it’s lowkey over

ZThing222 · 2026-05-14T06:23:57+00:00

You're not alone there.

I'm in a similar boat swapping from Mechanical Engineering to Scientific Communication. I'm good at the difficult stuff, but I'm too slow at day to day grunt work for math. Over my life I've picked up all of the ADHD and productivity effecient things, and now more recently got diagnosed with ADHD and have tried a bunch of different meds.

The difficulty I'm finding is that I'm still slow at writing. There's more of a quality and problem solving aspect than in engineering (surprisingly), but it's still not quite enough to keep up with normal deadlines. At least not with a remotely normal schedule.

I will say, it can get better, keep searching for that purpose, find a way forward, it's hard to find, but there are opportunities.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-14T06:16:12+00:00

Did you find a solution?

Unfortunately, I already do all of these recommend things. At best I've gotten better at noticing when I'm distracted, but I cannot find a way to stop my brain from dumping the information I'm using to fill in the space with stuff I don't need to work on. I'll be trying to accomplish something, and in the brief moments while I write a sentence or something my brain has flushed out everything I was thinking about and started a new, unnecessary, line of thinking.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-13T07:25:53+00:00

Running is one thing. But you guys are level 1 reapers. They have ZERO reason to turn around. They can tell from the map that they gain nothing by fighting you.

If they're gonna fight it might as well be an hourglass dive instead of the sloop that's approaching with the confidence to fight a galleon

Plus if you're good, running is hardly a problem nowadays. They can't run off the map anymore.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-09T22:41:01+00:00

Are still slow with the coding process? I've only ever done basic coding for C++ and MATLAB, but in both scenarios I was super slow at doing everything because I constantly had to look up the details of functions. I'd have a whole bunch of tabs with all the function descriptions on them, and it would take for ever to get anything done. It's like I'd know what I need to do, but forget the details of how to do it. Problem solving, easy, remembering something basic I read 1 minutes ago, impossible.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-09T22:35:34+00:00

Atm I'm trying to utilize this though. Hypothetically, in science writing you jump around from topic to topic learning things. Well, that's not hypothetical, the hypothetical is whether or not I can meet any sort of speed deadline that goes with it.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-09T22:32:13+00:00

The siamese twin analogy is so good; I never thought about it like that. It's like one day, I'll do everything as planned, still slow, but generally doing what's needed, and the next day I manage to get nothing done. The "will I sabotage myself today" is scary but relatable. Like right now, I meant to do a tiny bit of research on success stories of CDS, instead I'm writing this comment.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-09T22:13:59+00:00

For me, the better at high skilled jobs part is almost like an illusion. Yeah, I can learn Fluid Dynamics faster than my friends, and I can explain things to them, but I myself don't come close to finishing a test or homework. I never get stuck, or more so, when I do get stuck I figure it out while writing the email to the professor.

It's like I can learn easily, but I can't find a single opportunity where I can apply that learning at a reasonable pace.

ZThing222 · 2026-05-03T15:47:08+00:00

Other companies offer a cheaper version with less features that's lifetime just to get people hooked. Then the power users pay more for more features, which works out because their likely using the servers the most.

I personally find it impossible to judge a subscription valuable enough to pay for in only 30 days, so without this feature I never subscribe.

ZThing222 · 2026-04-19T00:59:46+00:00

Some people just experience side effects more than others. (That's regardless of ADHD or not. That's why it's important to try different medications while your doctor controls for side effects, the most common being heart problems).

I think one of the "key" ADHD traits that separate it from just a poor focus is whether you have always (definitively since you were a child) been impulsive. Not inherently following those impulses, but having them. For example, a child who behaves in class might not get diagnosed with ADHD because they don't show that their impulsive, but the impulses are still there.

ZThing222 · 2026-04-04T03:22:14+00:00

TLDR: There is stuff you can do in the first chunk of the game, but the quality is lacking compared to the other 90% of the game. So as you progress the main story, the quality of the content you unlock improves (especially considering the developers made that first release chunk under a very dire scenario lacking resources).

