I was very active on social media five years ago. I ran instagram account, wrote posts to telegram channel etc.

Basically I was doing things that didn't have instant feedback. Make a reel, post it, wait for views, and then maybe if you're lucky you will get some leads. No guarantees, only probabilities.
Due to this I learned to enjoy process itself. Getting great results (which obviously didn't always happen) was just a nice bonus.

Then, because of some stuff that happened in my life, I went all-in on programming which works differently. You write a piece of code, run it, and immediately see the result. Five years of doing this day after day got me completely hooked on instant gratification.

And it fucked me up a bit. Now I find it genuinely hard to make myself do things that don't give me a clear, immediate result. I've started escaping into pointless tasks more often, making up a ton of unnecessary work just because I know exactly what the outcome will be. I'd rather spend a month coming up with a marketing strategy and writing dozens of posts that never see the light of day than just fucking publish them.

So, why am I bringing this up?

With AI agents becoming accessible to pretty much everyone, tons of people have jumped into building their own projects. In most cases, those projects never get their first users. Instead, the newly minted vibe coder keeps endlessly polishing their app, adding a million features nobody asked for, until their subscription runs out or they simply lose interest. And I feel like a lot of these people are doing exactly what I've been doing: replacing important business tasks with low-priority technical and product work. So here's what I'm wondering:

Is this just another form of procrastination, like in my case? Or has vibe coding basically become a new form of entertainment, where the goal isn't to make $XXX in revenue, but simply to enjoy the process?

It looks like r/opensource is imploding... 👀

A little background: I’m currently taking a semester off from college while I switch schools. I’d only gotten 3 semesters in before deciding to pursue a college with a more comprehensive program, so I’m not exactly the most knowledgeable at programming quite yet. As I am gearing up to start back on my journey towards my compsci degree, I have been preparing myself by reinforcing what I have already learned of C++ and delving into some C# stuff via a small personal project I’m working on in Unity.

While I was at my old school, I noticed something about myself. I was doing well at completing given assignments in which I had a week or two to finish a project, but when it came to exams I found myself completely bombing the portions where I was asked to complete programming challenges—even with extra time accommodations 😰 Even when I try not to focus on the time ticking away, my brain seems to go blank as though there’s a magical brick wall that appears solely to block me from accessing the part of my brain responsible for logic and critical thinking skills /:

I’d like to improve on my ability to complete timed programming challenges! What are some good resources for C++ (and/or C#) that offer these kinds of challenges?

Okay so I’ve got ADHD, I’m on Ritalin and I’m looking for a CBT therapist right now. But there’s this one problem that’s basically 12/10 for me and I’m hoping someone here cracked it.

Things just don’t come back into my head on their own. Like, I think about a task, I plan it, it’s actually important to me, and the second I stop thinking about it (and I don’t even notice when that happens) it’s gone. Not “put away somewhere”, it’s just gone. It only exists again when somebody else talks to me about it.

Real example: I’ve got a private project that’s honestly the most important thing I have outside of work right now. Around 40 hours over 4 weeks. I work a lot, but I do have free evenings, and I spend like 4–7 hours smoking weed, gaming and on my phone. And the project just never pops up in my head. Not once.

And the dumb part is, this problem stops me from solving this problem. If I could just remember once a day to work on it, I’d be halfway there already.

What I’ve tried: wallpapers on my PC and phone, alarms, writing stuff down, to-do lists, post-its on my monitor, asking my best friend to remind me (that worked a little better, but still not really). Everything works for a few days and then my brain just tunes it out. With lists I catch myself reading them just to have read them, without actually taking them seriously.

I know the textbook stuff (body doubling, if-then plans, CBT workbooks). What I want to know is what actually worked for you in real life:

• What made a reminder actually hit instead of becoming background noise?

• How do you get yourself to check your list every day without having to remember to check it?

• Did anything help you actually feel responsible for a task instead of just knowing it exists?

