24 notes for 2024
I borrowed this idea from Tiramisu's List about things I've learned about myself. 2024 was a wild ride.
I have ADHD. It's formally diagnosed. It's real. I can stop fighting it now.
The ocean is a part of my soul. I need regular doses of it. Spending several years away from it was not good for my psyche.
Creating and regular expression through art is important. However, it's based on my passion and whim - which changes dramatically throughout a year.
ADHD thrives on systems. Systems get built when someone with ADHD has the drive to. Systems can fall apart if there's no maintenance. People with ADHD struggle with maintenance.
My favorite ADHD hack is from a Reddit post called "The Three Great ADHD Virtues: Loitering, Defiance, and Vanity". The idea is simple: Loitering - Be specially or mentally near that task; Defiance - Your creativity will force you to do something your own way, no matter how convoluted it is; Vanity - Do things because you want people to think of you a certain way.
I need to take photos. It's been the original art form and a good form of expression. Cell phone pictures don't count.
Gotta exercise - high intensity exercise. I have health problems because I put it off for a year.
Documenting is important. ADHD causes future-brain which means past and present are typically out of touch. Taking notes, PKM, journaling - all good things.
Many things are skills: keeping up with friends, learning how to care for others, balancing checkbooks - many of those skills aren't taught. A lot of adulting is learning those skills.
Consistency is a hard skill. Analogy - a board with some small holes in it is still more structurally sound than no board.
I love good food. There is nothing to it. I genuinely love food. I would consider learning how to cook better or in a more culinary way. Perhaps a new hyper fixation?
Having structure doesn't mean you can't stray away from the interesting facets of life. It just means that there's something to come back to when you stray far. Kind of like limbs on a tree.
It's actually quite easy to live minimalistically. The problem is with ADHD - unlike thoughts, things take up physical space.
Speaking of physical space - mental space is a thing. A cluttered physical space, is a cluttered mental space.
MEDS (Meditation, Exercise, Diet, and Sleep) are all good things for everyone. The problem is that it's exceptionally worse when someone with ADHD doesn't get them - more ADHD symptoms get worse without adequate MEDS. Think like someone with arthritis trying to walk for a whole day vs a normal person: both are going to be tired but the person with arthritis is going to be much worse off.
AI is not just a technology problem, is a people problem - it is, after all, modeled off of human intelligence.
There is such a thing as being too "engineer" - specifically around people. People don't want solutions, typically. This is probably going to be a life-long training that needs undoing in situations.
Making friends and building a community takes more than a few months. In fact, it takes at least a consistent year of interaction for that to happen.
Speaking of skills, being gentle with yourself and with others is a huge skill that takes a lot of practice.
Run ideas past your people.
I need to travel internationally soon.
There's always a cheaper option.
Luck is not necessarily gained or inherent. Luck is an emergent trait of all the pre-existing conditions and optimized choices you make.
Laugh more. Seriously, laugh more.