i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to
unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school
things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)
- how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem
- what common file types are
- some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)
- how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private
- how to understand terms of service
(hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS) - what a cookie actually is
- internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl
- basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)
- common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)
as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on
- vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)
- how to not get a virus while pirating something
- what a temporary email is and when to use one
- red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)
- what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls
ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)
- an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous
- a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps
- a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)
- some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself
[Transcript: Four images with Sesame Street characters.
Think about the last few posts you saw. How did they make you feel? Which ones felt helpful or harmful?
Notice how you feel in your mind and body. Can you name an emotion you’re feeling?
How much longer do you want to scroll? Is there something you set out to do when you picked up your device?
Need a break from scrolling? Take a mindful minute with us.
End Transcript.]
My resolution last year was to do one thing before bed that would make my morning feel easier, and that’s become a daily habit that I’m carrying into this new year.
Some nights even filling up the kettle and setting an empty mug out for my morning tea felt hard. But I was always thankful for it in the morning.
Other nights, one thing would lead to another, and I’d wake up in a clean house with everything ready to go.
And, on a rare few nights, the one thing that I could do to make my morning easier was going straight to bed and allowing myself to rest.
What stayed the same each day is that I would take a moment to think of what I could do for my future self and do it, even after a hard day. And I would wake up knowing that I had done my best and any effort—no matter how small—was a kindness to myself.
I’ve been doing a lot of “a treat for future me” moments lately.
[image description: four panel art, by Anna-Laura. Each panel has text “a treat for future me” and drawings of a cat.
Panel 1: in bed, putting a glass of water on the bedside table.
Panel 2: folding up the laundry.
Panel 3: putting a note on a wall calender - “good job!” And a red heart emoji.
Panel 4: putting a coin into a savings jar.
/end ID]
In incredible last-day-of-trans-visibility-week news:
f1nn5ter has successfully set up her trans healthcare non-profit Anne Health
- It is already the highest rated trans healthcare provider in the country apparently
- Here's the page on what they actually offer
- For HRT it seems to largely be about shared care agreements with GPs (-> they provide the expert info needed but your GP provides the actual meds -> better than *AHEM* other people's subscription models bc this means you can actually get your privately-prescribed meds on the NHS (how I got mine back in the day), but the downside is your GP has to be cool and not a transphobic dickhead about it (which I would generally recommend as a trait to look for in your GP))
- *They can do surgical referrals but you need to check with your surgery provider if they accept them (correction bc I had not checked the FAQ properly!)
- It includes trans youth!!! At least for therapy and advice around puberty blockers (again they do not provide any meds themselves)
- Co-founders are former CEO of mermaids (THE trans kids charity in the UK) and founder of Think2Speak (peer support organisation)
- It's a non-profit, so any money made outside of what is used on operational costs goes back into a pot to fund/subsidise people's care who can't afford it
- even if you don't want to use the service itself, they also have a FAQ/resource page for general useful info
- you can donate to it!!!! (there's a big donate button on the top of the page)
(also tiny, (big) bummer correction: the news clip at the beginning citing 8k+ people on the waiting list - yea it's double that meanwhile, and that's only the London GIC, and only the not-yet-seen waiting list (they're currently booking in ppl who got referred in 2020 for first appointments) if I am not mistaken, so not counting everyone already in the system having wait for years between appointments (hi), other services across the country, and private services' waiting lists)
f1nnster for the win?? damn
Except, critically, at bedtime.
Ravings and urges get miscoded over time. Let’s say you’re thirsty, and you live in a strawberry field. Strawberries contain some water and a bunch of sugar so, over time, you may start to crave strawberries when you are thirsty because you get a reward and some relief in shorter time from the need starting than the trek to the stream. This can happen for every need: sleep, food, whatever.
Trevor Noah has a great tip, that when he craves ice cream at night he breaks it down into parts: I want something cold, I want something sweet. He drinks a glass of cold water then waits to see if he still has the ice cream craving. Usually he doesn’t.
So listening to your body isn’t “follow every urge” but “decompose the urge to discover the underlying need.”
If you always feel like getting cozy in bed you may be: cold, dehydrated, and/or malnourished (maybe a need for high calories that are bioaccessible…not processed).
If you do not feel tired at bedtime you may: need to eat dinner earlier because your body is still digesting, need to exercise or go outside more during the day, get the fuck off your screen for an hour so your brain can enter sleep mode.
