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[Ed. note: While we take some time to rest up over the holidays and prepare for next year, we are re-publishing our top ten posts for the year. Please enjoy our favorite work this year and we’ll see you in 2024.]
There’s sufficient of an overlap between individuals with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction) and individuals who code for a dwelling that programmers with ADHD have their own subreddit. Different subreddits abound with ADHD-related advice-givers and advice-seekers. We’ve additionally mentioned ADHD and the broader matter of neurodivergency on the Stack Overflow Podcast, with co-host Ceora Ford describing her experience being recognized with ADHD and chronic misconceptions round neurodiversity within the tech neighborhood.
ADHD analysis charges are on the rise for each adults and kids, although as you would possibly anticipate it’s powerful to know whether or not this rise is attributable to a better incidence of ADHD or just a rise within the variety of diagnoses made. Both approach, extra persons are understanding their experiences and skills by means of the lens of ADHD, and this consists of many individuals who code. However is there actually a connection between programming and ADHD? And will or not it’s that individuals with ADHD are significantly well-suited to programming careers?
Many builders with ADHD really feel their job is an ideal match for a way they suppose and strategy issues. “Coding may give ADHD brains precisely the type of stimulation they crave,” explains full-stack developer Abbey Perini. “Not solely is coding a artistic endeavor that includes continuously studying new issues, but in addition as soon as one drawback is solved, there’s at all times a model new one to attempt.”
Along with a revolving door of recent challenges that may preserve individuals with ADHD engaged, coding can reward and encourage a state of hyperfocus: a regularly cited symptom of ADHD that developer Neil Peterson calls “a state of laser-like focus wherein distractions and even a way of passing time appear to fade away.” It’s straightforward to attract parallels between hyperfocus and the flow state, a distraction-free groove wherein programmers, writers, musicians, artists, and different creators produce their finest work (often whereas forgetting to eat). Our paid platform, Stack Overflow for Groups, is widespread with builders largely as a result of it helps them keep away from distraction and shield the productive sanctity of their flow state.
However for each high quality that makes coding good for individuals with ADHD (or vice versa), there’s one other that would signify a specific hurdle. As an illustration, ADHD could make individuals extra susceptible to inattentive errors, missed deadlines, or unfinished tasks. A perennial query on Reddit is some variation of “Programmers with ADHD, how do you keep on monitor?”
The fact is that whereas some types of neurodivergence would possibly lend themselves to sure careers (I’ve at all times thought that my obsessive-compulsive dysfunction makes me a greater copyeditor, for instance), particular person outcomes will proceed to fluctuate.
Nevertheless it’s excellent news that many programmers with ADHD appear emboldened to share their experiences, provide recommendation, and ask for assist and lodging after they want it. And as we mentioned on a recent podcast episode, extra builders (and their managers) are having conversations about easy methods to assist the success of neurodiverse group members.
An open dialogue about ADHD and different types of neurodiversity is a vital step in dismantling the remaining stigma round neurodiversity in tech. These conversations occur finest in psychologically safe environments—one thing for managers to take to coronary heart, particularly in a time when many people are already feeling elevated strain because of industry-wide layoffs.
Making work and hiring extra accessible to neurodiverse individuals advantages everybody within the group. Neurodiverse individuals can contribute distinctive problem-solving approaches, an affinity for exhausting expertise like knowledge evaluation, and a bent towards perfectionism that may elevate total high quality, says Mariann Lowery, Product/UX Analysis Lead at Stack Overflow. And making the office extra inclusive can enhance worker engagement and provides us a better sense of objective at work—whether or not we establish as neurodiverse or not.
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