on average ~1 million transistors per instruction. My guess is the majority of transistors go to things like the cache, and then there is duplication across cores, so the number is clearly much lower than that, but do you have any sense of what it costs to add an instruction in terms of number of transistors?

<comment><USER25> Probably zero. The decoder isn't instruction specific, it's just something that translates the incoming ops into micro-ops internally. Even then it's pretty abstract. Is an adder circuit specific to an add operation? It's probably used for a lot of things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> There's something to be said about the gigantic number. The machine needs to direct itself to the location of the data, and those methods aren't interchangeable to the machine or to people, unless performance-irrelevant machine code becomes a major use case.

</comment><comment><USER27> How many instructions does the average engineer that does low-level work know by heart and need to know to work effectively with it?

</comment><comment><USER28> Nobody knew software could be so complicated. Seriously, though, the world would be a better place if Motorola would have evolved the 68000 architecture to win the pc market.

</comment><comment><USER29> It's strange to me that they are counting asm instructions, I would count at the opcode level since multiple asm can be synthetic.

</comment><comment><USER30> The Intel architecture manufacturers privilege reverse compatibility, so I am not sure if there's a limit where it would be good to sacrifice some of that compatibility in exchange for performance or simplicity.

I mean, for example I have not seen a single person talking about how to integrate AMD's 3DNow! in their software. Mostly because AMD adopted SSE, but Intel didn't adopt 3DNow!, so people use SSE... as a simple example. So you end up with a vestigial set of unused instructions... with the associated cost, since it's not for free in terms of design, implementation, manufacturing, etc.

<comment><USER31> > I mean, for example I have not seen a single person talking about how to > integrate AMD's 3DNow! in their software. Mostly because AMD adopted SSE, > but Intel didn't adopt 3DNow!, so people use SSE... as a simple example. So > you end up with a vestigial set of unused instructions... with the > associated cost, since it's not for free in terms of design, implementation, > manufacturing, etc.

Because of this reason AMD decided to drop support for 3DNow! in more recent processors:

> > [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=3DNow!&oldid=7696...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=3DNow!&oldid=769683777)

"However, the instruction set never gained much popularity, and AMD announced on August 2010 that support for 3DNow would be dropped in future AMD processors, except for two instructions (the PREFETCH and PREFETCHW instructions). The two instructions are also available in Bay-Trail Intel processors.".

Also look under "Processors supporting 3DNow" (emphasis mine):

"All AMD processors after K6-2 based on K6, Athlon, Athlon 64 and Phenom architecture families. _Not supported in Bulldozer, Bobcat and Zen architecture processors and their derivates._ "

<comment><USER30> I see!, thanks for pointing out this about 3dNow!.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Amateur/hobbyist programmer here. Is there a good bottom up explanation of computing that you know of? i.e. something that starts at the hardware level (how a CPU works) and then moves up through the abstractions layers until you get to a top level language like JS running inside a browser?

I've been looking for something like this for a while, mainly to help explain computers to lay people that are interested in the details.

<comment><USER31> For a popular scientific view on this topic, I recommend

Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles

You can find the first half of the book at [http://www.nand2tetris.org/course.php](http://www.nand2tetris.org/course.php)

<comment><USER32> Thanks! that surely looks interesting and I will check it out in more detail. However I was looking for something more summarized and using metaphors for the layman.

<comment><USER31> If you prefer a computer game over a book, have a look at MHRD:

> > [http://store.steampowered.com/app/576030/MHRD/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/576030/MHRD/)

This game is rather similar in spirit to "The Elements of Computing Systems", which I recommended above, but more summarized (though it only considers up to CPU level in opposite to the Nisan-Schocken book).

<comment><USER32> Thank you =) I will look into it

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Any count based on mnemonics is off by 1 because of the CMPSD mnemonic. This mnemonic maps to both a string instruction and a SIMD (floating point) instruction. You probably want to count them separately. It's funny that this mnemonic is mentioned in the article, but the author didn't notice that it actually points to 2 families of instructions, not 1!

</comment><comment><USER34> Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see a link to the actual "instr-count" program and I don't see a GitHub link anywhere. What does the program do? How does it divine the instruction count?

<comment><USER35> >All the numbers in this blog post have been obtained through a small program making use of our awesome C++11 library for working with x86-64 assembly. Just like the library, my program is available as open source on GitHub.

[https://github.com/stefanheule/x86_64-instruction- count](https://github.com/stefanheule/x86_64-instruction-count)

<comment><USER34> Oh, goodness. Reading fail. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> How many instructions do RISC architectures have?</comment>


YC Winter 2011 Web Chat : The Eve of Anxiety - <AUTHOR>

Tomorrow is the big day, where some fortunate applicants find out they have been given perhaps the opportunity of a life time to build their company with some of the smartest and well connected people in the valley.
Let's live chat about our anxiety, questions, and fears for tomorrow. Have you gotten any questions from staffers on your application?
Look forward to seeing everybody there.
http://www.nodejscloud.com:8001
If your looking to spam, troll, prove you can break the chat, please don't bother. I will just add you to iptables deny, and it hurts everybody trying to talk with other applicants. Thanks. <comment><USER2> Interesting. I applied and I know that if we don't get in it is _far_ from the end of the world. We didn't get in last year and our business has grown tenfold since then. It would be an amazing opportunity but not the golden ticket.

Do yourself a favor: stop worrying and get back to working on your startup.

<comment><USER3> You got the point! Winter YC is not a fairy tale. It just (maybe?) makes things easier from the start. E.g. I'm currently busy with other projects.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> why not #startups on irc.freenode.net? (thanks for setting this up, though)

</comment><comment><USER5> I think those who don't make it should use it as motivation to take that extra step, be it from YC next time, or bootstrapped/ the many other funding roots. I guess you can look at it as a come back even stronger next time, prove them wrong type way.

Even the act of filling out the application is beneficial, makes you focus and evaluate where your business is currently and the road ahead.

</comment><comment><USER6> We (<http://grexit.com>) are an India based start-up, and just being in the valley is going to be a big boost for us. Being in the valley and with YC is going to be, well, massive.

</comment><comment><USER7> I don't know if you can edit the submission title, but the upcoming YC cycle is actually Winter 2011. I don't say this to be nitpicky, but when I first saw the title I was confused, and thought others might be as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right sir. Doooah

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is actually pretty fun even just for sharing real-time feedback on startups. Is it a terrible idea to have an always-on YC chat? Or maybe something like this already exists and I'm simply behind the times...

</comment><comment><USER9> Working on many fronts, but with fingers crossed about tomorrow, cause it sounds like fun. Good luck to everyone. No seriously.

</comment><comment><USER10> Thanks for the chat, guys. It was great to meet some of you and get to hear about your startups.

</comment><comment><USER11> Having trouble getting in... Im using chrome. I would love to join in on the conversation!