Hope this helps someone.
P.S. notice i said nothing about neurodivergence. Not that it’s not a likelihood but the over-pathologization of behaviors prevents us from taking simple actions to improve our wellbeing. Also, these tips are pretty accessible and applicable to most brain variations.
[image description:
Tweet by LilyDSmith : “the problem with the whole ‘listen to your body’ thing is my body is always telling me it’s a great time to get cozy in bed.”
tags that read “everyone needs to know (at least a little) neuroscience
/end ID]
have you noticed. ableds seem to operate on some kind of strange video game logic where doing something at least once unlocks the ability to do it with ease forever. if you can walk unaided once then you can walk! if you can eat that food you're intolerant or allergic to once then you no longer have that dietary requirement! if you can say one word at least once then you'll be fully verbal and speaking! like. it doesn't work like that bestie beloathed
I have to explain this to judges and prosecutors and other defense lawyers a lot. I have some shortcuts:
- “The fact that he can’t do this consistently is a sign of an underlying problem or disability.”
This is a big one. And once they get what I’m saying, it makes their brains light up. Ahhh!, they think, they can’t do it all the time and that’s how I know something is wrong with them!! (Ugh.)
- “If she can do this in some situations but not others, there is something about the situation that is impeding her.”
In other words, they can blame the problem on something else. If a kid I represent can do this task at school, then I insinuate that the parents are perhaps not giving the child the environment they need (or if I really like the parents, that school is draining the kid’s energy to zero.) if they can do it at home but not school, blame it on bullies, ignorant teachers, or (if feeling generous) the poor underpaid staff who’s just trying their best under a mountain of work.
- “He only manages this when (well rested, medicated, fed, hasn’t gone to school yet, isn’t emotionally distressed, etc). It sounds like ensuring consistency in (rest, medication, etc) is what we’re really trying to do.”
Again, shifting the narrative from Those Lazy Kids to Someone Else’s Fault, this time with overtones of Untreated Medical Problem. Perhaps add in a touch of “the more he picks up these foundational skills, the easier it will get” to make them feel like progress is being made.
- “Look how hard she worked to get this done (one time)!”
- Related: “He’s made so much progress!”
Able-bodied people love shifting goalposts. But this also reframes the problem centering effort and not success, which is tbh the way it should be judged.
Overall, they can be trained… you just have to remind them in subtle ways that their own skills are also context-dependent and support-dependent. People who run marathons can’t run a marathon every day. Once able bodied people shift into that mindset, the dividends start paying off.
Side note but I also do want to say: the attitude in OP’s post always seems to come along with the idea that people can’t learn big new skills. Like, doing something is proof that you could do it all along, not that something was Learned.
I found this when I do hard work at improving something like painting, when I do a lot of practice and show people they’re like “wow I had no idea you could do that!” lol I couldn’t. Girl this is new. “No way!!!” Yes way and you can learn it too.
What a sad static world. Everyone is working on learning Spanish but no one ever learns Spanish. If life has video game logic, then they should be leveling up!!
If you are on a Windows 11 computer, pause everything you are doing for one minute and:
- Open computer settings
- Click on Accessibility on the left-hand menu
- Scroll down the Accessibility menu and click on the Keyboard Option
- Under the "related settings" tab, click "Typing" which should have a description of "spellcheck, autocorrect, text suggestions."
- Turn off the AI "correct misspelled words"
- and most importantly: turn off Typing Insights.
[ID: a screenshot of the above mentioned Windows 11 settings, showing that Typing Insights is now turned off, with the following description from Microsoft:
"Windows is using artificial intelligence to help you type
To help you save time and type efficiently, Windows can learn to suggest words, autocorrect spelling mistakes, and interpret swiped typing. Take a look at the insights below to see up-to-the-minute stats on how Windows has learned to improve typing for you. These stats are stored only on this device and Microsoft does not collect the typing insights data."
End ID]
"But Mx. November, it says right there Microsoft doesn't collect the typing insights data!"
I mean, yeah, it says that..... for *now.*
It also only specifies that Microsoft themselves don't collect it, and they wouldn't have made this something that I was automatically, secretly opted in for without my knowledge if they didn't have something to be gained by me not knowing it exists!
I only found this because a cat walked on the keyboard and turned on Filter Keys and while trying to figure out why my keyboard was just making chirping noises instead of typing, I happened to click on "typing insights" by accident.
