I’m well past 60 and seem to have something approximating bad ADHD. I became financially very successful by being fairly obsessed with one thing at a time: software and services companies, real estate, etc. For many years, this meant leaving extra things like guitar practice to the middle of the night. My goal since before marriage was to balance my primary jobs out with family time, which also means caring for handicapped family members. I succeeded. I have never been able to balance work, life, and health altogether, unfortunately. So I’m diabetic and overweight.
I too tried many forms of organization and always ended up abandoning them. What has worked with me was being very focused on the main project and using all kinds of gross little ad hoc ways to keep it going.
There is a second version of me for day each day’s tasks and requirements. That person was revolutionized by phones that understand voice input. I use the one from Apple but I think it’s utterly horrible. However, it is still good enough for me to use about 15 alarms per day that say things like “set an alarm to Get the boys’ laundry at 4 PM“. I have daily alarms to remind me to do things like feed the chickens, and monthly alarms to do things like pay bills or change batteries. I have an annual calendar entry with a master list of things I need to do every month or year.
So the long-term project me is pretty good at planning things in my head and a couple of lists in the source code or source code repos. The short term is completely interrupt-driven.
I am not recommending this system for everyone, or anyone at all. All I can say is that it works well for me, even though it is aesthetically brutal.
Setting constant reminders is a good life hack. Sometimes I wonder if I might be better at life with a haptic tap on the wrist every ten minutes, like just a nudge to think if I am doing what I want to do.
The real trick would be for it to be able to tell whether what you're doing is what you want to be doing so it doesn't interrupt you when you already are.
I worked at a pro audio company where one guy spent 5 years on a power supply. It succeeded, and I always appreciated the management for supporting him.
Haha the blue led story is literally people going against the grain, a great example. Worked on it after being ordered not to. The original owner of the company believed in the inventor, too, which probably helps.
Is the nifty part about the rice cooker the temperature cutoff at 105C? Induction? That my cats turn on my zojirushi three times a day and open the lid and it doesn't harm it because it knows there's nothing in the pot?
One of these days I need to track down who actually got the patent for using IR LED in a ring around a camera lens to see in the dark.
Wonderfully written and a rare exemplar of the rise of a fad from its primary source. Usually these things get lost in urban legend before anyone has the sense to document them properly.
I don't like saying this, but it's safe to say the cutting edge research is happening inside places like Meta, X, Google, and Microsoft. Obviously they all exist to increase engagement and not necessarily to improve the GUIs as a first priority.
I too tried many forms of organization and always ended up abandoning them. What has worked with me was being very focused on the main project and using all kinds of gross little ad hoc ways to keep it going.
There is a second version of me for day each day’s tasks and requirements. That person was revolutionized by phones that understand voice input. I use the one from Apple but I think it’s utterly horrible. However, it is still good enough for me to use about 15 alarms per day that say things like “set an alarm to Get the boys’ laundry at 4 PM“. I have daily alarms to remind me to do things like feed the chickens, and monthly alarms to do things like pay bills or change batteries. I have an annual calendar entry with a master list of things I need to do every month or year.
So the long-term project me is pretty good at planning things in my head and a couple of lists in the source code or source code repos. The short term is completely interrupt-driven.
I am not recommending this system for everyone, or anyone at all. All I can say is that it works well for me, even though it is aesthetically brutal.
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