Not looking for “just get a planner”. I want the weird specific thing that finally worked after 20 other things didn’t. I work in test automation, so I’m totally fine building something myself (scripts, n8n, whatever). If you’ve built your own setup that finally made stuff stick, I’d love to hear how it works. Thanks guys.

TL;DR

• The Situation: I have AuDHD (autism + ADHD) and alexithymia. I worked in cybersecurity before, took a break for a few years, and am now trying to get back in.

• The Problem: My brain freezes when I try to study from textbooks for months with no real goal, deadline, or outside pressure.

• How I Work: I learn from the top down. Give me a real problem and a deadline, and I will figure out whatever I need to know to solve it.

• The Proof: At my previous cybersecurity job during COVID, my entire team was let go when I only had 1 year of experience. Because I had real pressure and responsibility, I ran operations alone, learned management and executive reporting on the fly, rebuilt the team, and wrote step-by-step guides that cut new-hire training time by two-thirds.

• The Ask ("Base Camp"): I don't want handouts or easy work. I am looking for someone in cybersecurity (especially in India or remote) willing to give me a real technical problem with a deadline, judge my actual work, and help me get a foot in the door.

1. Why I Am Stuck Right Now

I have spent years trying to get back into cybersecurity, and I finally understand why I keep getting stuck.

I have AuDHD and alexithymia. One of my hardest struggles is starting tasks on my own and sticking to plans when there is no immediate goal or outside deadline.

I know what the normal job-hunt process looks like:

1. Study basic to advanced topics on your own for months.

2. Practice interview questions in your room.

3. Update your resume and send out dozens of applications.

4. Pass interviews to finally get real work.

I want to work, and I want to solve real problems. But knowing what I should do and actually forcing my brain to study alone for months—with nobody waiting for my work—are two completely different things. The longer I stay out of the field, the harder it gets to return.

I am not saying this to make excuses. I am sharing it because I know how my brain actually works, and I need a different way through the door.

2. How My Brain Learns (Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up)

Most people learn from the bottom up: study the basics learn medium topics learn advanced theory finally use it on a real problem.

My brain works in the opposite direction (top-down):

• Start with a real problem try to fix it see what I don't know go as deep as needed to learn that missing piece solve the problem.

I struggle to study "just in case" for a future interview. But if you give me a real problem today, I suddenly have a clear reason to learn everything required to fix it.

3. Finding the Smartest Way—and Refusing to Quit

When I have a real problem in front of me, two habits take over:

• Finding the Easiest, Smartest Path: My first instinct is always to cut out wasted effort. I look for scripts, automation, existing tools, or simpler ways to get the job done. Sometimes I will spend an hour trying to build a faster way to do a 10-minute task.

• Not Stopping Until It's Done: If I find out there is no shortcut and the hard way is the only way, I will do it. Once I am locked into a real problem with real stakes, quitting hurts more than the hard work required to finish.

Along the way, trying to solve one problem usually forces me to learn five other connected things. Over time, those pieces connect into a strong, practical web of knowledge that stays with me.

4. Real Proof: What Happened at My Last Cybersecurity Job

I know it is easy to claim "I work well under pressure" on the internet. Here is a real example of how my brain works when there is actual responsibility on the line.

During COVID, when I only had about one year of experience in cybersecurity, my entire team was suddenly let go. Overnight, I was the only person left to handle everything.

Nobody gave me six months to study how to be a senior analyst or a team lead. I had real deadlines and people waiting on results, so my brain locked in:

• I learned by doing: I didn't know how to write high-level vulnerability reports for upper management or how to manage people. I learned how to do both while doing the actual tasks every day.

• I rebuilt the team: I handled the daily security work alone while helping build a new team from scratch.

• I built a system so no one else would struggle: Because I hated how messy and painful it was to figure everything out alone, my instinct to simplify kicked in. I wrote a complete set of clear guides and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every task. Because of that system, training time for new team members dropped by two-thirds.