<comment><AUTHOR> Humm, working for me. Make sure you put the port, so:

<http://www.nodejscloud.com:8001>

<comment><USER11> I got it...it was glitchy connection. Thanks although it looks like after 25 members joined the chat it just broke down

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about that, had to restart the application.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Bah, I got kicked out. My connection here at school is really bad.

</comment><comment><USER13> As someone there pointed out, how about some HN username validation?

</comment><comment><USER14> Hey Justin, good to see the chat lighting up again. Thanks for the post. Good luck guys, but don't let YC consume you, get back to your startup!

GDH</comment>


How I Run a Company with ADHD - <AUTHOR> https://www.andrewaskins.com/how-i-run-a-company-with-adhd/ <comment><USER2> It's interesting to see how hard if is to separate ADD from ADHD by a description of traits or behaviors.

I have ADD and pretty much recognize myself in a lot of this.

It's almost impossible to focus on anything that is not interesting "right now" and what is "interesting" changes in cycles spanning a few weeks.

During a cycle I become completely absorbed, you know, not eat, not sleep and not being communicative, absorbed.

For a long time this worked out both personally (depending on who you ask) and with my employers/employees that so far have had no issues with my rather irregular rhythm (thank you tech!).

Oh, the storytelling and talking... I feel sorry for my brain and, in retrospect, people that had to listen (I'm sorry! And I didn't mean to be rude and offensive, it was just my thoughts at that very second!).

As life have changed mainly through becoming a dad it has also become a lot more difficult —- not everything about kids is "interesting", and staying up to 4 to tinker with something "interesting" is just such a bad idea when someone jumps on your face at 6.

Everyone needs food? And it's my responsibility? Today again?! Phew... etc.

Spending energy on "non-interesting" things really is draining and seem to lead to kind of mini depressions.

I'm happy that I've come to a point where I at least can see some of this behavior which allows me to work on some changes.

Hard work though!

Perhaps I should write about how I run(?) a family with ADD? It would make for a lot of laughs and a some sad stuff.

<comment><USER3> ADD is now under the umbrella of ADHD. ADHD just has 3 types:[0]

1\. ADHD Predominantly Inattentive (ADHD-PI)

2\. ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive (ADHD-PH?)

3\. ADHD Combined (ADHD-C)

ADD falls under the first one. It makes sense that you'd recognize yourself in that. They're now considered to be the same disorder, but just presenting in a different way.

One of the things that's usually not discussed, but what you should watch out for is emotional control. Apparently it's easier for people with ADHD to have their emotions flip. Russell Barkley has an amazing series of lectures about it. You can find various bits on YouTube. You could see if maybe you'll discover even more about yourself.

[0] [https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html)

<comment><USER4> I too highly recommend Russel Barkley's videos about ADHD. They taught me so much. The most striking thing was learning how it's a primarily emotional disorder, and how this has harmed my relationships.

Here's a fantastic lecture (split into ~5 minute segments -- this guy gets it :) by Dr. Barkley:

ADHD - The 30 Essential Ideas Everyone Needs to Know

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhbAK1pdPM&list=PLzBixSjmbc...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhbAK1pdPM&list=PLzBixSjmbc8eFl6UX5_wWGP8i0mAs- cvY)

<comment><USER2> Have to second the emotional and relationship aspect of it.

The general physician I went to initially to kick of the quest for diagnosis obviously had an interest and gave me a book called "the answer" (edit).

If you are Swedish: "hemligheten"

In english the tag line (translated by me): "from moments to lasting relationships"

<comment><USER4> Found the English version :)

The Answer: How to start a relationship and make it last

[https://www.amazon.com/Answer-start-relationship-make- last/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Answer-start-relationship-make- last/dp/9187441969)

<comment><USER5> Could not find any reviews on this book, can you go into any detail around how it helped you?

<comment><USER2> It kind of made me think and question why I had such attachment issues.

Why the same pattern I saw in how I had to be "interested" to give something or someone my attention repeated over and over.

I've had many relationships over the years with a specific pattern: I lose interest in about a year.

One total burn-out after another. Extreme interest followed by absolutely nothing.

There's a follow up book I can't find in English called (my translation): "The dark secret", that treats what they call "deorganized attachement"

This one's actually more relevant for me personally as my youth and upbringing was... "interesting" and in several ways traumatic.

On the topic of books:

"Healing ADD" was really useful for my partner:

[https://www.bookdepository.com/Healing-Add-Daniel- Amen/97804...](https://www.bookdepository.com/Healing-Add-Daniel- Amen/9780425269978)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My reaction to this article has been... complex.

\-----

Bah! Another article about ADHD. ADHD's over diagnosed and not not as big a problem as people make it out to be. But, I'm curious all of a sudden, so I might as well read it.

> For the first 19 years of my life I knew I was lazy.

Yeah, I'm pretty lazy too. That's just who I am, though. I don't have ADHD...

> So what, you can't stop bouncing your leg at the restaurant?

I thought I was the only one that did that. It drives my aunt crazy.

> I'll be halfway through a team meeting and realize I haven't heard anything > that was said. That's ADHD.

 _THAT 'S_ ADHD? I do that all the time. I can't listen to podcasts either. But I just have difficulty processing the spoken word. I'm much more of a book learner anyway.

> I was happiest with my nose in the book

I'm seeing a disturbing pattern take shape.

> I'll take a break to read an article and hours will go by before I realize > what's happened. Not minutes, hours. That's ADHD.

Wat.

> I'm horrible at completing simple, repetitive tasks. I'm terrible at time > management, and conceptualizing time in general.

Uh oh.

Other comments here have mentioned that stimulants help ADHD sufferers focus. I recently cut back to 2 20oz cans of red bull a day, but I was up to 4 a few years ago. I just thought caffeine was my drug of choice. Everyone's addicted to something, right?

I currently have 52 open tabs on my laptop and another 37 open on my desktop.

I'm not quite sure what to do with all of this. I just thought I was lazy.

<comment><USER7> I have ADHD. There are other serious neurological issues connected to ADHD. It's a very misunderstood disorder with a broad spectrum of identifiable symptoms that could indicate ADHD.

If you are heavily medicating with caffeine, then that can be a signal. I was using Pseudoephedrine and caffeine to self medicate and stabilise my moods and behaviours. That was before I got prescribed Ritalin.

But as the article says, I find Ritalin dulls my creative thinking and pattern matching that is required for insightful realisations.

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is big problem for me. I over think things, the slightest misread comment can ruin my day.

I also have a problem with cyclical depression and euphoric highs that are a bit like bi-polar but not as severe.

So yeah - It's hell. I hate having ADHD. I never looked for a diagnosis, but when I got one it was a light-bulb moment. Life still sucks. It's not a super- power and I'm not blessed.

<comment><USER8> How, as an adult, did you get a doctor to diagnose ADHD? Every time I've brought it up with a healthcare provider, I lay out my difficulties and coping mechanisms, and the conversation ends with them saying "Well, it sounds like it's not much trouble for you. Anything else?"