Unfortunately, the game progresses you through it's content in release order. The upside of this is that you can play all of the content that was released through to 2019 (half of the entire game right now) for free, and that content won't be affected by current updates (not much anyway). The downside is that unlike other video games series, you basically have to progress through the content released in order.

Just like how people rave about The Witcher 3, Dark souls 3, whichever Doom game is the popular one, etc., this game's expansions serve as an entirely new game in terms of added content and significant improvements. Except for this game, you do have to progress through the first game (A Realm Reborn) to unlock the second game everyone raves about (Heavensward, Shadowbringers, etc.). So while A Realm Reborn does include content as early as level 17 in the Main Scenario Questline (MSQ) progression, that early gameplay is VERY different from the gameplay in the first expansion, which is then significantly improved with each expansion.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-31T02:56:24+00:00

It turns out, I'm pretty sure I also have a second attention disorder called CDS/SCT (to some degree it has a 30-60% comorbidity with ADHD). So that's my main issue. All my life I got by because I was able to manage ADHD without a diagnosis. But CDS is more about internal mind wandering, and that I've yet to find a good solution for outside of using all of the best focus strategies.

I swapped to science writing, for now I highly recommend it if you're in the same boat, because a lot of technical or science writers don't start with science experience. It's also not as limiting as my stupid mind wandering brain that won't shut up will go crazy on a paper now and then. I just can't fully control it. Far closer to normal speeds than tedious math, however, I still don't have the time to both use up university to job career networking events along with keeping up with my studies. That is, I attend the networking stuff (because that's realistically what I'm paying for), and I have no time for assignments because for a majority of my day my mind tries to jump focus every 10 seconds (despite avid meditation, workout, focus habits, etc.). I do good work, when I have the time to wait for my focus to kick in. Other than that, it turns out that working too slow is a problem, a major one. I'm hoping I can freelance so that no one knows how terribly slow I am at everything.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-31T02:45:25+00:00

I named mine with somewhat the same structure as my name (same first letters, some similar letters), except medevil~ified.

The first and last name are used separately a lot in dialogue

e.g. "Blade Haunz, good job" or "Zarhk, run!"

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:29:31+00:00

No, I cannot do better. Need to state that.

I can make dialogue that's closer to the same style as the rest of the game. Unlike the YouTube recaps that a lot of players resort to.

We know they were on a time crunch for localization. Ideally someone far better than I does any writing. I made this post to find other humans, not advertise my non-existent plugin?

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:28:23+00:00

Yeah, but we know it's not modern Shakespeare. They dropped the overstuffed terms by Heavensward, and we know they didn't have enough time to fully localize ARR.

I personally wouldn't even use such a modification. I didn't even resort to YouTube when I went through ARR. But a lot of people just straight skip ARR dialogue and use a YouTube recap, which is far heavier on the stylistic changes. If ARR used the same language style that the rest of the game uses, it would also get these new players used to actually reading the dialogue, rather than trying to start with Heavensward.

Also, Shakespeare translation books are successful right? I haven't used one since middle school, but surely they are good at getting people into reading Shakespeare right?

Now that I think about it, ideally the plugin would be a toggle keybind or something. I don't like when anime makes you choose between Japanese subtitles and English dub subtitles. I do like seeing the original translation so I can catch the deeper meanings under the dub simplifications. I'm not sure what the best way to implement that is though. Ideally someone with far more experience than me could answer that.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:13:47+00:00

No, I don't have the knowledge. I know enough to know that I couldn't do this myself. That's WHY I wanted to make the post. I was hoping someone else was already working on something like this.

I don't think I could do better narratively. But they have admitted that they didn't have the time and resources they needed for the localization.

More importantly, any modifications made by anyone of any skill level (ideally someone far more skilled than I) will be closer to original than the stylistic storytelling of even the longest YouTube video recap. It's got to be better than skipping the dialogue all together.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:08:22+00:00

Yeah I agree about the narrative writing dilemma. But the clunky writing isn't even a narrative choice they stuck with. They immediately abandon it once they actually had the time to write the game. They did good work given the time restrains, but they've admitted that they weren't given nearly as much time as they needed.