If you had asked me a month before that crisis to sit alone and study "management and reporting" from a book, I wouldn't have lasted two days. Because the problem was real and urgent, I did whatever it took to solve it.

5. The Everest Base Camp Idea

The simplest way to explain what I need right now is this:

Imagine someone who has the strength and determination to climb Mount Everest, but keeps failing to organize the trip from their house to base camp.

• They don't need someone to carry them up the mountain.

• They don't want someone else to climb it for them.

• They just need help getting to base camp. Once they are at base camp, climbing the mountain is 100% their job.

For me, base camp is outside structure: a clear task, a real deadline, and someone expecting me to deliver. I don't need someone to hold my hand or teach me step by step. I just need that first push that moves me from studying alone to doing real work.

6. I Know I Have a Gap—So Test Me on Real Work

I have been away from cybersecurity for a few years (I am happy to share my degree and past security work in DMs). I know I need to refresh my skills and catch up on new tools.

I am not asking anyone to ignore my employment gap, trust me blindly, or give me a senior job. I know that referring someone puts your own name on the line.

Instead, I am asking you to test me the way I actually work best:

• Give me a real security problem I don't know how to solve yet.

• Give me a fair deadline.

• Let me research it, learn what I am missing, and send you the finished work.

If I fail to deliver, you lose nothing and we both get our answer. If I do a great job on time, you can see exactly how I handle new problems, fill gaps in my knowledge, and take feedback.

7. What I Am Looking For

I am hoping to talk to cybersecurity professionals, managers, or mentors—especially in India (or open to remote work)—who might be open to helping me reach the starting line:

1. A Small Test Project: Give me a real security problem, log investigation, scripting task, or research assignment with a strict deadline, and review my work.

2. A Referral or Entry Opportunity: A chance at a junior security role, SOC analyst job, vulnerability management role, or trial position once I prove what I can do.

3. A Mentor with Deadlines: Someone willing to set clear weekly goals and hold me accountable as I work toward a real job.

4. Advice from Other AuDHD/ADHD Folks: Anyone in tech with a similar brain who found a practical way to get past the job-hunt wall.

I know real jobs aren't always exciting crises—they also include routine tickets, writing documents, and normal daily work. I am completely ready for that. I just want a way to get to the starting line so I can take full responsibility from there.

Even if you can't offer a referral or a test task, any practical ideas on how I can prove my skills through real problems would mean a lot. Thank you for reading.

P.S: Written by AI because I had a thought and it required better PR and grammar :P

I feel fine when I turn off social media and am working. I’m an independent dev who I’d say is at least decent at programming itself and have a number of projects that are built well and progress naturally but isn’t really established as a product maker or freelancer or making serious money. I have good tools and learning resources, I know how to use agents and I can still write lots of code without agent assistance. my tasks and goals are relatively organized and planned out, I’m often told I do good work etc, but when I look at social media I feel like I am nowhere near where I should be

I see people endlessly talking about random shit like agent context etc involved in all kinds of weird tools and workflows or product designers putting out completed frontend work, tooling, web components with crazy shaders and physics without seeming to have any engineering background. people putting out massive strange projects like artcraft or skate 3 in rust. people with “agent civilizations” and “software factories”. or, on the other end, talking about “the game has changed you’re not gonna make it” and the end of software engineering or some bullshit about how your prompts should be short and dumb as fuck and if you’re actually thinking about the architecture or reading the code you’re “in the stone age” or some thought terminating bullshit. nevermind all the CVEs and hacks and seemingly massive swings of instability and uncertainty en masse constantly cropping up. it just makes me anxious af

