[HN Gopher] Tips for stroke-surviving software engineers
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Tips for stroke-surviving software engineers
Author : padolsey
Score : 442 points
Date : 2025-10-29 03:51 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.j11y.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.j11y.io)
| slater wrote:
| FYI that article is rendering light-grey text on a cream
| background color here (Safari, iOS), it's barely readable
| jader201 wrote:
| Something may be off on your end. I'm on iPhone/Safari, and
| it's white on black here.
|
| (Can always try reader mode, if you just want to read the
| content without worrying about fixing it.)
| GianFabien wrote:
| Most of the advice is good for pre-stroke persons too. Might even
| avoid having one.
| oaiey wrote:
| I think it is good advice for everyone.
|
| Pre Texting, Pre Email in the 90s I believe this kind of work
| was normal. All this self motivated, hyper context switching
| jobs we all do are relatively new compared to human evolvement.
| And we see the tax on us.
| fennec-posix wrote:
| I think these are also good strategies for anyone who suffers
| from mental illness/burnout.
| ngcazz wrote:
| ADHD...
| Muromec wrote:
| All of that and parenting. Notifications off, camera off, WFH
| to the max and keeping the journal of where you were before
| attention was hijacked by the usual suspects.
| y-curious wrote:
| Which tips would you apply to burnout? Because certainly AFAIK,
| you don't really get legal protections from burnout
| vpShane wrote:
| With burnout it's simple, rest. Get away, go spiritually
| connect with something new, like laying on a beach or doing
| something completely new. Burnout is real and will make you
| _hate_ anything.
|
| I watch for burnout in my teams, and become burned out myself
| at times, but if you're burning out, tell somebody and get
| moved elsewhere. Coder doing some star-coder stuff the last 6
| months, but can do sysadmin/devops things? Switch to that for
| a few weeks and come back mentally rested.
|
| Legal protections against burnout I'm not aware of but the
| illness associated with elevated stress levels and 'burn out'
| do create other health complications.
|
| Burn out is bad, bad stuff. Once somebody's burned out they
| can't do _anything_
| primitivesuave wrote:
| I finally figured out how to address my burnout with a 10 day
| Vipassana meditation course (dhamma.org) - hope it
| potentially helps others as well.
| Hannah203 wrote:
| Good read. Recovery takes time, and steady small steps help
| rebuild skill and focus.
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| Strikes close to home. 8 years ago I was in a bike accident that
| took me out for 4 months. I instantly felt dumber. The headaches
| became a fact of life, and the need to get out of the house early
| in the day to avoid brain fog creeping in became a routine.
|
| It... sucks. I've still progressed my career and made significant
| strides, and come to appreciate things that I never would have
| noticed if I kept on my previous trajectory, and while I don't
| think about it much anymore, for years it ate at me.
| az226 wrote:
| Do you still have headaches?
| antisthenes wrote:
| I was also in a bike accident that resulted in brain trauma
| (not a stroke), and yes, still get headaches 5 years later.
|
| But it does get better with exercise. I was able to reduce
| weekly headaches to about 1/month.
| anonym29 wrote:
| Thank you for sharing.
|
| Reading this, I'm reminded of the idea that we should all care
| about accessibility, because barring death or radical advances in
| restorative medical technology, we will all rely on accessibility
| tech in some way eventually.
|
| Besides what is listed here, have you observed anything that your
| coworkers or managers can do to help accommodate you? i.e. Is
| there a version of this for folks working with stroke-surviving
| software engineers?
| ehnto wrote:
| I feel like any such advice would also be good advice for
| protecting the health of any of your staff.
| elric wrote:
| The accessibility field is pretty mature, with useful and
| thorough guidelines like WCAG. But many people in the software
| industry either ignore accessibility completely, or think it's
| "only" about the blind, slap some alt text on images, and call
| it a day.
|
| We should try to do better.
| weddpros wrote:
| Suffered a stroke in 2004 (migrainous infarction). Became half
| blind. Rested for a good year. Became a photographer for 8 years,
| then switched back again to software development. From then on,
| the limits were: WFH only, limit stress, run away from job if
| things go bad again. Nap if brain feels exhausted. Sleep, more
| and better. 20 years later (53yo), I'd say I'm doing great! Also
| fitness helps remind me to take care of the body...
| iberator wrote:
| Whats your stack? (Software). Very impressive after 8 years to
| come back
| weddpros wrote:
| Today it's Go-TS-react-node-K8s-mongo-PG-RabbitMQ
|
| Well, I said "I'll never do IT again"... and when I say
| never, it usually happens in the end ;-)
| ownagefool wrote:
| Tech has built literal industries of people trying to stress
| you out, and they mostly don't have actual tech skills or the
| empathy that comes with them so back it up.
|
| For me, I usually try to avoid anything where the working
| practices are strongly defined. Agile has long been a bad word.
|
| I'm glad you're doing well now.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Unfortunately while the intentions around agile were noble
| it's pretty much a direct way to burnout or worse. The human
| mind is not designed to "sprint" run a marathon,
| metaphorically speaking, forever.
|
| I see older devs being active in the trade well into their
| 60s but even as I much younger person I don't see how agile
| development is sustainable for a ~50-year career.
| ownagefool wrote:
| The thing is, the core agile points from the manifesto are
| pretty much universally fine and can pretty much be boiled
| down to, "make changes fast, get feedback, gain more
| understanding faster".
