When You Realize You’re Not as Good as You Thought

When making something, does Adam start with the "hard" part or the "easy" part? How does someone (especially someone with ADHD) slow down and focus on improving technical skills? In this live stream excerpt Adam answers these questions from Tested members @9armid and @kirenprops, whom we thank for their support! Do you start with the hard part or the easy part when you're working on a project?

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

[tested]

Do you start with the hard part or the easy part when you're working on a project? If you're ADHD, what are some tips you can share about working in a professional environment?
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[larrywest]

A very similar approach to "hard part first" that I'm accustomed to from software engineering projects is "riskiest part first" or "least understood part first", because those are the ones that can (figuratively) blow up on you and potentially require a completely different approach, or more time, etc.

[deanapplegate]

I have ADHD also and I am a mechanic. On a machine I always start with the part that I don't want to do and save the stuff I want to do for last.

[EyeballOrigami]

The question about focus reminds me of a comment by Ira Glass;

"All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not."

Knowing you need to improve is half the battle to improving.

[lonewolf]

Im terribly adhd. At one point was on two prescriptions for it from my doctor because i had reached the legal limit for the first (that was rough). I eventually switched to lifestyle changes and started learning how to set up the environment around me to accomodate my needs to mimic the functionallity other people have. Alarms to track the passing of time, sticky notes everywhere. The advantages ive found is because im constantly triple checking my work due to being unsure if ive actually remembered everything, the quality of my work is often great and my ability to learn a new task quickly due to quickly catching and correcting mistakes has made me a valuable part of the team im a part of.

My adhd tip is, organize tasks in a manner that reduces the amount of times youll have to shift focus between each objective for the task. This reduces the window of opportunity for distractions from your task that can affect the outcome of your work. You have to do things in a nonstandard way, but ive often found if your end result is great, some nonstandard variance in an operation is acceptable.

Sorry if there are too many typos in my comment, on a new phone and adjusting to the keyboard differences. Have had to make corrections while typing this lol.

[applematt]

I write software and build servers for a living. I constantly catch myself judging my past work. Mindfulness helps. When you notice your mind harshly critiquing your work, step back, take a breath, and appreciate the lessons you learned. Over time, your mind will naturally appreciate instead of judge. This leads to a happier, more productive life by removing the stress and emotional fog generated by internal harsh critiques, freeing the mind for creativity.

[Moose]

2:05 I do the hard part first because I know that my cognitive capacity drains at a certain rate, and there’s a point where the looming task’s difficulty outweighs my mental and emotional ability to attack it.

[kremdelacrem]

I have ADHD and Autism and it makes soo much sense now why Mythbusters was so meaningful to me as a kid and scratched an itch like nothing else. Happy holidays Adam, thank you for everything you share on this channel

[aikumaDK]

Realizing that your stuff pales in comparison to that of others, and seeing the shortcomings of your work, means that your eyes' skills have leveled up, like skills in video games.
With this new skill level, you can work on leveling up your hands to iron out the shortcomings your eyes see in your work.
That's how it was laid out in a video I watched ages ago, about how to handle this phenomenon, in relation to drawing. It's a skill that's improved gradually, so the aforementioned sudden realization can sting - as Adam mentioned.

[BartZeal]

The title reminds me of that thing with the four quadrants: Not knowing that you can't do it. Knowing you can't do it. Not knowing how you do it. Knowing how you can do it.
The fact that you know you can't do it, you're already growing out of the not knowing you can't. So that's in the right direction.

[ThatVideoGuyTom]

"I asked the Mythbuster and he said no, so I asked the other guy" - Bobby Fingers. The writing of that was hysterical. Thank you Adam for being you man.

[PVS]

One other reason to do the hard part first - Hard usually also means higher risk of screw-ups.

Do the hard part first so you have less time wasted if you set yourself back and need to start over. It just means you have less riding on doing the hard part right the very first time.

[BBuxRides]

“Do it right, or do it twice”. My kids hear this from me frequently.

[ProdigyAutomotive]

Adam is such a fountain of knowledge. I've learned so much from him, not only about science and engineering, but about life. I know we shouldn't idolize people, but I truly am very grateful for Adam and I firmly believe that he's making a big difference in a lot of people's lives. A small ripple can cause the biggest waves.

[rockguitarist]

A few years ago, I hit a major roadblock in my development as a musician so I made the decision to start taking guitar lessons from my original teacher from high school and after a rather long search, I found a vocal instructor to help me learn to sing properly. Setting my ego aside was hard but I have really started to see the benefits of that in the past few months.

[BattleDuck-ovfm]

I really enjoy these just slightly longer 15min videos - they seem so much more longer than the previous 8min videos that used to only cover about two questions. It's just so captivating to hear Adam talk about these topics... and it's such a treat whenever Adam gets to answer a question about Mythbusters.

[Ali_Clarkson]

When you said you had to re-do work and the second one was better...oh my god yes! I've flunked so many things and been extremely salty/angry/sad that I have to do it again but my experience has ALWAYS been that the second version is an improvement in every way. It's still hard to deal with the initial reality of having to do work again but if you can handle it it always work out for the better.

[aaronedwards]

Tackling the hard part: Known as "eating the frog". Very helpful for professionals and as Adam points out, if you have a choice, the harder part needs priority. Good reminder/knowledge for everyone!

[PierceArner]

With ADHD, it's more difficult to break down tasks into parts and also to prioritize by importance, so ANY job that gives you a structure that helps to focus that, while being specifically dynamic will help a lot. (Reliable schedule with specific hours helps).

Ex: I changed jobs every year until I started to work in software development. With that, I could know a structure for what I was doing and how to prioritize a big picture process, but the specifics of what was being developed and tested were constantly changing, where that imporance was and what specifics needed to be done were always new and keeping my interest while providing the importance & structure. That is EXACTLY what ADHD brains want to help optimize function since they're interest driven and need additional structure and importance emphasis.

[bicivelo]

The amount of information in Adam’s brain is incalculable. The fact that he shares it with us makers (and others) in a palatable way is vastly more important because then we can share it with others. THANK YOU, Adam! 😊😊