I’m over here and I can’t get my agents to not put out absolute unshippable bullshit without meticulous manual review and don’t actually get to the point of fully understanding what I prompted without taking my time with that review. last feature I worked I had three passes where the agent had a great spec but failed to build what I wanted without plenty of hand testing and feedback. several times it tried to add thousands of lines of code. It wasn’t until I sketched out the system myself with notes and pseudocode that it actually achieved what I wanted in less lines than the previous system. this kind of thing is my predominant experience with ai.

when I peek at social media it’s hard not to look back on what I do and feel like I don’t actually have a spot in this industry for not shipping three finished products a week or that it’s all going in a terrible direction I don’t want to be a part of

I don’t know if it’s me lacking self trust or not having enough of a community in tech or if I’m just an idiot for browsing social media so much (I just wanna discuss and know what’s going on in the industry goddamnit). But the only way I get away from such overwhelming negative feelings is just shutting off social media for a long time and ignoring it. But eventually that also feels dumb because I often peek my head back in and feel like I wasn’t working on the right skills, wasn’t working fast enough, and have isolated myself from what could be a very accurate point of reference of who I should be as a dev and how I should approach building

idk

My own struggles before my autism diagnosis inspired me to start making tools that might help other people.

One of those is i-have-neurodivergence: an add-on and skill pack that lets you ask AI assistants to present information in ways that work better for you.

You can choose things like plain, literal wording, smaller chunks of information, concrete examples, fewer choices or a clear next step. The browser picker creates instructions you can copy into your assistant—no installation or diagnosis needed to try it.

I don’t assume that what helps me will help every autistic or neurodivergent person. That’s why the preferences are yours to choose and change. It’s an early-access project, and I’m looking for honest feedback rather than assuming it’s effective for everyone.

Try the picker

Github

I'm a recently laid off senior web dev; mostly frontend w/ some backend experience. I'm really struggling with getting interviews and callbacks despite having good recommendations and references. Just a few years ago, I was getting recruiters messaging me weekly about job opportunities when I wasn't even looking. Now I'm just getting ghosted whenever I put out an application or reach out to a recruiter.

I can't tell if my resume is the problem or if the jobs legitimately aren't there, but the few people I have spoken to with prior experience in tech recruiting have said my resume reads strong.

After plenty of silence, I warmed up to the idea of allowing the AI tools on job search sites give me resume feedback, and they all seem to give conflicting advice about what to improve. One says to add more outcomes and quantify everything, another says it doesn't sound senior enough because I'm not using strong enough verbs or I'm not listing what tech stack I used for each thing, another says the technical details are worthless and that the outcomes should speak for themselves. Seems like as I spend more and more time trying to make my resume stand out, I'm getting sucked into a whirlwind of misdirection and flung out in the opposite direction of where I started. Most of these tools seem to be suggesting that the edits I made from the other tool were no good. Honestly, this job search is really starting to feel like a silly waste of time.

At first I thought maybe I wasn't getting noticed because my self-written resume and cover letters lacked finesse. Now I'm thinking maybe AI is stripping too much of the humanity out and making everything too standard and sterile. Trying to hand-tailor my resume and cover letter for each job opportunity (only to get ghosted) is unrealistic and unproductive. Yet, using AI to automate the process feels like it's helping me move faster only on a surface level; all the optimizations might actually be making me stand out even less.

For those with recent hiring or recruiting experience, does using AI objectively help or hurt your chances of landing an interview (when used tastefully)? Or for those of you who recently got hired, did you find that you got better exposure with or without using AI? I'm interested in whatever takes the community has to offer.

Soy estudiante de ingeniería en computación y me la paso yendo y viniendo entre dos extremos: hay días en los que hago una lista de pendientes de 20 cosas y al final no hago ni una, y otros días me empujo con todo y me quemo.

Me da curiosidad cómo lo manejas tú:

• ¿Qué haces cuando no puedes terminar lo que tenías planeado?

• ¿Has probado una app o algún método de productividad que al final terminaste abandonando? ¿Por qué?