|
| Pretty much everything that's been layered on top though
| has either nothing to do with the manifesto, or actively
| breaks it. i.e. there's a burning issue, I'll get to that
| after my sprint commitment, which was sold to let me finish
| work, but now only exists to stress me out to squeeze more
| widgets per unit of time, where the widgets pretty much
| never actually map back to anything actually tangible.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| > Pretty much everything that's been layered on top
|
| ...and that /is/ topic of discussion every time this
| discussion happens
|
| Every agile criticism conversation goes like this
|
| A: agile as practiced is bad
|
| B: but the manifesto is solid
|
| It's predictable as the sun rising
| moregrist wrote:
| And usually:
|
| C: Therefore you're doing it wrong.
|
| And once an "agile guru" enters the conversation:
|
| D: You need my book / seminar / services.
| eru wrote:
| Is agile the socialism of software development
| methodologies?
|
| (Not for any deeper reason, only that whenever socialism
| fails, people tell you that 'real socialism' hasn't been
| tried, yet.)
| alexjplant wrote:
| Because it's true.
|
| Scrum is like Spaghetti Carbonara in America. The
| ingredients are simple and there's a tiny bit of
| technique involved that anybody can figure out after a
| few tries. For some reason though almost everybody that
| makes it decides that _they know better_ than the people
| that invented it and so adulterates it with peas and
| onions and garlic and cream and cream cheese and Italian
| seasoning and parsley and chives until it ends up being
| Olive Garden Alfredo. If they wanted Carbonara then they
| would have cooked the Carbonara, not the waterfall with a
| bunch of JIRA workflows and four-hour meetings layered on
| top. They just did what they would have done anyway while
| attempting to sound fancy via obfuscation.
| threetonesun wrote:
| Any principle or practice falls apart when tied to an
| economy. See also: religion, politics, society at large.
| I don't foresee that changing in our lifetimes, so make
| money doing it the wrong way, and do it the right way in
| your free time.
| ownagefool wrote:
| It's not just Agile but the same applies to DevOps.
|
| DevOps is a culture. It can also be the specific subset
| of highly skilled individuals who were part of or an
| outcome of said cultures cross pollination. Today DevOps
| most often means fairly unskilled person hitting
| pipelines with hammer.
|
| In the end, the same old people with the same old
| commercial interests adopted the term in a way that
| benefited them but changed the meaning of the term
| because change was not actually something anyone wanted.
| bitwize wrote:
| Nobody gives a fuck about the Agile Manifesto.
|
| Inasmuch as Agile was adopted at companies, it's because
| it was sold to them as a way to provide greater
| transparency, accountability, and control into a chaotic
| software development process. The vice president behind
| the company's "Agile Transformation" probably can't even
| name point one of the manifesto; "we're doing Scrum with
| JIRA, therefore we're agile" is the extent of his
| concern.
| giantg2 wrote:
| That's not really Agile's fault. That's PMs overcommitting
| the team. Those bad PMs would also make unrealistic
| waterfall schedules.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| I mean if something doesn't ever work in real life then
| its not good. Intentions aside.
| nradov wrote:
| I have seen Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) work in
| multiple real program teams. Doing it successfully
| requires total commitment at multiple levels and many
| organizations are culturally incapable of making the
| transitions.
|
| To be clear I am not claiming that SAFe is necessarily
| the best possible methodology. There is certainly room
| for improvement. But empirically it can work in real
| life.
| fnordle wrote:
| The organizations I've seen do SAFe at the top level
| "coincidentally" have so much in the way of resources
| that if they do software at the group level at all, they
| do it like a gentleman farms.
| giantg2 wrote:
| "I mean if something doesn't ever work in real life then
| its not good."
|
| Are you talking about Agile, Waterfall, or project
| management in general?
|
| I've seen Agile work just fine. I've also seen it fail
| miserably. I've seen both of these at the same company
| with the main difference being how aggressive/delusional
| the leadership is. The easy test is if your leadership is
| legitimately ok with your team going home early if you
| complete your sprint commitment early, and it actually
| happens on occasion.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| There's a difference between "bad PMs using the tool
| wrong" and "ordinary, human PMs using the tool in the way
| that common business incentives would lead you to predict
| they'll use it".
|
| If the tool is used wrong most of the time, it's at least
| partially to blame.
| paulcole wrote:
| Why is anything supposed to be sustainable for a ~50-year
| career? That's a long time! Things change and people
| change.
|
| It's not like my great grandparents had a passion for
| farming in South Dakota and that's why they did it until
| they dropped dead. It's all they knew and what they did to
| survive.
|
| If you gave them the option to tap on a keyboard in an air-
| conditioned room for 10 or 20 of those years they would've
| taken it.
| codr7 wrote:
| Not so sure they would if they knew what it means, beyond
| tapping keyboards.
|
| Too much software and you start turning into a computer,
| which obviously doesn't work very well.
| paulcole wrote:
| They know it's not backbreaking labor...
| jacquesm wrote:
| Agile isn't sustainable for younger people either. But they
| just get replaced by more younger people. Burn-out in IT is
| way too common.
| alaithea wrote:
| Since tech has largely stopped hiring younger people,
| sounds like a problem.
| gedy wrote:
| You say that, but it was way more stressful pre agile with
| the fixed date, fuck around for a few months planning, then
| dev, run out of time then death march to finish, etc.
