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!

Hey folks, my wife is a speech language pathologist who specializes in stroke rehab, I sent her this post and this comment section and she sent me this to share:

As a stroke/neuro rehab speech-language pathologist that is married to a web dev/engineering manager (that obviously sent me this blogpost), everyone reading needs to listen to this author's sound advice for prevention of CVA as well as for post-stroke management. We are seeing younger age strokes more frequently, especially those with jobs that are high stress and low physicality (read: you folks!). Thank you to the writer for spreading this info and awareness… I can confirm it is not as niche as one might think and for best outcomes you have to respond FAST (look at Face, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, Time to call 911). PSA of the day!

Some of these apply to other neurodivergents like myself.

One thing I struggle with is that the only time I seem to really get in the flow is when no one is around and no one else is working. Some form of stimulant is needed, but no stimulant I can use gets me to the point where I can get into more flow than I can when no one is around. I sometimes dream of how much I could do if I just lived at my office alone. This is sad and frustrating, because I don’t want that life where I cannot have a life of my own and where I cannot interact with people at work or it disables my ability to get things done.

Nutrition and some form of exercise are also incredibly important, especially as you get older. Not everyone needs the same things, so don’t let others tell you what is the “right thing for everyone”- there’s no such thing.

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

DMSO can allegedly help some people improve after stroke, if applied soon enough.

https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/dmso-could-save-millions-...

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.

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.

> 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?

This is good advice for non brain damaged engineers too (or maybe I am?)

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.