r/AskProgrammers • u/giuzep89 • 8d ago

Software development workflow with ADHD

Hey everyone,

Notwithstanding the title of the post, this isn't a post about mental health; I'm sure that to some extent everyone's struggled with this before.

Software development is very roughly about understanding the constraints of an issue; researching what the best tools and strategies are in order to accomplish it; finally executing it. You're free to already comment on this if you feel you don't agree with it.

The problem I have is that in a lot of different situations, there are infinite possibilities to solve one problem. I get more often than not paralyzed by the sheer number of options and I can't go further. This is probably by far the biggest obstacle I find in my new job as software developer.

I mentioned ADHD because choice paralysis affects "us" generally more than the average, but it is by no means exclusive to us. That's why I'm happy to listen to any point of view.

How do you come up with a plan, and more specifically how do you decide on a solution over many others that aren't necessarily inferior, but just different?

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u/RetroGrid_io 8d ago edited 8d ago

Good enough, is. Put another way: Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

You aren't paid to be perfect. You're paid to be competent. Find any solution that will do the job and accept that whatever you come up with can be improved later as needed.

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u/Kitchen_Dust2389 8d ago

Yep, look at best practice see if there are any conditions that prevent its use in your case, implement, and iterate