|
| A lot of young guys like that D-Day style work, then goof
| off for a while, but not me. Continuous sustainable work is
| much preferred.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| I have never seen Agile used correctly in practice. Its
| just mini waterfall with additional annoying ceremonies
| lumped on top.
| p0nce wrote:
| Agile (or rather modern management) converts human capital
| into capital as fast as possible. Considering the endless
| supply of developers and lack of accountability there is no
| downsides to doing that, you are an externality.
| eru wrote:
| Where can you get an endless supply of (good) developers
| from?
| kajic wrote:
| Green cards
| nradov wrote:
| That is why more advanced agile methodologies such as SAFe
| use the neutral term "iteration" rather than "sprint". It
| doesn't imply anything about team velocity or individual
| workload.
| OJFord wrote:
| In my experience of it though (only two workplaces, but
| not one) it's used for higher level planning, rather than
| being a 'more advanced agile'. I.e. a SAFe iteration
| spans some number of sprints greater than one. What are
| we going to deliver this quarter versus how are we going
| to break down and monitor progress of the quarter's
| deliverables week by week. (Don't read that like I like
| it.)
| nradov wrote:
| I think you're confused about the terminology. SAFe
| doesn't have sprints. Depending on the program planning
| horizon, several iterations can be grouped together into
| a larger program increment which typically lasts about a
| quarter.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| SAFe is not "advanced" Agile. It's training wheels Agile
| for managers and execs who can't give up control and devs
| who want to be told what to do.
| nradov wrote:
| Sure, that's fair. In the real world there are a lot of
| developers who want to be told what to do, or _need_ to
| be told what to do because they lack business domain
| knowledge. A defined methodology like SAFe allows large
| enterprises to move forward at a steady pace and get some
| productive work out of those people.
|
| The reality is that in some domains there just aren't
| many developers who are highly motivated, self directed,
| and thoroughly understand customer needs. Those people
| just aren't widely available in the labor market
| regardless of wages or working conditions. So if
| management doesn't impose a fairly strict methodology
| then then the program will collapse.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| I'd make a separate case that learned helplessness is a
| reversible thing, and more highly motivated and self
| directed devs can be grown.
|
| But leadership has to incentivize not just being a ticket
| monkey, and needs to mindfully empower people. You can't
| just flip a switch in a feature factory and say "fly my
| pretties, be free!"
| nradov wrote:
| Sure, that's also fair. But it takes a long time to turn
| culture around. And in the meantime the company has to
| continue shipping releases to customers or else they run
| out of cash and everyone gets laid off.
| roryirvine wrote:
| The term "iteration" was in common use by many of the big
| 90s proto-agile methodologies (think RUP et al). And XP -
| which I guess is what most people would regard as the
| first "true" form of agile - used it too.
|
| SAFe is just an attempt to mush something that like looks
| like agile to delivery teams together with something that
| fits into more traditional program management,
| governance, and strategic direction lifecycle models.
|
| There's no particular magic to it, and it's probably
| better to think of it in terms of being an "enterprise
| variant of agile" rather than a "humane variant of
| agile".
| nradov wrote:
| Yes, that's accurate. In the real world sometimes
| software programs have to make compromises in order to
| align with actual business needs. Like if you're going to
| be manufacturing hardware to go with the software or
| scheduling training for users then you have to apply
| strict program management discipline to ensure everything
| comes together at the correct time.
| accrual wrote:
| > For me, I usually try to avoid anything where the working
| practices are strongly defined.
|
| I'm grateful I've managed to avoid this so far. My favorite
| place to work has been more akin to "we need X done in Y
| system before Z date, but how and when it's done is up to
| you".
| windex wrote:
| Reminds me of this Indian boss I had whose only agenda used
| to be calling me up and telling me that others had complaints
| about my work. After 2 years of listening to his stories, I
| had to tell him off one morning. I quit about 4 months later.
| The guy was a completely talentless aggregator. I don't get
| how some Indian firms promote people and this wasn't a small
| firm either. He ended up being promoted upwards.
| 827a wrote:
| The worst part is how these people almost always work on the
| most boring, rote crap. They could be selling mens hair loss
| medication on the internet (cough) and key individuals in the
| organization are convinced what they do is life-and-death,
| future of humanity, work nights and weekends, we're the next
| Google. It's so deeply cringe-worthy. Meanwhile, I know a ton
| of people in the traditional pharma industry (e.g. not Novo,
| but Novo-adjacent); those companies broadly treat their
| employees pretty well, very minor amounts of overwork,
| they're well-staffed, some still have pensions, people spend
| their whole working lives there.
|
| Tech sucks. It's filled with talentless hacks who think
| "because we use computers" means you've got a blank check to
| make every individual do the work of three individuals. And
| then your company gets gutted by private equity anyway,
| because it turns out hiring talentless hacks and overworking
| has consequences.
|
| This is a weird take, but I genuinely and deeply believe the
| world would be a far better place if everyone experienced a
| life-threatening but recoverable major medical event and/or
| had children, while young. Perspective-shifting events that
| are core to the human condition and help ground your reality
| in work not being everything. By the way: The businesses our
| society would build would also be stronger.
| boobsbr wrote:
| Did you work with something else during your rest period?
|
| I don't think most people wouldn't be able to, financially.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > I don't think most people wouldn't be able to, financially.
