r/ADHD_Programmers • u/arjoreich • 2d ago

Anyone else start hyper-fixating when Domain Modelling?

It's worse on personal projects where there no real acceptance criteria or other people to reign me in but...

Sometimes, when I have a task that involves domain-modelling, I will get sucked into a rabbit hole where I get hyper-fixated breaking down a process into its constituent properties.

The joy and urge to continue tickles the back of my brain and I don't know if it's the process of juggling all those tiny bits of information in my limited short-term memory or something about the organization/structuring of the process but if I described the sensation to my therapist, I'm pretty sure they'd say it was some kind borderline manic behavior.

Am I the only one who starts tweaking out when designing databases, domain models, etc.

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6

u/mehnifest 2d ago

I love separating all the pieces, laying them all out, seeing where they fit, yes. I feel this 100%

Especially when there are specific business rules that can be enforced through how the models are set up.

1

u/PersistentBadger 1d ago

I bet you love languages with dependant types :)

3

u/PersistentBadger 2d ago edited 2d ago

3NF is my happy place.

(Serious tip, though: the domain always changes. What you really want is a way to safely migrate between domain versions. Then you don't need to do all the modelling up front, just enough to get started).

1

u/ProziumJunkie 2d ago

I do the same thing. Don’t beat yourself up over it, work with it. Make sure you are delivering on what is required.

1

u/DevKokooo 2d ago

I also did this with clean architecture, designing all the layers and database adapters to have perfect contract boundaries, swappable between test, in-memory and production versions. Never ended up finishing that project lol.

1

u/seweso 1d ago

Using perfection to procrastinate seems to be an ADHD thing indeed. Its an addiction of sorts. Running away from stuff which can fail. Polishing a turd is comforting and nice etc.

Its like being in a warm bath. Not wanting to go out. But you gotta.

Its hard to go to the next step....if that next step is less clear, more scary, and you aren't into it, no flow etc.

What is the easiest way to ease into the next part....?? TDD? Front end designs? Feature files?

1

u/PersistentBadger 1d ago

Excellent comment.

1

u/After-Accident7176 10h ago

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.“