I have always seen myself as an empathetic person. I can read how people are feeling from a mile away, without them saying anything, usually pretty accurately. I’ve mostly considered it a strength. It’s how I’m able to see others’ positions, take their perspective, and see the humanity in people I otherwise despise. It’s also made me a better engineer, especially as I’ve risen through the ranks and had to rely increasingly on social standing and relationships rather than pure technical ability. It extends beyond people; all living creatures are capable of feeling pain, and what is empathy if not the ability to feel others’ pain?

I have ADHD, specifically the inattentive type. While I’ve kind of known this since early to mid adolescence, I’ve only been diagnosed since I was 23. For almost the entire time, I’ve tried to think about what it means to be a healthy, high-functioning person who also happens to have ADHD. I won’t pretend I have The Answer, or even really An Answer, or that I’m someone who you should listen to on the subject. Really, I’m only writing this for my own benefit, because it’s been on my mind a lot recently and I find writing helps me collect and process my disorganized, rambling thoughts into hopefully more organized, slightly less rambling ones.

Recently, in a professional-but-not-work-associated Slack I’m part of, someone paid me what I feel is the highest compliment I have received in recent memory. There was a discussion around a bit of a thorny topic, and I had chosen to engage and try to get a better idea of the views of folks in that discussion. After many rounds, someone had this to say about me:

For what it’s worth, I think Josh has disagreed with a lot of folks in this thread at one point or another and has been unfailingly respectful and open.