|
| Pretty sure you'd be covered in a lot of western countries,
| and if not you have relatively cheap insurances that cover
| these things.
| W0lfEagle wrote:
| This feels like a very naive viewpoint. The reality being
| that you can't rely on insurance at all. You might have
| insurance but that certainly doesn't guarantee you'll be
| financially supported through health issues. You'll also be
| required to engage in legal battles with your insurance
| company which might be prohibitively complicated after a
| brain injury.
| lfkdev wrote:
| No, at least in Germany (pretty sure other western
| countries too) you are covered after stuff like this. You
| won't be rich, but enough housing food and your camera.
| immibis wrote:
| Note: only if you're a German citizen.
| lm28469 wrote:
| Nope, you just need an health insurance, which you'll
| have if you worked
| immibis wrote:
| Ah, I thought you meant the more general Burgergeld.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > This feels like a very naive viewpoint
|
| It's just an European viewpoint... I know for americans
| it's like a sci fi movie but it's very real here lol
|
| In France you get ~67% of your salary for 36 months,
| after that it's case by case.
|
| In Germany you get ~70% of your salary for 78 weeks,
| private insurances will cover more/longer too, for like <
| 50 euros a month
| jack_tripper wrote:
| You're talking about unemployment or disability?
| thw_9a83c wrote:
| Given enough kids to take care of, a mortgage and other
| financial/dept obligations, your insurance money might be
| just a drop in a bucket and your only destination will be a
| social welfare system. And even that might not save you
| from having to sell your house or apartment.
| footy wrote:
| this means you are underinsured for your lifestyle.
| bonesss wrote:
| > WFH only, limit stress, run away from job if things go bad
| again
|
| I'm facing a similar set of health-based restrictions, it's
| edifying and impressive how you've pushed through. I'm curious:
| how do you broach this with potential employers and shape your
| job search/career path around it?
|
| Applying for pure remote positions puts one in direct
| competition with younger people who can pull obscene hours with
| no accommodation needs. Leading with disability/accommodation
| needs feels like the opposite of the 'best foot forward'
| honeymoon phase salesmanship associated with new jobs, and
| kinda soul crushing regurgitating the circumstances for chronic
| illness while hoping for a job. And uncontrollable management
| changes can eliminate medical protections and acceptable
| working environments, leading to an enhanced need to be able to
| hop jobs (exacerbating both the previous situations).
|
| I'm fortunate my primary skills are amenable to straightforward
| accommodations, but you gotta get the job to do the job...
| jnovek wrote:
| > kinda soul crushing regurgitating the circumstances for
| chronic illness while hoping for a job
|
| I have to do this every time now because I have a resume gap.
| I don't have to explain in detail, but even revisiting those
| three years for a brief explanation sucks.
|
| I'm sure there's an implicit realization that I will likely
| ask for accommodations when I explain the gap which likely
| reduces my chances of being hired.
| rangestransform wrote:
| > I'm curious: how do you broach this with potential
| employers and shape your job search/career path around it?
|
| Could you get the job without these conditions and then drop
| the bomb on them as a disability accomodation
| blitzar wrote:
| > WFH only, limit stress, run away from job if things go bad
| again
|
| Sounds like senior management
| kleiba wrote:
| _> Became half blind. ... Became a photographer_
|
| Impressive.
| kleiba wrote:
| Why do you guys downvote - is it because the comment sounded
| snarky? It wasn't meant to be, I think it is (obviously) an
| impressive feat to work as a photographer when your eye sight
| is severly limited.
| navigate8310 wrote:
| Usually one worded complements are frowned upon.
| apprentice7 wrote:
| As a migraine sufferer this sounds scary and only today I have
| learned about it. What was it like? If I may ask. Is there a
| way to prevent it? I googled it and it seems to appear rather
| arbitrarily and suddenly.
| hn_user82179 wrote:
| I'd be interested in how you managed the impact to your vision,
| any particular technology improvements you made? My dad had a
| stroked over the summer and lost vision on his right side -
| he's older but still works at a computer and is pretty
| particular about workflows so I don't want to muddle with what
| works for him too much.
| typpilol wrote:
| My dad's suffering with aphasia from a large half brain stroke
| too.
|
| You give me some hope things will get better for him.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| Good advice. I had one young too; I worked long days and had no
| life outside my company; it was in an economic downturn so I was
| also burning out (hindsight). I figured out what was important to
| me and that all changed everything.
| croes wrote:
| > Let it hold state so your brain can judge rather than store and
| needlessly cogitate on stuff.
|
| Isn't that needless cogitation something that helps creating new
| links in your brain and helps against cognitive decline in later
| ages?
| hshdhdhehd wrote:
| Maybe it is better to invest cognition budget into more
| valuable things. Let AI write that test while you learn how
| Postgres Indexes work, for example.
|
| But if you are sick you cant do X "healthy thing for normal
| people". If you are sick you cant get that hour of exercise a
| day and do weight lifting and work out your brain etc.
| charles_f wrote:
| I haven't had a stroke (yet) but I find all that to be generally
| good advice. Good read!
| buserror wrote:
| Had a stroke 2 months ago at 55, after an entire life
| (professionally since I'm 16) as a dev. I mostly followed these
| rules _apart from when I got dragged into a project_ that was
| sufficiently interesting that I started overworking. 12-14h days.