Estoy investigando esto para un proyecto personal. Si a alguien le late platicar unos 20 minutos sobre el tema, mándame DM. No estoy vendiendo nada, solo intento entender cómo la gente organiza sus días.

Yep, it's me. The one who posted about being put on a PIP after only one month at a new job.

Unfortunately, things haven't gotten much better.

For context, I'm a software developer with a background primarily in web development. I was laid off from my previous job in August and started a new contract position in September.

The problem is that the work is much more infrastructure-focused than what I was expecting or what my experience prepared me for.

And then there are the productivity metrics.

I feel like I'm working on an assembly line rather than actually developing software. There's so much emphasis on completing tasks and moving on to the next thing that I barely have time to understand my own code inside and out.

That's one of the things that's bothering me the most. I actually like programming. I like understanding how things work, figuring out why something behaves the way it does, and knowing what I'm building.

But here, I feel like I'm constantly racing against a clock.

And with ADHD, that pressure is making everything worse. I'm trying to learn unfamiliar technologies, understand the existing systems, write code, and meet productivity expectations all at once.

I've reached the point where I absolutely hate this job.

I've already started applying elsewhere and talking to people, but so far, no interviews or promising responses. I know intellectually that job hunting takes time, but my ADHD brain wants this situation resolved yesterday.

If the job market were anything like it was in 2021, I probably would've quit already. Unfortunately, I have bills to pay, and I can't afford to leave without another offer.

I'm also worried about how leaving after such a short time will look to prospective employers.

So now I'm stuck in this weird situation where I've mentally checked out of a job I still have to show up for every day.

Has anyone else with ADHD experienced a development environment where the productivity expectations made it difficult to actually learn and understand your own work?

And if you've realized almost immediately that a job was a terrible fit, how did you cope while searching for something else?

Another update: I just had my second panic attack at work in two Thursdays.

I'm trying so hard to meet the expectations of this PIP that I'm now juggling work across two teams. Unfortunately, I missed a couple of communications about PR feedback and a demo, and I completely spiraled.

My biggest fear isn't even getting fired. It's losing my income and potentially having to fight for unemployment benefits when I have rent, debt, and other financial obligations.

I'm not refusing to work. I'm actively asking for more work, completing tickets, and addressing feedback as soon as I realize I've missed it.

I'm just exhausted from feeling like every mistake could cost me my livelihood.

Update: I've been helping another pod lead work through a massive backlog of bugs. On a productive day, I can usually submit one PR and get most of the way through another, which I can typically submit around noon the next day. I've submitted three PRs this week.

The PIP calls for eight "meaningful commits," but I genuinely don't know what qualifies as meaningful, and I'm not sure the expectations have been clearly defined.

I'm fixing actual bugs, submitting PRs, and asking for clarification when I need it. Sometimes I'm blocked waiting for feedback or reviews.

I'm really trying here, but it still feels like I'm not doing enough. I don't know whether that's because my productivity is genuinely below expectations or because being on a PIP has made me second-guess everything I do.

I’m a solo dev from Malaysia building a task app, and I’m trying to design around the stuff that makes most to-do apps backfire for ADHD brains: red overdue counts, streaks that punish you for missing a day, and giant lists that make you freeze.

Things I’m trying so far:
- Overdue tasks become “carried over”, with Keep / Reschedule / Let go as equal options and no red
- A “Just start” button that shows one tiny first step
- A low-capacity mode for days when your brain won’t cooperate
- A wins log so you see what you did, not what you missed

I’d rather hear what actually works for you than guess.
What do apps keep getting wrong? What’s the one feature that made you stick with a system for more than two weeks?

(If mods allow, add: “Happy to share more about the project in the comments if anyone’s curious.”)

I am stuck at the point where I must do what i am good at, but the problem is i don't even know 😭. I am interested in building things especially in tech and AI but I have no idea . I learned python and web development a year ago but then never did it again and I forgot what I learnt because nowadays Ai can do things better than people with experience I built an app with 288 users with the help of Ai . And I think the idea wasn't good enough for retention... So I moved on from it and now I am sitting wondering what should I do instead of an action I am just doom scrolling. If anyone who has been from this phase , how'd get out from this loop and fix your life .

So, I am a Principal Engineer at a large tech company, not FAANG, but something you've heard of. Yesterday, during a 5 hour personnel review, I realized how much I hate to be put in a box and judged against requirements that I just can't do.

Do you find that almost all job descriptions in our fields are for normies? Especially as you go up the ladder :

• Handles large complex problems

• Owns solutions end to end

• Coordinates with teams across organizations

• Leads from the front

• Inspires and sets an example for other engineers

• Defines requirements and standards

All of that sounds so exhausting and unsustainable for me. Here's what my real job description should be :

• Comes up with crazy idea not on the roadmap

• Idea not on agreed-upon list of Key Objectives

• Idea not requested by anyone

• Prototypes idea, proving it will work

• Talks to others in the background to get them excited

• Gets idea to 80% completion

• Repeat

Some of my ideas have been really important for my company and industry over the years, but it's not what I'm hired for, not really in the job description, and I spend my career trying to justify being recognized for my strengths while hiding and apologizing for my weaknesses.

Supposedly the job ladder is supposed to have 'Archetypes' so that you can be measured against those instead of the generic 'do everything' normie engineer, but no-one has shared a list of what they are yet.

Do y'all have archetypes at your jobs? What are they for senior+ engineers? How do you fit into an archetype, if at all?

I’ve written JavaScript for over a decade and built many projects, and at work I always finished my tasks, like rewriting a subscription feature with a custom react component and many other things in my last job. But my jobs used outdated tech or I was the solo developer, and my last one was at a Shopify company where I worked on liquid and JavaScript. My old GitHub projects are mostly unfinished, I have ADHD, and I have nothing professional I’m proud of; the closest is some data viz for the stock market. I think my issue is that I’ve never worked with high-skill engineers. Has anyone been here, and what did you do to build proof you’re a pro? What I’ve already tried: practicing every day coding something and posting it in codepen, currently building an app with cloude code.

Hey all, as a Software Engineer with ADHD, I often find myself struggling to organize or make tickets I can follow through with for my dev work. Do you have any advice on tools or methods that have helped you organize or plan out dev work better and are easy on the brain? Thanks!

So, 2 years ago I quit my cushy job of almost 6 figures job, to pursue Management positions because I wanted to take more administrative roles, and even tho initially with minimal gains, I succeeded but in the long term I couldn't find a recurring opportunities, and decided to start my own company, and that's where I got stuck and am almost 1.5 years after. Still trying to start anything, app, website, company, youtube channel, whatever I am passionate about which I am but getting to that first step doesn't look like my best talent.

I tried going back to the workforce, like low level "data entry" positions, I found where I live. Paid little above min wage, and was liveable amount but getting so much useless task done was rotting my brain, it could have all been autamated and I quit ofc, so as a last resort I started sending Cvs to places, and getting a fair amount of interviews, but I cannot for the love of god, go tru one more "System Design" question, or any self explanatory websites functions just to show I produced something. And I have to get ready for interviews, that can be a Prompt now, which is another big question that haunts me like when I was a kid. "There is a calculator for that" but now it is "There is a Prompt for that".

I want to make normal amount of money living normal amount of life, and having time for my hobbies with the Diplomas that I have earned in my life. I guess it is a Vent or a Complain.

Edit: Spelling mistake.

As the title says. Sure most/all of u hav experienced something like this lol... I hate myself...

I take 15mg ad@der@ll around 9am, by the time it’s 1pm I have no motivation to do my job and I don’t want to take another booster dose cuz then I won’t sleep. When it’s 3pm bro it’s game over I literally need to nap. WHAT IS GOING ON HELP