Absolutely, it seems to me that a larger than normal portion of the IT industry is full of people with ADHD. Especially systems, networking and security type jobs where knowing a little about everything and then being willing to dive deep on something is extremely helpful.
Large complex systems require large complex knowledge bases to run, and curious people that tend to learn everything about something that catches their attention instead of shrug and walk away as soon as its working endup having diverse skillsets.
Obviously, you’ll still have to learn to moderate it if you want to be employable. But, there’s defiantly a world out there where curious people that love to learn a stack of assorted skills and are quick pattern matchers can excell.
Even better, go find yourself a poorly maintained and managed stack where everything is a fire drill and all the sudden you’re in focus mode all the time. Your work queue is just a stack of the most pressing issues and your brain is wired to be energized by the new, unknown and urgent.
Some people fatigue from being presented a giant unknown issue while someone is standing behind them with a stop watch or, more likely a lost revenue counter. Not you, buddy, that’s you’re home turf. ‘Mean time to recovery’ of complex systems that you’ve never even heard of isajist the score on your favorite game.
Now, here’s a big big caveat. You can’t live your life in a healthy way running under stress 100% of the time. And you can’t deliver longer term system improvements that solve the stress problem by just banking on stress to fix your executive function. So at a certain point, it starts to be career limiting.
You’ll go from the tech that can figure anything out to the engineer that knows the whole system but can’t drive meaningful process improvements and keeps the stack in the same disarray. Your job as you advance is to make to make your massive systems look less like your brain over time.
And here’s the good news. You have a deep catalogue of failure modes in your head. And your gut instinct is going to be right a lot of times as you start to build or replace systems.
The catch, at this stage is that you’ll need to learn how to articulate your years of high pressure undocumented fixes (instincts) into guiding principles you can show to people and explaine why its better.
You’ll have yo learn how to timebox deep exploration, how to finish your full tasks, how to plan and predict the amount of time it takes you to get things done.
I should do a more detailed writeup at some point. But, let’s be honest. . .
I expect there are many trades like this, some where you can just live in that world where work comes out of a queue and you work until its not an emergency. I bet being an EMT or other type of first responder, would be a good ffromnt I assume a lot of kitchen staff in fast paced restaurants all have it.
I worked as a tech for years in factories with large machine and convayence systems, more mechanical than computer, same deal.
I’ve been a Machinery operator, and that was great, I could hyperfocuse and deliver, good with the machines because your predicting how your actions will affect the thing the machine is operating on. And, if you’re interested in the struggle for perfect efficiency with your machine, you can play the game where you try to cut every available motion to only essentials. Did you know if you’re loading a truck far away, its still (almost always) faster to return to your pile backwards than to turn twice? You’ll know that because you’ve got the brain capacity to excel at your job while tracking patterns and doing side quests.
Did you know that roughly 10-15% of the wear that is put on the skid skidsteer tires is unnecessary? That’s right, I ran a machine with bike tire odometers on all for tires. If you lift the front tires with the bucket whenever its empty and you turn you can save a considerable amount of rotations on your tires. But do note, that the optimal tire savings is inversely proportional to the replacement time on the front bucket edge, so factor in the surface you’re turning on, can this turn be moved from the street to the lawn without slowing total round trip? You’d want a stop watch in your cab for that shit. Can I make a single wide turn instead of a tank to save rubber without slowing down my total speed? Which also brings us back to, can I keep time and just go backwards one way so I never have to turn at all? Hey its 5pm . . .
ADHD is kinda cool in some ways. No one thinks about that shit the same way you will. What really sucks is the start of your life is the school part, and that is hard all the way around, but when you get out into the real world, there’s all sorts of things you can do and probably do better than other people, but you have to learn to work within the constraints your mind gives you.
I don’t know if that’s because its expensive or hard to find but don’t give your self an out for a perceived excuse. At least work up until you hit and actual bump in the road
Yea, I’m a manager and developer. If you’re one of my reports and struggling I have no qualms about dropping whatever shit I’m supposed to be doing and helping you overcome your problem. ADHD people tend to be extremely reliable in the moment and as long as those around us understand that I think we are quite helpful to those around us.
Of course. Apart from all the many things you can say about the creativity and fun of ‘the’ ADHD brain, the absent-minded professor is a lesser known ADHD archetype. That kind of single-minded focus might not always be healthy for the individual but, for pushing back the frontiers of knowledge, it does come in handy.
It really surprised me when I first read about it. The stereotype of ADHD is so far removed from the reality for many. Kids who do well academically don’t get diagnosed and end up struggling because the hyperfocus element of ADHD isn’t common knowledge.
Or, perhaps, hyperfocus on socially desirable activities isn’t recognised as being problematic even if it’s causing the individual with ADHD no end of trouble.
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