|
| Just don't do that. I used to do that _just fine_ and that 's why
| I thought I was OK. I mean, I USED to go on in huge coding
| benders, did'nt I ? Well apparently not at 55, when the pressure
| has been on for months instead of weeks.
|
| Other things to watch -- diet! With the work came less free time,
| put on weight etc and all the good habits I had built for years,
| disappeared.
|
| And the _worst bit_ you can think of is "Oh but I'm so CLOSE to
| being done, I'll just fix it up later when I can relax". Just
| don't.
|
| I lost all sensation on the right side. It is coming back slowly.
| I can still work, didn't lose speech or mobility or strength, I
| consider myself super-mega-lucky in that.
| padolsey wrote:
| > when I got dragged into a project that was sufficiently
| interesting that I started overworking
|
| This is what bites. I have some really narrow interest areas
| that I can end up being obsessive about, to my own detriment.
| We have to be careful.
|
| Glad you didn't lose mobility and speech! I also feel lucky. I
| met others in neuro-rehab in far worse situations. For three
| months I couldn't walk and now thankfully do so with a stick
| and ankle brace. The hard stuff isn't the stuff you can see
| visually though. People see my floppy leg, and might presume
| that's the main _thing_ , but nope. The big thing is the
| epilepsy, this constant monster present in the background. It's
| the invisible stuff that's often hard.
| mmaaz wrote:
| Good advice. I didn't have a stroke but a couple months ago I
| developed blindness in my left eye. It came down to my optic
| nerve being inflamed. I was later diagnosed with a rare
| autoimmune condition called MOGAD which "attacks" the optic
| nerve. Thankfully my vision is approx 95% recovered by now. But I
| still can't read, eg code on my laptop, which is scary (my right
| eye is basically making up for it). And I'm scared of another
| attack happening. So I've been really looking after my health and
| trying not to do the 12+ hr coding benders I used to do. I
| appreciate these tips!
| ares623 wrote:
| Doesn't the immune system attack the eyes if not for a
| protective wall? Or is that just a myth.
| padolsey wrote:
| Thanks for sharing! I feel the fear of another attack with
| epilepsy too. It is terrifying. The doom and the walking on
| thin ice constantly hoping you're not gonna over-step or do the
| wrong thing. And all that at the same time as trying to live
| your life fully. Do you have any devices or aid software to
| help with the not-reading thing? I imagine it's all really
| fresh still and you're just taking it a day at a time?
| WalterBright wrote:
| > 12+ hr coding benders
|
| Even when I was young, I discovered that after a certain level
| of fatigue my coding became garbage, and after a night's sleep
| I had to delete it and redo it. After this tipping point, I
| just stop doing the hard stuff. If I still want to work, I work
| on routine things that didn't take much concentration.
|
| I never understood how people can write complex code when
| fatigued. I just get negatively productive trying that.
| throwawayffffas wrote:
| > I discovered that after a certain level of fatigue my
| coding became garbage, and after a night's sleep I had to
| delete it and redo it.
|
| My best work happens at 2am, at about 4am I am too tired and
| get slow and get stuck, I think even then code quality
| suffers only a little bit.
|
| That's just my experience, I believe it happens because if I
| am working at that time, I am hyped and or in the zone. There
| is a sort of second wind involved. The lack of distractions
| also helps I guess.
| boardwaalk wrote:
| How strange to come across someone whose medical stuff so mirrors
| my own. I was just a decade older and don't have epilepsy
| symptoms with meds. I can get behind all the advice here. Running
| out of "juice" and needing a break is very much thing. Before too
| but more so now. And taking a lot of semi stream of consciousness
| notes to help my more limited memory is too.
| sh4rkb0y wrote:
| Could honestly change the title to "Tips for stroke-surviving
| software engineers (or anyone trying to avoid one)". All of us
| need these fresh little reminders that our brains are very
| different than the tech we regularly interact with every now and
| then. Recognize and respect your organic hardware!
| keyle wrote:
| I haven't had a stroke but I did get a nasty tropical mono when I
| was young. You never quite recover from that one. I've got ibs
| since. My stomach just gets tired and stops. My mental focus
| feels the same. I sleep 9 hours a night, often 10 and I'm still
| tired.
|
| I feel I always have less stamina than other people.
|
| So this list is close to what I have always preached.
|
| Time as in energy is my most precious resource.
|
| Don't let processes suck the life out of you. They're there to
| serve the people not the other way around.
| simonbarker87 wrote:
| Gut directed hypnotherapy has worked wonders for my IBS. The
| research on it is really solid and was recommended to me by a
| registered dietician. The one I followed is called Nerva. Might
| be worth a try for you.
| TechPulse01 wrote:
| it's very helpful though i did'nt suffered a stroke until now
| hiergiltdiestfu wrote:
| Reminds me of Fefe, hope he'll recover one day, too.
| lynx97 wrote:
| Wha? Felix had a stroke? <schocked> Didn't know that.
| symbogra wrote:
| This is good advice for non brain damaged engineers too (or maybe
| I am?)
| gnarcoregrizz wrote:
| Good tips. Not a stroke survivor but I developed epilepsy as a
| young adult... Not sure if work/stress had anything to do with
| it, but stress certainly triggers it!
|
| I'm still able to work as a software engineer, and my career has
| progressed, but the condition has held me back in a lot of ways.
| foreigner wrote:
| > You, too, have a limited context window.
|
| Love this!
| jve wrote:
| https://stroke.jonasr.app/dates/
|
| Quite a recovery. No it's not me, just a dev that works in the
| same field.
| ufko_org wrote:
| I would add: 1. Go strictly keto 2. Walk as much as you can
| kakacik wrote:
| Would remove that keto part, otherwise agree. Keto is great for
| lowering fat levels but long term effects can be terrible if
| unsupervised professionally, ie permanent internal organs
| damage, more than negating any benefits gained.
|
| Not sure why some people can only (mentally but brain drags
| rest of the body along) exist in extremes, when basically
| always some sort of moderate middle path is best in all aspects
| of life.
| NotGMan wrote:
| The permanent internal organ damage is pure bs and scare-
| mongering.
|
| Obviously you also get those on non-keto diets since non-keto
| people also get strokes, heart disease, fatty liver...
| stuffn wrote:
| Keto has no solid association with any improved outcomes in
| terms of stroke and CVD. The gains are typically because of
| weight loss in which it is just another variant of CICO. You'd
| make the same gains in health by simply eating better overall
| and in accordance with your activity level.
|
| Keto however has numerous well researched negative health
| outcomes such as elevated LDL, ApoB, etc and these can be
| dramatically elevated in hyper-responders. Though, the science
| is also out on if mildly elevated LDL is anything to worry
| about. It's not a panacea but rather a trade off. Most people
| can stick to keto better because fats simply taste better and
| keep you feeling full longer and the alternative is much harder
| to stick to long term.
|
| It is only known to be effective for treatment resistant
| epilepsy. Any other benefit either can be equally attributed to
| the control (CICO + exercise) or are pseudoscience.
| hshdhdhehd wrote:
| Good ME/CFS engineer advice too. Thanks for writing up OP
| lynx97 wrote:
| I don't get it, why is this mentioning "anti-discrimination
| legislation". Is being part of a minority prerequisite for
| personal health care?
| throw-qqqqq wrote:
| > Is being part of a minority prerequisite for personal health
| care?
|
| Discrimination doesn't have to be racial. You can be
| discriminated because of a handicap.
|
| From Cambridge dictionary
|
| > discriminate verb (TREAT DIFFERENTLY) > to treat a person or
| particular group of people differently, especially in a worse
| way from the way in which you treat other people, because of
| their race, gender, sexuality, etc.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| Employers in most countries are required to make reasonable
| accommodations for people with disabilities.
| emmelaich wrote:
| All excellent advice even if you haven't suffered some health
| issue like stroke.
| boobsbr wrote:
| > HEADPHONES, blinders, and 'No'. Eliminate unwanted inputs at
| the earliest point of entry.
|
| Open-floor offices, non-stop emails and chat messages, several
| meetings scattered throughout the week and the day.
|
| This kills productivity and increases stress and fatigue for
| people that need to concentrate to work on complex stuff. There's
| also the time you need to properly switch contexts.
| whalesalad wrote:
| The word "blinders" really stood out to me in this. Does anyone
| have a recommendation for something that is literally like
| horse blinders but for people? I genuinely feel like my
| peripheral vision is "too adept" and overwhelming sometimes. If
| I cup my hands around my temples and over my brow, I feel a
| sense of calm. Trying to find a real product that does this -
| but I suppose I could just try to prototype my own with an old
| baseball hat or visor that has some vertical pieces on the
| side.
| aendruk wrote:
| Pop the lenses out of glacier glasses?
| ta_09867534567 wrote:
| This might sound silly: I used post-it notes as human-
| blinders.
|
| I turnt the post-it note sideways, wrote `FOCUS TIME`, and
| put it on my temple, to block out my vision in that
| direction.
|
| I joked about it with my team before, and then just did so
| when I felt comfortable enough with them. I utilize this
| strategy at home for deep focus in a chaotic living room
| setup.
|
| 2x Post-its, baseball cap, and over-the-ears noise-cancelling
| headphones is peak `focus-time` I've found.
| whalesalad wrote:
| there are at least two of us!
| buserror wrote:
| Another thing if you are recovering and have limited dexterity in
| your hands, after trying pretty much ALL the voice recognition I
| could find, the VScode/copilot assistant is the best by far!
|
| I've now recovered enough that I can type/edit faster, but I
| still use it; I keep a Worksheet.md tab around and keep a whole
| running log of stuff, LLM prompts etc
| throwaway290 wrote:
| It's very depressing how the article says "you don't have to do
| it alone! use AI"
|
| ah this age where "not alone" means "AI"...
|
| How about, enjoy good connections with nice people. Both in
| personal and work. Maybe those people can even see the warning
| signs and tell you to stop _before_ you have a stroke.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| He says to use AI as a knowledge offloading tool. He literally
| says that he enjoys meetings.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| wow I should have expected it to get only more depressing
| from replies I guess)
|
| I'm not talking about meetings. relationships do not reduce
| to zoom meetings
|
| and this is not about "knowledge offloading". that's a text
| file can do it. the key word is "help". the thing people did
| for each other;)
| a5c11 wrote:
| Didn't have a stroke, but in addition to developing software, I
| developed "software" brain issues too.
| drtournier wrote:
| OP thank you for this generous text. I would add that these tips
| are amazing for people with post-covid/long-covid/brain-fog too
| andhuman wrote:
| Yup! I follow these and I also take walks, those can be helpful
| to relax and let the mind rest for a bit.