I just don't know how to make them _get_ it. I feel like I have so much potential for success, but I can't harness it.

<comment><USER9> That sounds like my GP. I struggle with anxiety, depression and obesity among other things. Every time I go to an appointment with them I hear "Well, it's all in the head you know."

I hate this and it's the case with most GPs, at least in my country. I genuinely just wish my therapist was also my GP.

<comment><USER10> > Well, it's all in the head you know.

Yes I know, thats exactly where the issue is.

<comment><USER11> In general that means they think it's imaginary. Find another doctor.

<comment><USER12> It's particularly malicious as it's using a phrase that is literally true and accurate description of the problem to dismiss the existence of the problem!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Okay, I start with a disclaimer, I suspect this opinion to be unpopular on HN. Anyway, I can't help thinking that ADHD is one of those mental disorders that merely reflects some increased demands of society rather than a genuine mental disorder and that people with ADHD are just part of the natural variation of different personality types.

There also seems to be a huge divide between the US and Europe, where such disorders seem to be diagnosed way less often. It has always appeared to me that many people in the US are more easily considered mentally ill when they do not fully conform to society's expectations, and at the same time the people who suffer from severe mentally illness are less cared for in the US than in Europe. Or maybe that's just how the media portray it.

<comment> yc-kraln Diagnosed at 6 with ADHD in the US by a proper battery of psychiatrists, therapists, etc. Medicated until 17. Still going to therapy regularly in the EU to deal with a myriad of ongoing issues as ADHD has changed how it impacts my life into adulthood. I am a "textbook" case.

So basically the reality of my life is not subject to your opinions. Stop projecting your value system onto other people's lives.

<comment><USER14> I'm sorry to hear that but just because someone diagnosed you at 6 doesn't mean I believe it's right to medicate a child that early.

If you could do it all over again, would you have waited until you were grown before you took medication?

<comment><USER15> I would have preferred to be medicated with 6 rather than 14, which is when I started medication for ADHD.

<comment><USER16> I wouldn't have flunked half as many classes, nor taken 15 years to get into my career of choice, had I been diagnosed and treated at 6, and not 36.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> AD(H)D is a complicated and commonly misunderstood condition. Despite its name, it does not mean people with it have a deficit of attention. It involves (amongst other things): atypical dopamine production/regulation, and issues in the Prefrontal Cortex (where executive functions are handled).

Because of this, it's not unusual for other conditions to cause people to experience similar symptoms to those with AD(H)D. The main difference, is that for people with AD(H)D, the symptoms are chronic and disruptive.

Many symptoms caused by the executive function component can also be experienced by those who have theirs inhibited. This can be because they are: tired, stressed, drunk etc.

When reading this or other articles on AD(H)D, if you resonate with the symptoms I urge you to read up and potentially get diagnosed.

Just please don't assume that "everyone has some kind of ADHD" or that "ADHD is't real" because some symptoms are shared by other conditions, and can often seem like regular parts of the human condition.

<comment><USER18> Best descirption I've heard that sidesteps the "oh yeah I can't read a book either" is that ADHD is about a deficit in intention.

Things that aren't "can't focus" that are symptoms of ADHD:

\- bad temper \- speaking before thinking (followed by immediate regret) \- often making spur of the moment decisions without thinking of long-term consequences

The overarching thing being that lots of people with ADHD do things _despite knowing on a rational level that it's not a good idea_, because that thought usually isn't loud enough to actually stop your actions (at least not fast enough anyways).

There's always a bit of "yeah everyone has that" when you talk about laziness and lack of focus, making it feel a bit like an unfalsifiable diagnosis. But there's a lot of people who most definitely don't have bad temper issues or go binge drinking all the time (Though this isn't everyone with ADHD either of course).

<comment><USER17> Good points!

The symptoms you describe are impacted by the two elements I described (executive function issues and dopamine regulation).

People with AD(H)D have issues with regulation and executive function, which can lead to issues in how one controls themselves. This can lead to the issues of controlling oneself that you describe.

On top of that, dopamine (which is more accurately a "motivation hormone", which creates the desire to do things) is different in AD(H)D brains. Basically, people with AD(H)D will get a dopamine kick from certain types of behaviours, and not from others. This can result in the relative importance of tasks being very different from neuro-typical ordering. As a result, addictive behaviours can be more common (especially for things like video-games), or also the prevalence of hyper-focus that people with AD(H)D experience.

I agree with your last paragraph fully. The lack of understanding around the condition can lead many to make uninformed actions and opinions that can be harmful to those with AD(H)D, diagnosed or not. This can have negative impacts on patient mental health, and is the reason why people should be more aware of this oft misunderstood condition.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> ADHD sucks. I mean, it ain't cancer, but it sucks. I was never officially diagnosed, but when my son was at 7 is when I realized what ADHD really is, and that I'm an ADHD guy. Some how I made it through 40+ years with it and never knew it. I struggled though college, took me 9 years to get my BA. Somehow got a masters. Somehow managed to get a series of better jobs after my degrees. And I've somehow succeeded in life (my definition of succeeded) with ADHD and without any help or anything. I struggle with it every day still. ADHD sucks, I have no idea how I got to where I am, but I know I'm lucky. It's also made me a better parent to my ADHD kid, I know what he's going through, it's taught me patience and kindness that I never had growing up. If you don't know much about ADHD , it's not what you think it is.

<comment><USER20> As someone who also has it: have you tried medicine like Adderall?

I'm so torn on it. On one hand, it makes me so productive, but on the other, it makes me so unemotional and cold and abrasive.

It also makes me sweat, increases my heart rate, and has a terrible comedown when taken often.

I was diagnosed at 16 and was on it for years, eventually moving up to 4x the dosage as my body grew resistance.

I've stopped it for the past couple years, and now am back to the lowest dosage on rare occasions I take it, but still unsure how to feel about it.

<comment><USER21> Yes, you pretty much summed up all. Don't forget sleepless nights if you took it after 11 am or later. Also: Heartburn, dry mouth, and severe dehydration, loss of appetite (yay for this one actually). And flushing (pee pee pee all day).

IF you are working from home with minimal contact, it works. Never EVER answer a phone call when you are on it (this is to whoever planning to use it in the future). God knows, how many times I argued with a client just because of Adderall.

It forces anyone using it to keep the communication to a minimum. And when a client calls (usually oblivious, but demanding), you will end up arguing at some point.

Adderall = never do anything social including phone calls. I am serious.

<comment><USER10> > Don't forget sleepless nights if you took it after 11 am or later.

Medication that keeps you awake for 16 hours leads to sleepless nights if taken late into the day, more news at 2.

<comment><USER22> Depends on the dosage, while he mentioned Adderall those are the exact side- effects I had with Ritalin, and that comes in all forms: "normal" (4 hours), long-last (8 hours), slow-release (also 8 hours-ish, different chemical implementation), and more I don't remember/know.

