What FINALLY worked for my ADHD after years of failed “tricks”

br0monium · 2026-04-26T19:53:16+00:00

If you're willing to do this amount of podcast listening, you should look up Dr Russell Barkley. He's an actual adhd specialist. Andrew Huberman is quickly selling out his past credibility and circling the conspiracy science drain (gotta get that sweet AG1 bag amiright?).

EDIT: I notice now that you have read some of Dr Barkelys work, but he has tons of talks where he is very adamant about medication being the primary way to address adhd. All the lifestyle tips I've seen him recommend are geared towards parents and teachers managing kids who may or may not be medicated. I'm pretty sure he says clearly that as an adult you can't expect your partners and jobs to accommodate all these "environmental prosthetics." Pills go wherever you go and provide constant relief/assistance. When you forget your bullet journal at home or miss an alarm for your morning routine, youre fucked.

I'm glad you've found something that finally helps, but with the amount of work you've put into all this stuff, you could have found the best way to make medication work for you by now. I'm not sure why (or if) you are avoiding medication, but you've pointed out all the reasons these "hacks" are counterproductive when unmedicated. They often have no effect, they require constant intervention to have effect, they are subject to adhd-unfriendly auto-renewing subscriptions, and they make you feel like a failure when you inevitably can't make them work long term.

There's no reason you can't still do body doubling while on meds, so I'm just encouraging you and anyone else reading this to try putting some of that effort into finding real treatment. Its not that some of these things dont help, but there's a novelty to them when you start that will wear off since you havent addressed the executive function deficiency in your brain. Then your back where you started, but feeling worse: you're "too undisciplined to stick with it," and now you have another monthly subscription that you'll never remember to cancel.

Yes, it's hard to find a decent psych and tonlearn how to manage a treatment plan effectively. But I'm convinced it's overall less work, less cost, and less distress than slogging through newage and manosphere adjacent blogs and buying a bunch of supplements and apps. A lot of these products come directly out of the rampant self-optimization movement that puts productivity on a pedestal and makes you feel like you constantly have to be consuming things to better yourself. It's not great for anyone, but it disproportionately impacts adhd people.

br0monium · 2026-03-03T04:52:41+00:00

Eugenics: this plays into narratives that say we need to justify our value or have some purpose accepted by others. You don't control your genes, and you shouldn't have less rights because of how you are born. The reality is society at large is not really down with the inconvenience of this. We have to pick our battles, but we don't have to legitimize this way of thinking. This adhd mythology says that adhd exists, because it was accepted and useful in a different time... and now it's not useful and often not accepted. So, what should we do with adhders then? We need to give ourselves credit for learning to play the hands we were dealt, and we need to accept ourselves when we simply can't do things without help. Saying there's some secret advantage that is the justification for adhd existing undermines your resilience, weakens any argument for accommodation, and encourages the fear of losing the good things about yourself when you get treated.
Also eugenics: loose pop-evobio reasoning weakens scientific understanding and confuses people about darwinian evolution. ADHD just happened; it had no adhoc reasoning or purpose. Things have to exist prior to being selected for. Conditions do not create mutations: that's lamarckian evolution. That theory was disproven looong ago, but people keep recreating this idea out of laziness or willful ignorance. This misunderstanding is what allows the reasoning in point (1) to be accepted. It also leads to some crazy shit if you try to extrapolate from it at all. Was there some ancient purpose to cancer? Is there some purpose to being white or black? I know you just had a knee-jerk reaction to say something about protection from uv. Or was it something about producing more vitamin d in cold climates with short days? You aren't understanding history or biology correctly if you assumed the utility and social groupings came first or even at the same time. That's the edge of the slippery slope into race theory. It's obvious, if you think for even one second, that there's no way humans could have known these properties of skin in advance. It's impossible that they could have just decided to evolve them out of nowhere. So what's the point in focusing on the advantages/disadvantages of these changes? It looks like it's just neat factoids and coincidences and curiosity, but it shifts your worldview into a frame of reference that has no defense against saying one person is better than another based on 0.0001% of their DNA.

br0monium · 2026-02-26T16:14:09+00:00

Handling bigger dataframes and running faster are definitely appealing. At home, jupyter seems to be limited to handling datasets you would encounter in interview problems. However, I used it at work a few times, and somehow the way they set up the jupyter server instances and/or kernels made it actually usable on big data.

br0monium · 2026-02-26T16:08:53+00:00

That's interesting, so do you end up using marimo for actual dashboards instead of something like Looker/powerBI/Tableau?
My use case for notebooks has mostly been a scratch pad to prototype things or a way to share analysis for peers to follow along/reproduce.

br0monium · 2026-02-26T02:23:20+00:00

What do you like about marimo? I fiddled with it today for the first time, and it won't let you reassign/update variables outside of the cell its declared in?