| psnosignaluk wrote:
| This is applicable to far more than stroke victims. Any manner of
| brain interference should have the same ruleset. Reading through
| the comments, this ruleset should apply to everyone regardless of
| their medical situation. Chiming in with a +1 to fitness, and
| diet. It helps, massively.
| artur_makly wrote:
| Stay away from vibe coding. It will cause more stress and provoke
| aneurysms -;)
| sarmike31 wrote:
| This was a very good to-the-point post! Applies to everyone, and
| you only truly seem to wake up to care for your health when you
| lost it first.
| 0xdada wrote:
| I managed to wake up in my early 30s, by watching my parents'
| health slowly start failing starting in their 50s.
| roxolotl wrote:
| Yea this is my takeaway as well. All of the advice is
| applicable to everyone. Health should always come first.
| davedx wrote:
| I don't know if this is as niche as the author thinks: there's a
| lot of great advice for non-stroke survivors in there too.
| NotGMan wrote:
| DMSO can allegedly help some people improve after stroke, if
| applied soon enough.
|
| https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/dmso-could-save-millions-...
| hemmert wrote:
| Excellent advice, for everybody. Thank you!
| hotpotat wrote:
| Interesting to see all the people in this thread who had a
| stroke. I had a mild and then moderate cerebellar stroke within a
| 7 day span about two years ago. I remember being on the stroke
| neurology floor of the hospital with a lot of bed ridden people
| who had also suffered them. I know because, within 24 hours, I
| was doing hourly walking laps with my nurses because I was bored.
| In other words, I was one of the lucky ones. Within a week I was
| back at work -- not because I felt pressured to by them, they
| were completely understanding, but because I had no more symptoms
| that were experienced simply because I was sitting down to work.
|
| I also see some advice about listening to your body after the
| fact, which I fully agree with. In my case, without going into
| too much detail, the stroke might not have happened if I had
| listened to my body beforehand, as it was caused by an injury I
| could have prevented.
|
| So if I could give any advice from this place of experience it
| would be to listen to your body, and try to hear it when your
| fears and ego are shouting.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I know a vascular neurologist who says that the average age of
| his patients has dropped by nearly a decade in the last five
| years. Many more "young" (<60) men with minor strokes, and more
| frequent serious strokes in the 40s for both sexes. He's
| treated as many under 30 y/o stroke patients in the last two
| years than he did in the first two decades of his career. He's
| a few years from retirement and basically completely rattled by
| this sudden shift.
| croisillon wrote:
| i don't know how to word it better than: there's much we
| don't know yet about the extent of ~"long covid", or "down
| the road covid outcomes"
| hotpotat wrote:
| I have an out-there hypothesis I'd want to test. Much of the
| population has one or more MTHFR mutations, which can
| increase homocysteine if left untreated and that's been
| linked to increased risk in stroke. Treatment includes more B
| vitamins. I wonder if the declining nutrition in foods and
| lack of B vitamins has anything to do with this.
| zahlman wrote:
| > Interesting to see all the people in this thread who had a
| stroke.
|
| Indeed. My first thought was "....just how common _is_ this? "
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| Far more common than I thought. My wife had multiple small
| strokes before she was 40.
| stouset wrote:
| Stroke survivor here checking in.
|
| As I understand it, post-COVID a _lot_ more people are having
| strokes at younger ages, primarily from PFOs. 10-15% of us are
| walking around with a small pathway between the atria of our
| hearts, and if a clot happens to form, it can pop into the
| other side of your heart and get pumped straight to your brain.
|
| I was exceedingly lucky in that it cleared up on its own after
| about an hour. I was unable to speak and unable to move so much
| as a finger or toe on the right half of my body. I was
| completely incapacitated. They had me in the CT when it cleared
| up, and I immediately was back to my original self with no
| lasting defects.
| delichon wrote:
| I'm terrified by the possibility of a stroke that would disable
| me, not in a way that would let me write here about my experience
| with it, but leaving me dependent on the care of others. I'd
| prefer to shuffle off of this mortal coil, but such a sudden
| event may not allow that choice. So I fantasize about writing a
| suicide program that would take care of business if I fail to
| pass a bespoke Turing (delichon) test. But I doubt my ability to
| write that with enough nines of reliability to be willing to
| deploy it. I tried to implant that algorithm into my brother, but
| he declines to go to prison for me, the jerk. If I live long
| enough maybe AI tech will become reliable enough for this
| application, but I doubt it will be soon.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| This is essentially my greatest fear as well. Most of my
| supplementation stack revolves around the desire to prevent
| this. I take ~30 supplements a day.
| wedgel wrote:
| I had a stroke roughly eleven years ago. When the stroke started,
| I got really creeped out. I was in an elevator and I thought a
| stranger was reaching around me from behind to grab me. It was my
| right arm. I cracked a joke about it, I didn't know it, but I
| wasn't soeaking. Just mumbling and making creepy gutteral noises
| when I thought I was laughing. Then the face droop. Followed by
| my right hand becoming locked in a fist. It took months on rehab
| to get it open. And it lost a lot of function.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| damn, sorry friend. Must be terrifying to feel your body
| essentially betraying you.