The shorter durations (4 hours) are more effective than the longer, but also require taking it several times a day. And I think neither 4 nor the 8 keep you awake for 16 hours. Occasionally I'd even get the side effect of _making_ me drowsy, and I had to take a nap right there. Thankfully that usually happened when I would take Ritalin for studying at home later in the day, rather than at school.

<comment><USER10> True, 16 hours was over the top. I think my concerta bottle (methylphenidate, same ingredient as ritalin but extended release) says something around 12 hours.

My point however was that if you take medication which can keep you awake for X hours less than X hours before bed, you could have a bad time.

> Occasionally I'd even get the side effect of making me drowsy, and I had to > take a nap right there.

I've read about this, for some taking ritalin actually helps them sleep since it makes the brain shut up and be quiet, instead of racing all the time

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I wonder how common this is among HNers. I felt like I could relate to many of the feelings in the article and I certainly have trouble keeping track of time (w.r.t. rabbit holes and whatnot) and do better with some external motivation. In particular, I can be "hyperfocused" when it comes to interesting technical challenges for many hours, but I get distracted instantly when doing my email, the laundry, or taxes. I'm not sure if the magnitude might be what sets me apart from people who have genuinely been diagnosed with ADHD or if no one ever suspected it because I did well in school and at work.

<comment><USER24> You may or may not have some ADHD tendencies, but it's not uncommon for people to miss out on diagnosis as children.

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 19 or 20 because my perfectionism (which was/is directly tied to the anxiety/major depression I was diagnosed with at 14, but self-diagnosed at 9) sort of overrode the traditional symptoms. I did well in school (because I couldn't NOT have perfect grades). I excelled at work. For many years, I was compulsively neat. (I'm not really sure what happened to the neatness).

When I was 17, I was put on ADHD meds as a way to treat side-effects of an antidepressant, but I found it had a ridiculously positive impact on my life. In college, I was formally diagnosed, and my psychiatrist posits that the fact that I appeared to be "fine" is what kept me under the radar. According to my doctor, it's not uncommon for that to happen, especially if the individual is of above-average intelligence (I was given the "gifted" label before entering kindergarten).

I always "joke" (except, it's not a joke an I'm 100% serious), that I'm a high-functioning ADHD person. And it's true; over the last 15 years or so, I've learned to augment my behavior and recognize when the disease is impeding on my life. For clarification: being able to recognize something != always being able to change what is happening. I've also been fortunate to find work in fields where my ability to do multiple things at once is useful.

But I tell people I'm in meetings with frequently about the stuff I do to help quell my worst tendencies (I play puzzle games on my phone, for instance, so that I can pay attention to what people are saying. It looks rude, but the alternative is me literally not being able to focus on what is being said. And when I explain it, I've never found someone to be unsupportive), and I try to plan and make adjustments for my own time clock.

Like you, if it's something I'm interested in, I can be hyper focused for hours. But the second something is born for even just not that compelling, it's a struggle.

<comment><USER25> > I play puzzle games on my phone.

Jesus, I did this a lot in my previous job, and couldn't explain it to my colleagues. Always felt so judged.

<comment><USER24> Yeah, people will sometimes judge, but I try to explain the why.

"I'm doing this so that I can pay attention. It sounds counterintuitive but it is not."

I had an editor once (I should note, he went on to become my mentor), get really frustrated that I wasn't "paying attention" and he quizzed me like we were in school and I just rattled off a complete list of everything that had been discussed, as well as some ideas that hadn't — and he kind of looked stunned. I told him (again), dude, there's a method to my madness.

He never got mad at me for "playing on my phone" in an editors meeting again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I also have ADHD (and felt the irony of watching my leg shake while reading about the author's leg shaking). I tend to do a lot of what the author is saying. "Planned distractions" help. I try to work in blocks of time (sometimes about 20 minutes) but when my mind starts to wander I let it and use that time to check my e-mail (or HN) then go back to the task.

Keeping a task list is definitely key. I have a plain text file called "tasks.txt" open at all times and in the morning I'll list the stuff. I live by the "if it takes under 5 minutes do it right away" mantra.

Sometimes I'll end up working on a task, that while it does need to get done, is not necessarily the first task on my list (or on the list at all). So after a "distraction break", I check my task list again so I don't forget.

I am extremely good at figuring out issues. I'm a technical architect (programmer) and I often find myself going around and fixing others' issues quickly, but time management and attention to detail are definitely issues - issues that have been thankfully solved by technology and forethought.

<comment><USER27> Cool. You've implemented your own form of the pomodoro technique, the 2-minute rule and most important tasks (MIT's) to get yourself organized. I think this is one way I've managed with a lot of the issues the author mentions... I'm just now hesitant to seek help for some reason, even though I know there might be something more besides methodology that can help me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I create a todo list with only 1 thing showing. I either skip it or work on it but there's only ever 1 thing. If I drift off, I look at that again every 10 mins (via alert) and get back on track.

It's the only thing I've found that keeps me reigned in to a single task and grinding down the work instead of wasting away hours.

<comment><USER22> I do a similar thing: my work PC's todo list is a few tasks (with maybe a line of detail on some tasks), but my calendar has a daily repeating all-day "reminder" titled the current meta-task. That way whenever I glance at my phone it's enough to send me back on track.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Andrew, you need to read the book "Driven" by Douglas Brackmann and Randy Kelley. You will quite likely find out that the book describes you well. If I'm guessing right, you are one of the "driven", people with certain genes expressed differently from 90% of the population. ADHD is just one of the possible visible symptoms, there are certain other markers that are important (some of which you exhibit: you are a founder/entrepreneur for example).

Give the book a try. It changed my life (and I don't say that lightly). If I'm right, it might change yours.

<comment><USER30> Just read it, awesome book, I pass DR. Brackmanns office in San Diego almost every day. Didn't find out till after I finished the book and looked him up. Wild, thanks for the recommendation!

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> To the writer (if looking on this board), thank you for this piece.

Have you ever come across this article in the Economist, summarizing research providing evidence that ADHD is a legacy of our nomadic past when ADHD traits conferred an evolutionary advantage?

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/science- and-t...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/science-and- technology/2008/06/12/the-misfits)

My takeaway is that entrepreneurship is one of the few areas of modern life where ADHD might actually be a help rather than a hindrance.

<comment><USER32> Not OP, but as a sufferer, I boldly disagree. There may be some benefits related to brainstorming and "out of the box" thinking but they are overshadowed by the disastrous consequences of being unable to organize and execute.

<comment><USER33> Have you been able to find hacks and/or work arounds? Reading the article, I wondered if ADHD might manifest with a range of severities. I have heard of ADHD sufferers for whom it is a serious disability, and other sufferers who claim it's their super power. I can see that you would find the latter claim to be very irritating.

<comment><USER32> > Have you been able to find hacks and/or work arounds?

The only way I have found it working is to outsource my scheduling to someone else. I believe that explains why many people are diagnosed during college. College is much less restrictive than school and as a consequence people have to do their own planning.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Wow! My story resonates with that of the author's. Although I did relatively well at school I struggled in collage. I skipped classes and my grades were far lower compared to my school years. In the second year of college I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Not that I haven't seen it coming. Some of my teachers have long suspected it even during school. I knew I was special as I couldn't stick to the topic I was talking about during conversations, and even when writing essays! That my sound a bit elitist, but my belief is that the biggest factor that made me get through this is my self-perceive above-than- average intelligence. I couldn't let me fail. I managed to get in the second most prestigious electrical engineering college in the relatively small country I live. Running a startup is not easy, let alone if you suffer with ADHD. Me, having plans for the future, was relieved to see other like-minded people sharing their experience! Thank you.

</comment><comment><USER34> For my fellow ADHD people: Dr. Russell Barkley changed my how I think about every day life with ADHD.

He explains it as not as much of an attention disorder as much as it is a time management disorder: we're nearsighted to time and all its constraints.

</comment><comment><USER35> If by chance you have ADHD symptoms and you haven't been to a sleep clinic, please visit one. Not getting enough sleep _can be_ a major contributing cause.

<comment><USER36> I've always found it interesting that the effects I get from not getting enough sleep seem extremely similar to the effects people describe from ADHD.

When I tried to look up whether ADHD could actually be a sleep disorder, I only found a lot of the reverse: Articles saying that people with ADHD often also get a bad sleep. But I certainly wondered whether the causation might be the other way around.

From what you're saying, sounds like there's evidence that it can be, at least partially?

<comment><USER35> Yeah. There's a study referenced in "why we sleep". I'll have to find it. IIRC, the number given there was that about 50% of ADHD could be traced back to bad sleep.

I have a friend who knows a dentist. The dentist said that when he sees signs of sleep issues (apnea, but he might have seem more) in his patient's mouth, he recommends they get treated. And very often, if the patient had ADHD symptoms, the symptoms went away after getting the sleep apnea treated.

And lastly, yeah. I Also get a lot of ADHD symtpoms depending on my sleep quality/quantity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Throughout all of my years of schooling, I was never a strong student, but I made it to a position in life where I hold a very good career as a Facilities Director for a large hospitality group in NYC. I've had a few desk based "Operations" jobs that I struggled to be able to focus on. Being in this Facilities role is great because it's hands on which keeps me active but it's also very dynamic and evokes feelings of letting people down if I don't resolve time sensitive issues, fast. One of the worst feelings is that what I do is never enough. I always feel like I do a good job but can't seem to shake the feeling that I will somehow get fired because I am not good enough. Lots of anxiety. I do a good job at work, get compliments, but I can't go on a two week vacation w/o wondering if my job is on the line because I'm not there. How do those with ADHD shake the constant feeling of anxiety and of "not being good enough"?

I also can relate to the entire ADHD <> entrepreneurship affinity because I come up with so many "niche", interesting business ideas but I struggle to exceute. Some of these ideas could make me a lot of money too with minimal investment.

</comment><comment><USER38> I was diagnosed ADHD in college when a friend who was recently diagnosed told me I had it too. I went to a specialist and he said diet was a big factor and bad dietary habits can greatly exacerbate symptoms or even cause ADHD symptoms in people that are not really ADHD. I was in college so naturally I didn't listen to him, and I started taking Dexedrine that he prescribed. It helped a lot at times, and I took it through college. I still was pretty miserable at college though.

Right after college I co-founded a startup. I was looking for a way to avoid joining "the real world" of working people. I stopped taking the meds and was basically just hyperfocusing all the time. That first year there was only 8 total days I didn't go into the office to work (including weekends and holidays). I was able to use the hyperfocusing because I didn't have a family and didn't feel like I needed a life. That company was bought and a few years later I started another and went through the hyperfocusing stage again. I didn't even sleep in a regular cycle, I would stay up for 20-24 hours and then sleep 4-8. I was a mess, but it didn't matter.

Years later I now have a family and those habits won't fly. I have always remembered the advice my doctor gave me now 24 years ago, but it was only the past 6-8 years or so that I actually started applying it. It works very well in my case, but I know my case is not extreme.

I need to avoid carbs during the day. I need to get a good night's sleep. If I eat a salad at lunch I do not have attention issues. I now do low carb almost all the time and it has changed my life.

Do I actually have ADHD? Yes, I think so. But it's not an extreme case, and I find it to be pretty well managed with good diet and sleep habits. Exercise helps a lot too. Always try this route before drugs. It's not a silver bullet, but I believe it can help a lot of people that might otherwise look to medication to solve their ADHD problems in themselves or their children.

</comment><comment><USER39> They went to a psychologist for a diagnosis, after grades started to slip, and received it. The author also mentions that they dislike ADHD medications.

My curiosities when reading this article :

Did the psychologist actually fix the slipping grades in any meaningful way? If so, was it through pharmacological methods, or some other technique? If it was dealt with through prescriptions, and the grades improved at the sake of anxiety, is that (graduating college with better grades) worth it? If it's worth it, should that behavior be drug into life as a founder -- presumably due to some sort of advantage that those pharmaceuticals may provide, and the anxiety just dealt with somehow else?

These are all honest questions, if anyone cares to share their take on the situation with me. I've been in similar situations.

</comment><comment><USER40> I disagree with his list of upsides -- there is no upside to ADHD. It is a disability. I've been able to manage it without using stimulants, through very careful planning and trial and error (step #1 is avoiding useless wastes of time such as reading HN). But it just sucks.

<comment><USER41> I don't know. I can't write a CRUD app anymore to save my life, but I can dive into the middle of a foreign code base and quickly understand it and solve issues that stump the primary developers. I struggle with normal daily activities like paying bills or putting away laundry, but in an emergency or high stress situation when others are freaking out I feel comfortable and in control. I struggle with conventional learning, but can pick up things which align with my interests (which are wide and diverse) extremely quickly. The negatives are there, and they can be severe... but I do still see some upsides. I'm currently unmedicated, but have been on Adderall in the past. I've been able to manage it mostly by changing jobs when they become stable and boring or taking on roles where I'm constantly working on new projects for short amounts of time. I suspect at some point this will stop working and I'll have to change careers entirely and end up as a chef, or woodworker or something else completely different than what I do now. Maybe by that time I'll agree with your position, but I feel like I'm able to use ADHD to my advantage for the time being.

<comment><USER42> I feel the same way. I've never been diagnosed with ADHD but can relate to all the descriptions of it here.

In the past I jokingly said I need the stress and I think it holds true. In high pressure/thight deadline situations I can work with a high focus for hours but struggle working on projects which are going smooth.

<comment><USER43> I think theres a reason so many ADHD people are in tech.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> It's interesting to note the OP jumped into starting a company at 23. I've worked as a developer at 3 companies with a Scrum methodology since graduating university 5 years ago and I've struggled in each. I'm constantly told off for my time management, and I struggle with most meetings (the disruption they cause, paying attention, and keeping on-topic). If anything it's worse as I've got more experience as more is expected of me. In some senses the structure sounds like it should help but it never feels like it. I'm wondering: have other devs with ADD found Scrum difficult and have they thrived better in a different work environment?

</comment><comment><USER45> Psychologists used to be people that listened to other people's problems and helped them out. Problems started to arise when they started thinking they are doctors and even started prescribing drugs to 'patients'. If you are given the label of ADHD or any of the new fancy labels, know that you are not 'sick'. Life is in your own hands and you can do something about it. The only benefit I see from this labeling is that it helps you find a community of like minded people. But still, it's a double-edged sword and many people treat it like a disease.

</comment><comment><USER46> Anyone in the Montreal area could suggest a name for a good doctor to potentially diagnose and treat ADHD? This has been going on all my life and I am extremely fed up with it, I cannot list one single thing I ever finished 'properly' in my life (35+) and this include important academic and work tasks.. I don't want to 'have' anything , or justify my possible laziness/ineptitude, but I want to have professional making the call. Thanks...

</comment><comment><USER47> It seems like I'm not the only one here that felt like something clicked when reading this or felt some anxiety about perceived personal faults.

But you (and I) need to keep a few things in mind.

\- Even if you tick all the boxes it doesn't mean you have ADHD

\- If you're more or less leading a functional life already it doesn't matter if you have ADHD

\- [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect)

<comment><USER48> > \- Even if you tick all the boxes it doesn't mean you have ADHD

On the other hand, whether or not you have ADHD, if you tick all the boxes, you might be able to learn helpful coping strategies regardless of your level of 'functional'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Having ADHD one challenge for me is the todo list. My latest attempt to prioritize my activities is using email. I created two linux users "todo" and "done" then when I need to remember to do something I mail todo, when the task is done I forward the mail to done. Helpful article, hopefully more people will share their experiences that are often associated with shame and failure

</comment><comment><USER50> I have ADHD. I was diagnosed at the age of 33. I had struggled my way through high school, bachelors and masters degree, with an insanely loose cannon approach.

At 33 I knew something was wrong with me. But I didn't know what. I always felt different than other people and I couldn't contain my thoughts and restlessness leading to mostly complete inattentiveness and a chaotic approach to life. At worst it felt like having my head filled with fleeting thoughts, like 3-5 radios next to my ears with music, different positive thoughts and ideas all at once.

I went to a private practicioner and got diagnosed with ADHD. The ritalin and later Concerta tablets have improved my life 10X. I have been able to streamline my career, streamline my life and I can truthfully say that in a way, it saved me completely. I am now employed in a Fortune500 company, making a small ton of money (relatively) and can sustain myself very well. I will be buying my first real estate this fall. But without it, I don't know what I would have done. Become a homeless, drug-addicted hippie in a third world country maybe?

There are trade-offs to taking it. (1) Emotional and energy depletion at the end of the day is one. I don't take it in the weekends, because I don't like the soul-less me that I become.

I am able to have laser focus and almost have an unfair advantage to others when I am working on something that requires intense attention to detail or having to speak on some complex subject.

Moral of the story: If you suspect it, get diagnosed and get medicines to help focus on the toughest of days at work and in your life. It is certainly a life changer if you are undiagnosed. Don't let ADHD waste your life away.

Do this self test to consider whether you should see a specialist (Psychiatrist & MD) to get the diagnosis: [https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/adhd- quiz/](https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/adhd-quiz/)

</comment><comment><USER51> How does one determine the "normal" levels of distraction/laziness from clinically diagnosable ones? Surely this is a spectrum. How does one determine the threshold? Is this just stats/distribution based? Does it vary from population to population? How much of this is nature vs nurture? Are there physical/neuro-structural/procedural differences in the brain? How do we know the so called medication isn't just treating the symptoms as opposed to solving the problem, if not causing more/other problems (kind of like anti- depressants)? How much do we actually know about all of this?

I don't know any details about ADD/ADHD, but I can relate to a lot of these symptoms. I never once thought I had ADHD, but it would make sense that something like this is a spectrum rather than a binary property.

</comment><comment><USER52> My son has many of your challenges and reading this helps put in perspective his challenges. I'm not sure what to do about him not 'reaching his potential'. I want to be understanding, but at the same time, I want to push him to try. It's tough. Your advice about finding work that you like seems to be extremely important. He's only 12, so we have some time, but I will discuss this with him so that he starts to pay attention and learns to identify what he likes and doesn't. Also your list of skills is great. I will try to get him to also identify his strengths as he matures and make sure he understands that everyone has strengths and weaknesses and that it's important to play to his strengths.

For me, this was a really great article. Thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER53> I have ADHD and I've been running my company for over a decade.

I actually created an app to help my workflow specifically around the way my brain likes to jump between topics:

[https://getpolarized.io/](https://getpolarized.io/)

Part of the challenge I have with reading is that I'll be interested in something for a few hours and then my brain will be triggered with something I'm reading and my brain will switch contexts.

Then I'll want to read about some other topic.

With Polar I can jump around easier and take notes directly in the source material.

It supports incremental reading such that you can mark the portions of a document you've read and jump right back to them when you open the document a second time.

It's really a lifesaver for me honestly. I've definitely been able to get a lot more reading done.

</comment><comment><USER54> To add another decibel to this crowded chatter: to succeed at something like this while dealing with ADHD, you need a _lot_ of support, and after that it is still very hard.

Behind each of these success stories is a lot of people in the background, giving reminders, dealing with the person who has tuned out for half the meeting, excusing lapses, etc. I say this as someone with the disorder myself. (The author's description of the "time travel" effect is on point!) I take those people in my life for granted to often. But reading stuff like this and seeing it from the 3rd person perspective is a good reminder.

Also worth noting that success stories on HN are subject to the survivor bias. (Not exclusive to the "entrepreneur with adhd" trope, of course, but definitely applicable.)

</comment><comment><USER55> I have tons of work to do this morning. So, of course, I'm carefully reading all of those comments.

</comment><comment><USER56> stimulants are pretty much the only thing that will help. I notice a lot of users commenting how much caffeine, coffee, redbull, monster they consume. 10mg of adderall is much healthier for you than multiple cans of energy drinks. Take care of your body.

</comment><comment><USER57> Thanks OP for this article and the rest of HNews for the comments. It has helped me realize I should at least go see someone.

For me, seeing that infographic of how a person with ADHD tells a story was revealing. I had too many of those boxes in line.

> I'm horrible at completing simple, repetitive tasks. I'm terrible at time > management, and conceptualizing time in general.

I loathe doing anything repetitive to the point where I simply won't do it even when necessary or "spend hours building an overly complex script to help me copy-paste 10 excel lines".

The threads that have stemmed from this quote has also made me realize there is a good chance I am ADHD and could only benefit by speaking with someone.

