One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that I really prefer written or asynchronous communication. I find it much easier to make friends online than IRL. I enjoy making deep connections with folks I talk to on the web, most of whom I’ve never met offline. And a big part of that, for me, is that my brain often moves too fast for my mouth. With in-person conversations, trying to track what other people are saying and thoughts I had in response to it is hard.

I keep thinking about this post about burnout (and the included video) from my web dev site. One of the things I’m really struggling with is that I don’t really know what makes me happy or gives me purpose anymore. I used to be able to say “turning my ideas into stuff through code.” Then, over time, it was “seeing my students launch and build careers they were proud of.”

Just before the holidays, I had the pleasure of chatting with my friend Kevin Powell about navigating ADHD as a developer. Kevin and I talked about… The prevalence of ADHD in the developer community ADHD traits The importance of diagnosis and self-awareness Strategies for managing ADHD Why ADHD can be a good things How my understanding of ADHD has evolved over time Watch the whole talk here.

When you have ADHD, you tend to live in-the-moment a bit more, and follow your current passions and interests. That’s awesome! A lot of neurotypical folks really struggle with that, but it’s often just a part of who we are. However, it also means we sometimes don’t plan for bigger goals and wants too well. Once or twice a year, take a little bit of time to identify a few big goals.

My ADHD tends to manifest in two opposing forms… Jump right in. Thanks to a lack of impulse control, I’ll often dive right into an idea without worrying too much about “what it doesn’t work out” or “what could go wrong.” Deep research and overplanning. Sometimes, I want to learn everything I can about a topic first. It’s usually not from a place of fear. It’s deep curiosity that can morph into analysis-paralysis if I’m not careful.

One of the biggest struggles I’ve had with my ADHD is that growing up, your taught a bunch of “rules” about what you should do. Know what you want to be when you grow up. Have a five-year plan. Go to college. Work your way up the career ladder. Play the internal politics game. Buy a big house and settle down. And so on, and so on… It’s possible some of those are things you’re good at or want for yourself.

The other day, I wrote about how not everyone will like you when you have ADHD. Related to that, I’ve found I have a much easier time making friendships online than IRL. Like a lot of folks with ADHD, my brain moves really fast, and that can often result in me saying things aloud… In a way I didn’t intend. Without fully thinking through them, so what I said isn’t how I really feel or what I really mean.

I often describe myself as an acquired taste. I hit it off with some people right way. Instant bond. But a lot of people find me to be… a lot. Too loud. Too outspoken. Too passionate. Just overall too much. As an ADHDer, you might do one of two things about this… Mask, or hide the stuff about yourself that many people don’t like and try to “act normal.” Be yourself, and accept that a big chunk of people won’t like you for who you are.

A few weeks back I wrote about energy management, and it really resonated with some folks. Today, I wanted to talk about a related topic: how much I’ve got on my plate. When I’ve got too much going on—too many tasks, too many projects, too many hobbies, too many commitments—my brain goes into overwhelm pretty quickly. It’s hard to pick a thing to focus on. It’s hard to stay focused on the thing you do pick.

As a kid, I got in trouble at a lot for not using whole-body listening. If you’re familiar, whole-body listening is this thing they tell kids they need to do in order to focus and be respectful when someone else is talking. It involves… Eyes on the speaker. Hands quiet and still. Feet quiet and still. Legs folded and still. Body facing the speaker. And if you have ADHD, you probably are already saying to yourself, “yea, no fucking way!

With ADHD, it always comes down to RAM. You know how when you have too many apps open on an older computer, the hourglass or pinwheel pops up a lot? ADHD brains are like that, too. Tons of storage. Very little working memory. For years, I was nearly singularly focused on my web dev education business. But when the tech market shifted and that wasn’t paying the bills anymore, I had to expand.

The older I get, the more I realize how much energy management plays into my productivity. If I run on hyperfocus for an extended period (weeks+), I get a lot done. But I also burn through my tank, and need a long period of low productivity and menial tasks to recover. If I run at half speed (or more likely, a mix of bursts of productivity and distractability during any given day), I feel far less accomplished, but never burnt out.

This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Kris Jenkins from Developer Voices about coding for the ADHD brain… Fair warning: this is a long conversation. Kris asked some amazing questions, including a lot of questions I’ve never been asked before about my ADHD. He forced me to think and be introspective, and was an absolutely fantastic interviewer. In addition to talking about the joys and struggles of being a developer with ADHD, we dug into how to manage folks with ADHD, too.