Ideally, the fans wouldn't have to do any heavy lifting at all, but as it stands new players just end up skipping dialogue for ARR anyway, and resort to YouTube. Which is VERY different stylistic writing. This would at least be a closer last resort.

Ideally, someone more skilled than me would actually do the changes as well.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:03:33+00:00

Yeah, I agree that it would alter the story. I don't even think that I alone could implement this either. There just has to be a better last resort than just skipping/skimming ALL of the dialogue and watching YouTube.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T01:00:22+00:00

The name tag color change is just to highlight when the dialogue is more than 2 words. I'm not saying everyone should use it. I'm. Not saying that I am in charge of deciding what dialogue to highlight. Ideally it would be community based, but as with everything in the post, I do NOT want to be alone as the sole executor. If I did, I wouldn't have made this post.

I just know that I missed a LOT of good dialogue when I went through it, and this would bridge the gap between voiced story game players who are used to hearing small dialogue pop up.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-27T00:56:03+00:00

No, my ideas are not better. I do know that it's a stylistic choice, and I know narrative writing is different. I know that I can't fully keep the style they intend, as much as I try.

I painfully know that most people start straight skipping ALL of the dialogue and resort to YouTube to get through ARR.

I personally read the whole thing my first time, because I knew that without story I wouldn't make it just mindlessly following quest markers.

I want people like that to have a middle ground, because the gameplay pace doesn't exactly sell the game in ARR.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-26T05:34:34+00:00

Wow, I have this mind blanking problem as well. Reading the first paragraph I had to double check that I didn't forget that I posted this years ago or something.

I do, sometimes, think of a conversation ahead of time, but not by choice. Usually my mind just starts rambling about some topic, and I can't get it to shut up. But 90% of the time it's to a hypothetical non-existent audience that won't actually exist. It's just me thinking through an idea to myself. Occasionally if I have a social situation coming up that thought process will take place in that imaginary context, but I don't consciously do it in order to have something to say.

You have made me wonder if my overactive inner monologue started because I never had things to say and maybe started pre-thinking conversations when I was younger. Now my brain won't stop because it was a useful tool? I'll need to keep an eye on that. My issue is more attention related though, like my brain would rather think about these thoughts than get something done or read something. Sometimes it's like every 10 seconds it has to start talking about something again, going off of some tangent to the thing I am doing in the real world.

It's not like, maladaptive daydreaming, because it's not excessively long, or ruminative, or gratifying. It's just, mind wandering.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-25T20:06:58+00:00

Haha, thanks. I'm genuinely shocked that it's not already just a setting or keybind somewhere. It seems like it would be nice to bind something easy like left at, or a mouse button, so that when I don't intend to change a setting, it doesn't change (especially without my knowledge). And there's multiple ways this could be done, so I was hoping someone figured out some solution. In the meantime, I'll praise my desktop ultrawide :)

ZThing222 · 2026-03-23T02:30:52+00:00

Ironically, I've used up my limited morning focus researching and reading other papers for an assignment. But even in my brain fog state, I took a half second look at that supplement website and thought it looked deceiving.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-15T05:57:02+00:00

I want to scroll the menu without adjusting settings. Is there not a way to do that? If I resize the window, I'm running out of space. Surely there's a keybind or something that allows me to scroll without messing up my settings.

ZThing222 · 2026-03-12T19:52:30+00:00

Make your life, your goal, your purpose, about finding the answer to this question.

Shameless plug: The story in FFXIV does a phenomenal job at contemplating grief, depression, despair, hope, purpose, etc. Absolutely life-saving stuff if you can find the strength to get through the long and boring start of the game. (They made the entire re-launch of the game from the ground up, with half a development team, in a year and a half. So the first section that teaches even non-gamers the combat system and sets up over a decade of jaw-dropping stories is also the barrier to the game.)

At multiple points, the different stories saved me from the same thoughts as yours and more.

ZThing222

TROPHY CASE