Interview: ADHD and Web Development with Chris Ferdinandi

Front-End Fire

Vanilla JS author Chris Ferdinandi joins the podcast this week to talk about how having ADHD has affected his career in web development.

Chris shares his own diagnosis of ADHD as a child, then proceeds to discuss how it can be both a positive and a negative depending on the situation and how different individuals can have ADHD to varying degrees.

He covers strategies he’s developed over the years to be most effective at his job; things like sending follow up emails after meetings with lists of deliverables or blocking off chunks of time on the calendar during the workday for focus work like coding. And he also makes recommendations for coworkers or managers of neurodivergent folks on how to support them so they can do their best work. Finally, he offers advice for listeners who may relate to many of the symptoms described during the show, and what they can do if they want to learn more about getting diagnosed.

It’s a very enlightening episode, and fascinating to hear about the progress being made in the field of ADHD as well as the growing destigmatization around the diagnosis: many listeners may even pick up tips to help them manage their own work days better after listening in.

Special Guest(s):

• Chris Ferdinandi, author of the Vanilla JS series, training program, and podcast, and web development teacher, content creator, and consultant.

Main Topic:

• The challenges and advantages of being a web developer with ADHD

Relevant Links:

• Chris on Twitter @ChrisFerdinandi
• Chris’s website Go Make Things
• Chris’s other website ADHD ftw!
• Chris on GitHub

What Makes Us Happy this Week:

• Paige - The Paris Apartment novel
• Jack - Staying above the Tech Twitter drama
• TJ - AI tools to help writing like ChatGPT
• Chris - Gardening and web components

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or Tweet us on X @front_end_fire.

• Front-end Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire