jaggederest

I think I would actually characterize it as a mutual change - obviously the model doesn't change as far as I can tell, but changing the harness and context changes its behavior so wildly that it might as well. Bit of a pas de deux - I learn, I change the context to teach it, it teaches me in turn, rinse and repeat.

Down the pipe, I think it's medium likely we'll start destructively scanning humans. Wild stuff, honestly.

The more I use Fable the more impressed I am with it. I am still learning how to use it, same with gpt-5.6-sol. I don't think the model has changed much, but both models have gotten smarter in leaps and bounds as I've improved the documentation, context, how I provide work to them and how I specify success.

(And generally that consists of keeping only the very most relevant details and deleting a lot of the boilerplate I used to need for other models, it's a great trend.)

I am excited for the next tier of models, but I could readily work for the rest of my career feeling like I have superpowers with only what we have right now. I'm also very excited for the idea of these same strength models getting faster, and much, much cheaper.

Exercise is one hell of a drug, to be honest. I suppose you shouldn't exercise for a few issues in particular, but in general, boy.

Differentials for ADHD include: panic disorder, metabolic issues, anxiety disorder, depression, adrenal disorders including deficiency and excess like pheochromocytoma, bipolar, autism, learning disorders, personality disorders like borderline and antisocial, OCD, trauma including PTSD and CPTSD, sleep disorders including narcolepsy, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, ironically substance use disorder like cocaine and amphetamine addiction, thyroid issues again ironically including both hypo and hyperthyroid, seizures, hearing and vision issues, and life stressors.

So, uh, ... a whole textbook. And I probably forgot some.

IDK I'm just going by a friend moving there and not being able to get any of her existing medication prescribed, even though she's been diagnosed for literally 40 years.

Or even better, "We have one available psychologist and they kinda don't believe in ADHD, so they'll see you but not actually grade the test correctly, so you'll have to try again, and as a bonus get labeled medication seeking". Not my experience, but...

Imagine you spent your whole life crawling, and someone taught you to walk, but for your brain. It's hard to describe.

The medication unlocks your ability to learn the skills you need to cope with the problems you have, and therapy gives you the outside feedback you need to escape your own brain trying its hardest to mess things up and hide the mess.

Imagine if every 10 seconds this guy was in your body taking over your hands for a second or two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GguQu5Iderg

In some countries it's almost impossible (I don't have any direct experience but I've heard tale that in e.g. aus/nz, east asia, south asia, etc people give up before getting diagnosed often), and my understanding is that in Europe it's virtually unheard of to have an adult diagnosis.

In the US, at least, it ranges from difficult to straightforward, but that's not true everywhere

I cannot overstate the degree to which it has been lifechanging, after years of trials of various other things. Honestly it was overwhelming - like a months-long mild psychedelic trip. I never want to go back. I am much, much less of an asshole now, and I say that advisedly. (note: lower assholery indicates nothing in absolute terms - I am probably still quite a bit of one. But less! and gratefully, joyfully so.)

Edit: And this is me trying to restrain myself so I don't look like someone starting a cult...

Yep. What you find often is that the drug is effective right away, at a 20-30-40% effectiveness level. But over time you learn to take advantage of the benefits more effectively, and get more used to the side effects, so it tends to increase significantly in effectiveness at the same dose over 6-8 weeks much like SSRIs, not because the effects last that long, but because you use the tools to improve the tools.

You... don't think there are negative effects to stopping breathing?

If you can be behaviorally addicted to gambling, or even more aptly eating, you can be behaviorally addicted to medication that doesn't give you any physiological dependency.

> The DSM-5 has re-classified the condition [ed: gambling addiction] as an addictive disorder, with those affected exhibiting many similarities to those with substance use disorder. They both activate a reward mechanism in the brain, causing dopamine release to reinforce repetitive behavior. Both often lead to loss of control.

Edit: to engage more substantively, imagine if your glasses gave you, say, mild skin irritation that progressively got worse with wear, but you chose to mitigate that and wear them anyway. I would rate it at that level.

Oh, that reminds me...

Right let me be very explicit: TOVA or equivalent are basically "play video games for 10 minutes as a part of your diagnosis" like the OP, the kafkaesque part is getting the appointment, and getting them administered, getting the diagnosis confirmed, going through the records and getting the prescriptions, everything around it :) they're actually pretty sophisticated tests, despite their palatability - I think if they had better ones they'd obviously use them.

PSA: depending on your specific needs, guanfacine can be close. Once you get used to it, it can be just... constant +1 to wisdom.

So this is the cheats with "give everyone ritalin and see how they feel" - it works for most neurotypical folks too. It's just a very small increase compared to the annoyance and side effects, so it's usually not worth it. To extend the car analogy from a sibling comment, putting race fuel in a volvo.

So they can't test by response, because everyone would be like "yeah I can focus better", you have to test with the drug on, and the drug off, to see whether the "horsepower increase" is worth the fuel price. Increasingly strained metaphors are my strength.

If you're borderline, talk to the doc about a trial of guanfacine. (note that some people HATE it, for exactly this reason) It's the opposite - if your engine is always redlining, it sets a rate limiter and gives you the chance to look out the window and enjoy the scenery, metaphorically.

And in the most interesting cases, you can find a lot of value in both - stimulants keeps you going, guanfacine gives you perspective and the ability to unclench.

The thing is, the test is super quick and easy. And then they throw 50 procedurally complex and tedious tasks at someone who can definitionally not do that, and they know that. Kafkaesque.

Btw no criticism implied on my end, I'm just now constitutionally incapable of not telling people they should get screened. Hmmm I wonder why I have difficulty resisting that urge...

Brother the test is quick, easy, and painless, and the results can be lifechanging.

The other thing is, ADHD in my mind is really a syndrome that starts with a symptom - inattention - that can be caused by so, so many things.

I have both, because of course I do, I had a medical problem that exacerbated my ADHD to a significant, significant degree (it's amazing I was able to be a software engineer for so long without treatment). So don't just tunnel vision in... as we tend to be prone to do. Get the whole workup with an experienced clinician, it's so lifechanging it's hard to describe.

10mbps constant = ~3TiB a month, which is close to what I assume they're doing to acquire the video (that's about what a few SD x264 streams would run). So you don't even need a fast connection, per se.

I'm addicted to several things. Like eyeglasses, and breathing.

The difference the medication makes is similarly revelatory to putting on eyeglasses. Of course you never want to take them off.

There's no withdrawal symptoms, per se, for most people, the addiction is purely psychological from "trying to drive with only 3 tires sucks"

Which is exactly how it manifests, at least for a lot of people. ADHD isn't just "I can't focus lol", it's "trying to focus feels like dragging myself through broken glass"

He says while commenting on HN as CI runs...

No questions, but feedback for you from an engineer in a similar situation (late diagnosis), make sure you go back and get them to check for every other thing under the sun. You really don't want to dive into the ADHD side and find out it was something else (other things can masquerade as ADHD), so a good neuropsychologist is critical. And "body medicine", too, for example adrenal disorders. It's worth being extremely thorough at this point - you're off the standard path, embrace it.

Also, congratulations, once you figure it out your life is going to change for the better in a way you can't currently understand (literally, lacking the brain regions and/or development for it, take it from me), but the process can kinda suck a lot, so stick with it, it's worth it in the end, wherever you end up.

Something in the ballpark of a Nash equilibrium. Kinda amazing how often you run into those things, in situations like groupthink.

I have a similar policy - tab closed on 2nd nag, so if there's an inline subscribe box and the overlay pops up, I'm out. Fighting the good behavioral fight, but I don't expect us to win, it's just about saving myself the brainpower. Same for dark patterns - they're clearly unserious, so I'll take my business elsewhere.

He quit playing...

Precisely so. This is also why you find people, mid career, suddenly having that crisis and trying some different things to break up the monotony. If we had a more stable system of employment, things like sabbaticals become really essential to reset the joie de vivre you lose when you start to be an expert executing the same plan over and over.

Motivational saliency requires both the ability to learn and increasing difficulty - witness video games.

The model I think makes sense here is the Csikszentmihalyi Flow model, by another name the challenge-skill model of effort: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#Characterist...

Roughly speaking, you might have taken a task that was in the control, flow, or relaxation zone, closer to the center there, and lowered the difficulty so much that now it's flat out in the middle of the boredom zone.

My answer to this is to either seek out much harder problems (moving it back up into challenge, for example), or to change to a task where I have lower skill and so am in the learning mode rather than the execution mode, which I find much more pleasant and compelling than boring.

You change the goalpost, basically, or give yourself a handicap, to bootstrap yourself back up into motivating regions of the graph. Just a model, but I think it's one that is really useful.

That's why sometimes new management comes in and cleans house at the direct report level so they have people they know they can trust.

absolutely. You have to get hearts and minds, and honestly that's the biggest job as any kind of leadership. I think if you say to people "We have to make changes, these are not arbitrary, the company needs to do X soon, and the best way to understand that is to make some short term uncomfortable changes. I want your feedback" etc, if you build trust through connecting your actions to your words, people can accept that.

The other part of that is ensuring that it doesn't fall disproportionately on certain sections of the company, and that you provide compensatory benefits like, say, comp overtime, extra vacation, bonuses, whatever is possible.