<comment><USER58> > I loathe doing anything repetitive

> spend hours building an overly complex script to help me copy-paste 10 excel > lines

How is this not describing 90% of HN? The 2nd one is even the topic of one of the most linked jokes on XKCD ([https://xkcd.com/1205/](https://xkcd.com/1205/))

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> I feel you. Not diagnosed with anything, but totally knowing how you feel/think through the day. Also running a company, also having the same issues, yet I think this "condition" is what differentiates you from all the rest and, if you don't give in, will bring you places "ordered" people will never see :) Scrap that diagnosis. Your brain works in a different way than others, use it to your advantage and stop comparing with them. They can't do what you can.

PS: I "medicate" myself with Weed. This helps me ordering thoughts a lot. Also it doesn't slow me down - quite the opposite.

</comment><comment><USER60> Other things that work, at least for me: \- Intermittent Fasting \- No sugar/grain/alcohol/shit food \- Diet high in good fats, protein, greens \- Meditation and deep breathing exercises \- High intensity cardio at least 3 times a week

Supplements that can help: \- Good multi \- CLO \- Arginine AAKG \- Creatine \- Alpha GPC \- Vinpocetine \- Ashwahganda \- Bacopa \- Huperzine \- Rhodiola \- Uridine \- Lyons Mane Mushroom

</comment><comment><USER61> A lot of people running companies are dislexic. Churchill ran the UKs fight against the Germans as an alcoholic.

Lots of room for weirdos to do great things in this world.

</comment><comment><USER62> I found it tremendously helpful to hear AD(H)D described as a set of _traits_, which is only a "disorder" to the degree that it interferes with your goals. There are many ways in which these traits can be advantageous. It's analogous to being multi-threaded, or async / parallel processing; it makes things more complicated and harder to debug, but when harnessed properly, becomes a strength.

</comment><comment><USER63> I thought on initially reading the title he was claiming the company had ADHD, which seemed like carrying corporate personhood a bit far. Though it could be briefly diverting to diagnose the disorders of major tech companies.

</comment><comment><USER64> I am still looking for a coping mechanism, because I'm not a people person, so recruiting a team and having other people focus for me doesn't feel like the right fit.

</comment><comment><USER65> ADHD isn't just overdiagnosed, it's both [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/17/joint-over-and- underdi...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/17/joint-over-and- underdiagnosis/)

</comment><comment><USER66> Here's how I deal with my ADHD:

1) Amphetamine 2) Minimalism 3) Start with small wins and scale up in tasks 4) Have a plan in place so you don't waste #1.

</comment><comment><USER67> "How, With ADHD, I Run a Company"

ftfy

I have yet to find an entire company with ADHD although, given the accretion of VC firms in the SF area, I hold the possibility open.

</comment><comment><USER68> awesome. great stuff. with all the negative stigma around the ADHD umbrella it was refreshing to read this. in particular the parts showing how little tasks can seem overwhelming to someone with the condition. i struggle with this endlessly. it is by far the worst part for me, and often the hardest for people w/o the condition to understand.

</comment><comment><USER69> Great article. I got diagnosed when I was in third grade and I always felt that shame as a kid... I still do alot today.

</comment><comment><USER70> Thank you for posting this + giving all the people commenting here a chance to express their thoughts about this topic.

</comment><comment><USER71> actually, why think that ADHD is a disease in the first place? the causal/neurobiological basis for ADHD is unclear, and it is possible that such behavior is statistically normal given the environment. whenever someone claims that he has adhd, i strongly suspect medicalization / overdiagnosis

</comment><comment><USER72> After reading this thread I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist. Too many red flags for me to ignore.

</comment><comment><USER73> Thank you for this article! I also have ADD and found everything you said incredibly comforting and helpful!

</comment><comment><USER74> maybe I should write how I ruined my company and went seriously in debt with ADHD and thinking that a government website had an obvious bug and I had done what was required of me when really it was just horribly unusable and I had not. or maybe not

</comment><comment><USER75> These articles and posts confuse me. Aren't most people dealing with these problems?

</comment><comment><USER76> This hits way too close to home.

</comment><comment><USER77> Went through a bad spell last year. Got what I thought was the ideal contract: working from home on (non-game i.e. $$$) VR. Billing more in USD than I had ever billed in CAD. Working with genuinely nice people.

Couldn't make it work. Would get into loops of crunching all weekend to finish the work I'd committed to doing in the week. Became a shitty and irritable Dad due to work stress. Spent _hours_ in loops like "This would be totally doable if I just started now ... but it hurts too much to stop thinking about what I'm interested right this minute ... but it's going to hurt later ... let's analyze all of the ways this is a repeat of my previous fuckups to see if I can figure my way out of this one ... and down the HOOOOOoooooooole"

Confounding factors: (1) trying to do school at the same time. (2) getting served with divorce papers when I thought I had come to terms with things. (3) Sleep apnea treated with CPAP. Impulsivity / exhaustion / obstacles at bedtime results in not using CPAP which results in greater distraction and higher impulsivity -> downward spiral for the week.

I learned a very valuable lesson, though.

You CANNOT fight procrastination by analysis. You MUST start the thing. There is no other solution. Any other choice is procrastination. Mantra: "You need to stop. What's your next action? What's your next action? ... " This seems obvious, but in the throes of an analysis / procrastination spiral it seems like maybe, just maybe you might be able to think your way out of this. NO.

I also started a new medication at the beginning of 2017 - generic Strattera. It didn't prevent these problems, but it has actually been a great help. There are side-effects, but I'm willing to accept them. I call it my "anti fuck-it" medication. It damps down impulsivity without reducing my creativity (impulsivity is the source of creativity). This is suprisingly multi-faceted. I am less likely to overeat (less likely to say I don't need more pie but fuck it!). I can do deeper search in strategy games or planning (less likely to look a few moves ahead, get befuddled, and say fuck it, I'll just do this random action). It also feels like I have another register of short-term memory, although this could be due to sleep, etc.

So ... don't rule out meds, but they're not a silver bullet. Also, the wrong meds can damage or kill you. I still have some interesting minor mental issues from Dexedrine a decade and a half ago. On it, I got paranoid and that almost killed me.

EDIT> One other tip: limit any online discussion to 1 reply. You get one reply, and that's it. Don't keep responding to a thread. It really doesn't matter, and is a huuuuuge time sink.

</comment><comment><USER78> 1.) Adderall. 2.) See 1.

</comment><comment><USER79> Thank you for writing this! It meant a lot to me to read it.

</comment><comment><USER80> At what percentage of population does disorder become order?

<comment><USER81> It doesn't work this way. E.g. obesity is a major problem in the major segments of population, and even if 100% of population would be obese, it would still be a disorder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> I didn't know that Andrew Askins ran Google.

</comment><comment><USER83> Edit: Off-topic, not ADHD related. Carry on.

<comment><USER84> Coaching does almost zilch to address ADHD needs. There's some initial benefits, but it's the same sort of benefit anyone would get from coaching. Coaching does not and cannot address anything specific to ADHD symptoms that manifest themselves in the moment.