Generative AI, and especially AI that is used to "personalize" and track your activity across the web and on your computer are never going to be in your best interest, it is always going to serve these companies in whatever way will line their pockets the most, and all it takes is updating their terms of service once, and then all of that data they promised they weren't collecting suddenly all belongs to them.
This, plus text and image generation (using on-device gen AI):
- Open computer settings
- Click on Privacy & security in the left-hand menu
- Scroll all the way down and click on Text and image generation
- Toggle off ‘Let apps use Text and image generation’
- Toggle off 'Text and image generation’
Practical sewing and stitching techniques (Mending holes and altering lengths)
StopNCII.org is operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline which is part of SWGfL, a charity that believes that everyone should benefit from technology, free from harm. Founded in 2000, SWGfL works with a number of partners and stakeholders around the world to protect everyone online
Sounds legit
We're doing drop-in sessions this term for the dissertation students across the department, just little informal tutorials on topics they request help/pointers on. Most of my colleagues have gone for things like "How to do a lit review" or some such, but I offered "How to focus and write a 10,000 word dissertation without procrastinating unduly", given that I have ADHD tips.
Anyway, what I didn't expect (but should have) was almost the entire damn lot of them wanting to sign up for my session specifically. Complete with one of the construction students asking me earnestly and intently when I'd be doing it. So!
I know what tips and tricks I use. What about you guys? What ADHD tricks do you use to avoid procrastination and get on with big projects, be it dissertations, work projects, or misc other?
Massive, huge thanks to everyone who chimed in for this!
It was an incredibly successful session - so much so, the Construction students all went back and apparently raved to their lecturers about it, and told their lecturers that it would have been really valuable at the start of their uni careers, and now the Construction guys have asked me to do it as a proper session for their first year students this term. And then one of them suggested I maybe do a session for the staff as well, so that they can see if there are any ways they could be supporting/teaching the students better.
Anyway, multiple people asked for the slides, so here you go. The focus of this one was very much on dissertations, but there's a lot that could apply more generically to other projects, and indeed ADHD life in general (it starts general and becomes specific), so if that sounds helpful, have at it.
(One thing you'll miss from the slides is the discussion stuff that goes with them, of course, so my suggestion is that you go through them with someone else and talk between you about whether you reckon each tip would apply to you and why/why not. This will give you a closer approximation of the Experience of my lecture hall.)
Thanks again to everyone! Y'all are the best.
Crawling out of my hole to remind people that with this current update to Firefox (version 144) they've gone and dumped in their lot with a buncha lil AI tools, namely Perplexity as a new search engine.
So if the sound of that leaves your mouth tasting of tar, here's what you want to do:
In the url bar, type in about:config
It'll give you a big scary warning page that you might poke holes in your browser. Good. You want to do that. Click continue.
One by one, you're going to need to put each of these into the search bar in the page, not up top:
browser.ml.enable
browser.ml.chat.enabled
extensions.ml.enabled
browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
Each of these are gonna have a lil toggle icon on the right hand side that looks like a funky double-ended arrow. Click that and the value next to it should change to false. It all auto saves as you go. Some of these might already be set to false by default and that's peachy.
The next best thing you can do for yourself is to set your default search engine to udm14 or Qwant, but for now, we're just tidying the garden a lil bit.
One of the big things I struggle with functions-wise is getting stuck in what I call optimization loops. Where there's several tasks that need doing, and some would be optimized by having another task done first, but it can't be shaken out into a clear executable task list.
Simple example: I need to shower, eat food, and go to grocery store. I'm hungry and don't have energy to cook, so the easiest food option would be to get a deli item at the grocery store. But I want to shower before leaving the house. But I don't have energy to shower without eating first.
It feels very silly to get stuck on such a minor dilemma for as long as I have! But there are times I've spent hours looping through this list, trying and failing to start it anywhere. And the only way out, I find, is to manually override it: to catch it happening and say, fuck it! I can go to the grocery store stinky! It's fine!!
It could be considered a subset of perfectionism, because the override very much involves hitting yourself with the idea that it's ok to do things suboptimally. But it feels like it comes from a slightly different place. As someone who struggles with executive function, I get myself through a lot of tasks by trying to optimize to the smoothest, lowest-friction way through. The task order that minimizes having to do any step more than once, or having to remember too many things at a time. If I can arrange my tasks just right, sometimes I can get one task to cover part of the work of doing another! And if I can put my tasks in an order that feels natural and ideal, I can lower the energy of activation it takes to get moving. And, sometimes, avoid the choice paralysis of not being able to pick a task out of a list of equal priority.