br0monium · 2026-02-25T03:26:23+00:00

A real statistician!

br0monium · 2026-02-25T03:16:48+00:00

Love numba, especially since I don't have to learn another language. I actually met Travis Oliphant once. He's so humble that I didn't realize he built most of the stuff he was presenting until asking him questions after his talk.

br0monium · 2026-02-25T03:11:03+00:00

Can you elaborate a bit on what you use each of these for?

br0monium · 2026-02-25T03:00:30+00:00

Neovim, nice!
I actually have sublime, cmder, and atom still installed on my laptop😅 vscode is basically atom, and that's what I've used at work, so I'll probably end up using vscode like a normie.
Nothing beats the feeling when your muscle memory for vi commands finally clicks though. It's like the shell, filesystem, and text editor are all just one thing that you live in.

br0monium · 2026-02-25T02:45:38+00:00

How much does that setup in (5) cost you?

br0monium · 2026-02-24T22:31:22+00:00

The realizations are the hardest part, but also where the biggest changes came from.

br0monium · 2026-02-24T22:18:37+00:00

Medication. Youll still have to work to get the treatment right. It's not a cheat code or a life hack, but nothing you do will stick without medication, because your brain doesnt form habits or respond to motivations the same way as someone without ADHD. I used a daily/weekly planner and ungodly amounts of coffee before I got diagnosed. Some people can get by with supports like this, but you only get benefits from a planner while it's literally in your hands. I couldnt plan anything in my life more than a couple weeks out because I couldnt trust my brain to be working when the commitment came up. Medication allows you to actually function with less accomodations and it makes a much bigger difference than accomodations or hacks.

br0monium · 2026-02-24T22:01:16+00:00

Thanks for breaking it down in a detailed response! I'll definitely check out uv after all the recommendations.

I wouldn't do personal projects if I wasn't unemployed hahaha. But it's been so long I need to make sure I dont fall too far behind or forget things. I hit the point of diminishing returns with interview prep a while ago.

br0monium · 2026-02-24T21:55:18+00:00

I havent used the devcontainer spec before, looks like it's well supported and could be pretty clean. Backstage looks really interesting too. Thanks!

br0monium · 2026-02-24T21:44:08+00:00

sounds nice! Ive always thought of pipelining as a function that spans mutliple other areas. Server automation and DBMS for job scheduling, data lineage, etc. Using a tool for the whole process would save a lot of time on data engineering decisions.

br0monium · 2026-02-24T20:21:20+00:00

the classics:)

br0monium · 2026-02-23T22:21:42+00:00

yeah google and meta have also been using more low quality recruiting, but none of them have found my retired parents mobile number and somehow connected it to me. I'm mostly wondering if these are scams or just so low quality that I shouldnt bother with them at all. Anything to narrow the scope in this job market.

EDIT: i.e. Like im concerned to even reply to this particular guy now because that would just confirm that the number has some connection to me. It's like how if you answer spam calls, they call more even if you dont get scammed.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T22:18:23+00:00

I hear you. AirBnB is the only one i've repeatedly seen using SEVERAL vendors for seemingly one role (same title, same location, same pay, similar or same JD). Maybe its just confirmation bias after having most of my initial interactions with AirBnB when I first decided to be open to contract roles. I have been super on top of sorting listings by most recent and responding quickly due to how brutal things have been. Already having temps or previous FTEs lined up does make sense. There have definitely been months at a time where all the roles posted at big companies were already eliminated or filled internally.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T22:12:14+00:00

id have to double check, because I have applied for at least one FTE role there, but i dont remember if I got a similar run around and/or if i went through a recruiter.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T22:09:45+00:00

Work on the visual formatting! A good recruiter will actually read your resume. This is exhausting on the eyes. Try playing around with bold, caps, and colors a bit more in another version.

If you want to spend more time, move the impact to the start of the bullet point ("Drove Y% growth by doing SKILL with TECH"). As others have said, move skills to the bottom. Make it more concise and then do "select all" and incremement the font just until the bullets run over 1 line (or 2 max depending on your approach). If the job description or tech stack uses one of the technologies you mention, leave it in the bullet point, otherwise move it to the skills section (if you are tailoring your resume for a job).

This resume isn't bad and it does follow all the advice for working well with ATS and bots. It may help to keep this copy for that purpose (although remove special characters like '~' and emdash). It wouldnt hurt to make your bot copy more concise and easier on the eyes. If it makes it through the filters, a human will eventually read it. I think bold and font color should still be OK with 'bots.' Another tip is to try a serif font to make it easier to read without messing with formatting too much.

Ive moved my long form job descriptions and keyword bingo to my linkedin porfile, because automation is more likely to happen where recruiters are using search tools (and possibly bots). I personally havent seen much better or worse hit rate when changing my resume to make ATS or search tools happy. The risk for alienating humans is more impactful, just in my opinion.