One phrase I’ve grown to really dislike (that I’ve also used myself) is “Adult ADHD.” I see a lot of stuff like… I was diagnosed with adult ADHD. Or… I have adult ADHD. The reason I dislike “Adult ADHD” as a phrase is that for a lot of neurotypical folks, it implies that it’s something you developed as an adult, or that you can grow out of.

When you have ADHD, you spend a lifetime being compared to neurotypical folks. You’ll may feel like you’re lazy, or just need to work a little harder (or be told those things by others). These feelings are sometimes more internalized if you don’t get diagnosed until you’re an adult. I have a todo list a mile long. I have so many things I’m supposed to do each day. Some days, I’m particularly on, and get it all done and then some.

It’s not uncommon for folks with ADHD to feel burnout. Operating in a world built for neurotypicals—with our limited brain RAM and emotional dysregulation and time blindness—can be hard! If you don’t manage your energy properly and follow your ADHD flow, you can find yourself empty. Last year, Amy Hupe’s talk about burnout from State of the Browser came at the perfect time for me… I was feeling really burnt out by the state of the industry and my business, and it was great to feel seen!

Last week, we talked about the squirrel and the magnet, the two ADHD modes that make it hard to task switch. Today, let’s talk about Squirrel Mode. In Squirrel Mode, your brain is like a squirrel running across the road. It zigs and zags from one topic to another, and has many things bouncing around. Focusing on anything long enough to make significant progress is extremely hard. I “tame the squirrel” in a few different ways…

People with ADHD often have a really tough time switching from one task to another. In my experience, this takes two forms: The squirrel The magnet In Squirrel Mode™, your brain is like a squirrel running across the road. It zigs and zags from one topic to another, and has many things bouncing around. Focusing on anything long enough to make significant progress is extremely hard. When you go to shift from one task to another—because you’ve finished what you were doing, or because you get interrupted—you revert back into squirrel behavior.

Yesterday was awful. Whether you live in the United States or not, this week’s election is going to have rippling global consequences for years to come. And for the first time in a long time, I found myself without words. When ADHD brains feel overwhelm, we sometimes go into what’s called a freeze response. We don’t fight. We don’t flight. We just pinwheel like a possum. For the first half of the day, that was me.

Like Autism, ADHD traits fall on a spectrum. There are a range of traits that vary from one person to the next. Not everyone with ADHD has every trait, and way an ADHD traits affects you might be different from how it affects someone else with ADHD. Today, let’s look at some of the more common ADHD traits you might have. And if you want to dig deeper into any of them, pick up a copy of my free ADHD Handbook.

Over the weekend, I had a conversation with someone who had just been diagnosed with ADHD literally the day before, and they weren’t feeling too great about it. I told them that I hoped they would eventually see ADHD as a gift rather than a curse. They told me (I’m paraphrasing)… I don’t like romanticizing mental health disorders. This one has caused me problems my whole life. There’s so much to unpack here, and I think this is really important to talk about, so let’s do that today.

At some point early in a new role, a lot of folks with ADHD start to feel imposter syndrome really acutely. It may be on the first day. It may be after the first week or two. But at some point, the volume of information you’ve had thrown at you becomes overwhelming, and you feel like you’re way over your head. For me, it’s usually when my new coworkers start using acronyms or talking about a tool or process that everyone else seems to already know about, and I feel like maybe I should, too.

With ADHD, it’s really easy to get bored and jump from one random thing to the next. If you’re not careful, you can end up with a lot of shallow experience in a lot of different things, but not enough depth to every really grow into more senior roles, increase your salary, or become the kind of expert that has a variety of career options. 👋 Hey there! Is an excerpt from my new course, the ADHD Career Guide.

Where do you see yourself in five years? A lot of neurotypical career advice is focused around this question, and around the idea of long-term career planning. You’re encouraged to think about your career as a linear progression, and plan each step of the way. Something like this… Start as a junior developer, focused on React. Expand into Next.js and take on a more senior full-stack role. Move into an engineering lead role.

A lot of folks in the ADHD community hate the word “superpowers” to describe ADHD traits. Describing someone as superpowers implies that their invincible and unwavering, and always manage to save the day. ADHD often feels like… not that! But if you’re familiar with superheroes, they always have a weakness, and it’s usually directly related to their power. The bigger the power, the bigger the corresponding weakness. It’s like that with ADHD, too!