Except that, obviously, sometimes the optimization process throws up glitches of its own. There's the closed loop I described, and there's also another catching point where a task I have the mental energy and wherewithal to do gets stuck behind a task that's too big/intimidating/difficult to tackle. For example: I just sent some emails I've been procrastinating on for over a month, because I need to set up a new email address, and I was telling myself it'd be better to get that set up before I contacted people, because it would save me the hassle of dragging a bunch of conversations over to a new account when I did get it set up. I still haven't made the other email! But I realized that hypothetical future hassle was not worth the delay of not sending those emails for as long as it's going to take to actually get my brain together to figure out a new email service.
Surprisingly, doing something like this often actually makes the difficult task I was stuck on easier! Another thing I struggle with is a flinch reaction from tasks that are both pressingly important, and unapproachable to do. The more I need to do a task immediately, the more stressed and overwhelmed and self-recriminating I get about the fact that I don't know how to even start doing it. It gets so bad I can't even think about it directly - I think about the general shape of it, flinch, and divert my attention so I don't panic.
And when I've got a minor, pressing task stuck behind a big nebulous scary task, it presses the unapproachable task forward, makes it urgent, and that makes it harder to figure out how to do. If I can get around it, and do the actually pressing task in some contrived way that pushes some miscellaneous messy consequences forward, it takes pressure off the big task. And then I can actually think about it, without panicking, which makes it possible to actually work on doing it.
That last point also often applies to asking for help. I have a weird hangup here: I find it excruciatingly difficult to ask for help if I haven't at least *started* the thing I need help with. Which gets into the same dynamic: I have a big unsorted task I can't think about directly without panicking, or the path of steps to doing it that I've managed to figure out starts with one I can't make myself tackle, so I'm stuck doing nothing with no way in. Asking for help means admitting to someone that there is going to be mess, that I can't tackle the problem in the optimal front-to-back way so there's going to be inconvenient problems generated in some of the steps that will have to be dealt with at other steps, and some of that inconvenience might be to people other than me!! But just managing to say this, to admit this upfront, is sometimes enough to cut the gordion knot of not being able to start anywhere.
So, ok, it is a little bit about perfectionism. But perfectionism that comes from a slightly sideways place: the desperation to avoid creating problems in the future, to the point where instead you create problems now.
ALThope this is okay to reblog - those optimization loops are absolutely my most disabling exec dysfn issue, too, and i often have to remind myself of this comic--ESPECIALLY "get rid of secret rules." that's been the most helpful piece of advice for me, personally, largely because it puts into words even the idea that there might be secret rules i don't even notice i'm following. now that it's something i even think to check with myself, it has become so so so much easier to realize that i can just Stop Doing That.
This is me in excruciating detail. Something I've found that helps with the first part--the low energy need food too hungry to make food--can't take my meds till I have food--can't do literally anything else till I take my meds--is to keep very easy snacks on a high shelf. Something that isn't super enticing so I won't mindlessly finish them off, and kept out of the way--so I won't mindlessly finish them off anyway. Recently it's been a big box of chewy granola bars. A couple of those gets me past the "so hungry I hate the thought of food" feeling so that I have something on my stomach to take my meds, and then when the meds kick in I can get day started to whatever extent I can. It's up to the meds whether I end up actually eating a real meal though lol. Sometimes my partner has to be like "have you eaten today? here eat this." because I just plain forget.
Masterclass in darning
This is quantum physics in theory (incomprehensible unless you're a hardore math simp) but in practice it is Black Magic (you have to sell your soul and sabity in order to perform it).
btw @ everyone who can't wrap their heads around this, here's a longer video going into more detail about prepping the damaged area and mending/darning technique with actual explanations!
rb with this more detailed method which will make a more lasting mend.
if you've ever read about a character "darning" socks or other clothing, this is what that means.
Y'all for real please do these. Even if you're certain your posture doesn't suck. One day you will wake up with impinged shoulder pain like I did and let me tell you it fucking HURTS. Do these exercises even just once a week and it will make such a difference. Especially my fellow creatives out there, stop shrimping over your work and go do these right now. RIGHT NOW.