| wjnc wrote:
| For those in workplaces that treat you well. One suggestion that
| is not in OP: Tell others, explain, expand, give presentations on
| what you went through. Not only will it help your environment
| understand WHAT you are doing, they then are also able to
| understand the WHY. I've had my share of colleagues with
| afflictions. Your environment must know to understand! Otherwise,
| you are only allowing them to react to resulting situations,
| without understanding of the why. Second order benefit is that if
| people would do this more, general kindness towards how personal
| situations influence business situations would rise. We need more
| kindness, from understanding each other. (I understand this is an
| advice that does not work for those workplaces where HR is the
| enemy, the boss is their to get you, co-workers are in a free for
| all for bonuses and promotions. I hope most of us are not in that
| kind of work situations.)
| MisterTea wrote:
| > I hope most of us are not in that kind of work situations.
|
| It is unfortunately very common and becoming more common with
| the rise of PE.
| donbox wrote:
| Sorry what does PE mean here. Thanks
| MisterTea wrote:
| Private Equity.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| I haven't had a stroke, and many of these tips are, IMO,
| important for the unimpaired productive software developer.
| cl3misch wrote:
| This advice could be translated 1:1 to ADHD (at least in my
| experience). You have to be very mindful with your attention and
| energy levels.
|
| I'm wondering if some underlying mechanism in the brain is
| similar between having ADHD and having suffered a stroke. Or
| maybe it's just the conscious effort how to handle the symptoms
| that's similar.
| accrual wrote:
| In my experience it feels more like the latter - a similar way
| to manage symptoms rather than a similar root cause. From the
| article it sounds like OP knows exactly where to spend
| attention and focus, but needs to guard it carefully (and
| manage expectations) or else risk falling from their island of
| stability.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| Question to the OP or anyone else that has experienced something
| similar. Have you tried grey area or Peptide space medications
| like Dihexa, P-21, Semax, etc to see if there are any benefits
| there?
|
| Very much self experimentation but they do work in mouse models
| as well as Russian medicine. I'm not encouraging anyone to
| experiment, just interested to see if anyone that has undergone
| experiences like OP's has experimented.
|
| I have not experienced a stroke or similar but I just started a 6
| - 8 week Dihexa course, low dose to test tolerance and I find I
| am experiencing benefits such as improved recall. I am learning
| guitar as my test suite. Something I have attempted multiple
| times before and given up on relatively quickly. 2 weeks in so
| far.
|
| My intention is to drop the Dihexa at week 8 and then switch to
| Semax. The theory being that Dihexa improves synaptogenesis but
| inhibits pruning. Semax allows for pruning but optimizes the
| efficiency of existing used synapses. Dihexa is an experimental
| Alzheimer's medication and Semax is a Russian post stroke drug
| accrual wrote:
| Thank you for sharing this. Keep up the good work and healing,
| OP! It's incredible that you've continued to be polite and to do
| as much as you can through your health struggle. Setting and
| enforcing boundaries can be difficult for some, especially when
| you're feeling hazy and not operating at 100%. I like that you
| pointed out being polite can be expensive sometimes.
|
| This is excellent advice for anyone with knowledge based work
| though. Distractions, messages, pop-ups, asks, meetings, etc. are
| the leading reason I don't get as much done as I could. Some of
| your items could definitely help here.
| consumer451 wrote:
| I have not had a stroke, but a few years ago I noticed my
| eyesight was getting strange. There were many other things
| including a very fuzzy brain, and wanting to stay in bed for
| weeks. I thought I was just sad until the eyesight issue.
|
| It turned out I had Advanced Neurological Lyme disease. It took a
| couple years to recover from it. I also have Cluster Headaches,
| one of the most painful medical conditions known to science.
| Losing my the ability to think clearly, was worse.
|
| As someone who uses my brain for work, the depression that arose
| from losing my mental faculties was very significant. I searched
| TFA for depression and did not see a mention. If anyone is
| dealing with a neurological issue like this, I would imagine that
| second order effects like depression are common, correct?
| odyssey7 wrote:
| Oh gosh, even with the laws that should provide cover, the
| pushback you'll encounter in academia from so many individuals
| with limited life experience who are trained only to rigidly
| follow blanket policies.
|
| But if you feel like you won't speak up because it's not that
| bad, remember the next person who will come after you. When you
| have the capacity to push systems to do better, it's better for
| everyone if you exercise it.
| underlipton wrote:
| I think AI as it's currently implemented is a plague upon
| humanity, but I do appreciate it helping me to locate the word
| that's on the tip of my tongue and which my battered brain can't
| seem to draw a neural route to, so that I'm not sitting there for
| 20 minutes trying to fight the Einstellung effect and brain fog.
| sonicggg wrote:
| Isn't it better to prevent than remediate it? It's not rocket
| science. Mediterranean diet, daily nattokinase, absolutely no
| alcohol at any time, exercise
| eternalreturn wrote:
| Going through several panic attacks with stroke-level blood
| pressure elevation had a similar impact on my worldview and
| approach to work.
|
| Slow down. Prioritize your own health and well-being. Focus on
| the essentials and cut out everything else.
|
| If you are in pain, see a doctor _before_ you end up in urgent
| care like I did.
| ericye16 wrote:
| Are there types of disability insurance you can buy that would
| cover you as a software engineer in case something like this
| happens and you're not able to go back to work or not work as
| effectively in this field? Does anyone have experiences with
| this?
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