I've got a degree in engineering. I love engineering, programming, electronics, CAD and physical prototype design. I love identifying problems and figuring out requirements and designing something to solve it. I know I'm really good at it, but I can only really perform what feels like 20% of the time.
I'll get into some hyper focus for some problem, learn some complex technology, solve the problem, then not be able to look at tech for weeks. This is cool for hobby stuff but man I gotta work too.
I find it nearly impossible to work on things which I don't find personally interesting which isn't good because most "work" isn't interesting whatsoever. I envy people who are able to just go "ah time to do this boring thing" and they just fucking do it. It genuinely feels impossible to just start.
I'm medicated for ADHD but it feels like it only works like 20-30% of the time. The rest of the time my eyes just lose focus and I stare blankly at a screen waiting for hours to pass.
I don't know how to make this work for me either. I know theoretically I could be a prototype engineer, the type of freelance generalist who gets an idea out and disappears but I don't know how to network sufficiently enough to do that. I've got a good job right now, but COL is so high and full remote isn't possible so I'll always be living in a small apartment or be in so much debt I'll never be able to retire.
I want to do more hardware stuff but that's so rarely a remote type job and offices just hurt my soul with how uncomfortable I am all day long. I could probably make a living as a software engineer but I don't know if I'd be able to keep up any kind of pace long term that would let me keep my job.
I almost want to take a stab at doing youtube videos and see if I can make a handful of neat projects that get me a sponsor. enough to score a house in a rundown rustbelt town and be able to fuck off and work at my own pace without the impending doom of rent or mortgage staring me down.
I drink plenty of water, jog when its warm, use a pomodoro timer when I remember. I learned the fundamentals of Rust in a weekend, designed and manufactured a run of PCBs in under 3 months. I just can't keep that momentum going, even if I try to slow down.
thanks for letting me rant. Its not lost on me how privileged I am in this scenario. I'm quite lucky and comfortable but it terrifies me how even someone doing well like myself can't see an exit off this awful ride.
Relatable. It has been an up hill battle to get through uni and sit all my exams, and still now I do what feels like what little I can muster while I'm at work. I'll spend so much time planning to do stuff but never actually getting anywhere. I'm unmedicated, undiagnosed, and the only thing I have that remotely helps is modafinil, but that's a point the barrel and pull the trigger situation where if I am still not 100% distraction free I will hyper focus all my energy into something else completely irrelevant.
Other people can just switch off and distract themselves with games or whatever. I am so jealous of those people. I never get a break. I'm either doing work, or thinking about what work I need to be doing, and I'm so inefficient I still get less done than an equivalent neurotypical. I do all this work just to keep up, and if I could only function properly, with this level of dedication I could become god.
Throughout all uni people would just do their work. My entire life I have complained I have homework to do and people would always respond so just do it if you care about it, like it's that easy. At work I watch people dutifully plod along all day every day and I just... if I have a meeting and it goes on for too long I just will not work for the rest of the day.
It used to take me hours and hours to do a single homework. Most days for me started at 7am and ended at 9pm. I'd just sit there till it was done because there was no other option. It worked out in the long run but man it was miserable.
The struggle is real