<comment><USER85> Coaching is enormously useful.

It will not fix an organic brain issue, of course, but to understand and have a feedback loop on your own behavior - is very helpful.

<comment><USER84> Maybe I didn't clearly communicate, but I meant no additional benefit specific to addressing ADHD problems of biological origin.

<comment><USER85> It does to some extent, because once you have some improvements from stimulants, newly found ability to concentrate and follow through will allow you to create new feedback loops/circuits/patterns in your brain that didn't exist before, very much a biological change.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER86> As a software engineer with ADHD (and maybe something else in addition to ADHD), it's almost scary how much of this is relatable.

In a time of crisis, such as a last minute deliverable or an outage, I am probably the most productive engineer in my company. I churn out code like a machine, ruthlessly prioritize, scour our graphs and analytics tables for insight into what's causing the issues, and generally absolutely crush everything put in front of me. Diving into the analytical side has produced significant business wins in terms of identifying problems and implementing solutions that solved complex and hitherto undiscovered business problems to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

But as soon as the crisis is over, a switch flips, and I can no longer sustain productivity. I have a bit of code I'm working on to improve a certain large download feature. I know all of what I need to write. I know every file by heart, how everything fits together, all relevant third-party and internal APIs, and how I would implement this optimally, including some fancy lazy evaluation and ringbuffer tricks that will make the whole flow more efficient.

But I find it very hard to keep contributing to it. It's just uninteresting once solved. On top of that, I work in an open-plan office and thus have the silence punctured by load conversation, video meetings that some folks have at their desks, and the visual distraction of people walking around. Unfortunately I have a mini-cafe and a restroom nearby, meaning my eyes have many people to track.

On top of this, office politics are difficult for me. Before I started taking medication, I really couldn't pay attention in meetings or interviews. Same for many conversations. This tends to be interpreted as indifference or disinterest. I often _want_ to pay attention but just can't. I hate the protocol where I have to add a bunch of "thank yous" and "pleases" and a bunch of flowery language around emails and other communication rather than getting straight to the point. HR is not a fan of direct language.

This leads into the emotional aspects of ADHD. I feel as though emotions can be stronger for me than for the average person, especially negative emotions such as anger. Pretty much my entire life, from childhood until now, I've been told to calm down, think things through a bit more, and not act so rashly.

As a result, despite having a good track record due to some aforementioned business wins (better than everyone in my org), I tend to alienate leadership and am considered somewhat "unmanageable." I was put up for staff and rejected because, sure, you found some cool things, but can you lead a team for 6 months?

Vyvanse has helped. I no longer get up from my desk an infinite number of times, and my tendency to start a bunch of 20% projects that each need 100% of my time has drastically reduced. I feel as though maybe 30 is closer to my mental age.

There is apparently a correlation between ADHD and other issues. I've taken non-diagnostic tests for some form of high functioning autism and tested fairly highly. Some of my family members clearly have issues, e.g. my younger brother runs away and hides during social circumstances sometimes to recharge and has trouble making eye contact, as does an uncle of mine. Finding the truth of the autism issue at it applies to me is the next phase of my journey.

All in all, it's an interesting situation to be in. You're smart enough to recognize that you're broken in various ways and will forever know that, despite your best efforts, you have significant challenges that will make it difficult to fulfill your potential. But no one can see these issues.

</comment><comment><USER87> "very fast"

</comment><comment><USER88> Something I learned from my ex-girlfriend many years ago about the labeling of mental diseases in the DSM, and insurance always stuck with me. In order to allow doctors to bill for a consultation, or prescribe medicines, they need to code it. If it is not a cataloged disorder, no insurance, no pharma around the condition. A good reason to try and get a label for the DSM. I think there are far too many diagnoses of ADHD in America vs. say Europe, and I am even more skeptical about the actual category of ADD, ADHD and similar mental disorder acronyms. We strive to hard to label any behavior different than some statistical norm as aberrant, and in need of correction. I am not a doctor, but there are some professionals who also have this opinion [1,2]. I am not saying ADD, ADHD are not real descriptions of what people seem to identify with, or experience, but that maybe we are pulling in a lot of others in the wide net of attempting to normalize our children and society. Personally, I believe people need to identify with something, or have reasons for feelings or behaviors they can't seem to find cause for, or label.

I lived and grew up in Brooklyn during the 1970s, and it was interesting to note that my friends who remained in the city after having children had their kids on some type of medication (lithium, prozac, amphetamines) compared with my kids and a few others who left for the countryside, or another country. It's not urban vs. rural, but more an American thing. After having lived overseas for 8 years, and some other odd years in other countries, I returned to the US, and when I turned on a TV for the first time in a long time, all I saw were big pharma adds for everything from spastic colon to mental disorders. Fortunately, I killed cable and only watch films, or read, or watch self-curated internet snippets of videos, news and articles. When I stay in a hotel, I see the same adds pushing cures, solutions in the guise of attractive people in bucolic settings. It's no wonder there's a rush to medicate everything.

I truly feel compassionate for anyone who feels bad, or different enough to suffer mentally or physically. I know, since I have had my own battles for sure. I only hope we aren't somatizing the population of kids, and implanting the idea that something is wrong with otherwise "normal" children.

[1] [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-theater-the- brai...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-theater-the- brain/201503/no-there-is-no-such-thing-adhd)

[2] [https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood- adhd/features/adhd-...](https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood- adhd/features/adhd-critics#1)

[3] [https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/02/adhd- neither-d...](https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/02/adhd-neither- disease-or-disorder)

</comment><comment><USER89> TLDR, vyvanse (amphetamine) makes you productive.

</comment><comment><USER90> for me its... TLDR: vyvanse

</comment><comment><USER91> Very informative article.

The author didn't really delve into whether he uses meds to cope with ADHD.

How do other people who have ADHD cope with it as startup founders? Do meds like Adderall, Ritalin or Concerta work? What about Nootropics?

Asking cos this situation seems to be very common in our profession i.e. starting some side project, getting overwhelmed with perfectionism, distractions and never shipping. Is that ADHD or just plain procrastination?

<comment><USER92> I noticed the omission too. Even if he's not using any medication, that seems like something worth mentioning.

Incidentally, I've had really good experiences with modafinil (aka Provigil). It's not approved for ADHD treatment in the US, but studies suggest it is effective, and it's widely prescribed off label.

<comment><USER93> Modafinil is awesome for ADHD, but I've found its effects tend to plateau after a few months. Traiditional, do one thing well stimulants were my magic bullet. Currently (for the past several years) using Dexedrine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER94> Not everyone has the opportunity to be CEO. I value this persons recount of his experience but does anyone have tips to be successful that are more down to earth.

For example I heard emergency room doctors are really good careers for those with ADHD.

</comment><comment><USER50> I have ADHD

</comment><comment><USER95> Am I the only one who thinks its easier to make things work in chaotic environment?</comment>