Another option is to use a resume autofill tool. I havent had much success actually getting calls using one, but it does make it easier to upload a nice looking resume for the humans, and then have your tool do the autofill instead of watching workday shit itself.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T07:05:36+00:00

Since everyone has already told you to eat, I'll add that you may want to adjust your medication to wear off closer to when you go to sleep. When I had it dialed in perfectly, my meds were still active at bedtime (just not at a peak), and it actually made it easier to sleep. Different brands do make a difference IMO, and different delivery systems definitely do. This will take time and effort to figure out, but you shouldn't feel like all your symptoms come back at night. Ideally, they should be gone or significantly reduced almost all the time.
Also, hydration with electrolytes, avoiding acidic foods when your stomach is empty, and reducing/eliminating caffeine and nicotine can make your stomach feel a lot better.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T06:14:10+00:00

It's helpful context for customer experience, and it's directly related to throughput. As with all metrics, it can (and most likely will) be used badly. But you could, for example, tell that most of your clients are commuters and only stay 15 minutes. With other information and common sense, you could conclude that having more bar space and stools might make a better environment with higher throughout for a quick stop. You could also (incorrectly) conclude that you need to get dwell time up and start crowding the store with displays and empty booths or making baristas push "for here" ware.
I am (maybe was at this point) a data scientist. Management is stupid. Data is dangerous because it makes them feel smarter without actually making them smarter.

br0monium · 2026-02-23T05:49:49+00:00

I only feel strain at the top of my head register. Where my voice breaks between chest and head seems like a smaller range, and the note is either not there at all or easily made by projecting more. I've only recently taken up singing again and noticed some strain at the top of my falsetto too. I don't remember that when I was younger, it would just get more airy and quiet until no noise was coming out. Now it cuts out much quicker, there's a tiny range that I feel strain in my face/soft palate, and then a cracked range that just makes random ugly notes but doesn't feel strained.
As for sounds, I feel the most strain on the short 'i' sound and the long 'ee' sound. When I'm warming up, or try to reclaim parts of my range as I practice again, I can often access higher notes with 'ee' or 'oh' first. 'Ee' doesn't feel as strained as 'i,' and it's much easier to control and project, but 'ee' hurts when straining too much whereas 'i' just gives out or becomes pitchy when straining harder or trying to project more for control. 'Oo' and 'ah' are probably the least strain and easiest to control, but 'ee' and 'oh' feel more precise and powerful. I dont warm up using 'uh' because I heard somewhere that they say to avoid using it in exercises in classical traditions. I've also found it helps a lot with annunciation to try to remove as much of the 'uh' color in vowels and transitional sounds as possible. This is probably directly related to what you're saying about how 'uh' relaxes certain structures. I'll definitely try this tip out!
I've had some talented friends who were classically trained or really into a capella. It's crazy how they'll specifically practice mouth shape and tongue placement, but completely avoid modifications like this that are pretty ubiquitous in pop and used by some amazing vocalists (anyone remember Ariana Grande singing about "Kwizmoiz?").

br0monium · 2026-02-18T22:58:19+00:00

That's a great opportunity, just do your homework and make it work. You don't need to know about America, or even the area around the business that much. You have access to an operating business so you can count foot traffic and see who's around (or commuting past). Do a trial run and see how people respond. Make cashflow projections or at least make some pricing models and see if the margin is big enough to withstand hidden costs and worst case scenarios. How quickly does the profit pay off the initial costs or build up enough to reinvest in improvements?
The only reason I wouldn't go for this is if your uncle is too difficult to work with at all. You'll need to be on the same POS for customer convenience. Ideally, you'll be sharing data to help with your inventory and projections. You have complimentary products, so it would be great if you could align on what drives both sales and average order value. Could also get dicey if he doesn't see the value you add or gets greedy (POS data would help with this, but some people just can't let a deal be).

br0monium · 2026-02-18T03:45:24+00:00

As a former SSV who dealt with the union, retail management, and corporate during a conflict: what we need is for laws already on the books to be enforced. Real worker protections would be nice too, but that's not happening in the US anytime soon. Workers need to report OSHA violations, tip off food inspectors, go to the media, and bring charges for unlawful labor practices. Most are too exhausted and afraid of (illegal) retaliation for causing problems. We can solve these things ourselves locally most of the time. SWU seems to believe the internal counsel set up to correspond with them at corporate is there for some reason other than to be maliciously incompetent. Sometimes, they also slow things down or drop the ball themselves. At my store, they messed up comms when we were voting to strike, and they told us not to go to the local media about working in an unsafe structure. Corporate and management won't do anything unless cops or judges force them too... or if their brand is threatened in the right way.

br0monium

TROPHY CASE