The Ebook

The Creative Programmer

Why ADHD Developers Thrive with AI

27 chapters. 200+ peer-reviewed sources. The neuroscience of how ADHD cognitive profiles shape programming, creativity, and AI collaboration.

PDF. DRM-free. Yours forever.

What's Inside

The Science

How dopamine, the Default Mode Network, working memory, and latent inhibition create a distinct ADHD cognitive architecture. Not pop-science summaries, the actual neuroscience with effect sizes and meta-analyses.

The AI Parallel

Six structural similarities between ADHD cognition and LLM information processing. Why managing an ADHD brain and prompting an AI use the same principles. How the METR study shows traditional developer advantages are being commoditized.

The Human Dimension

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, imposter syndrome, the medication-creativity tradeoff, programmer identity crisis, and the emotional reality of coding with ADHD that nobody talks about at standups.

The Practical

ADHD-optimized workflows (FP, TDD, CLAUDE.md architecture), 9 programming domains ranked by ADHD fit, managing ADHD dev teams, and the attention economy.

Key Findings

  • 1. ADHD characteristics are the only positive predictor of divergent thinking in engineering students. SAT scores predicted GPA. ADHD predicted creativity. (Taylor, 2020, n=60)
  • 2. Experienced devs are 19% slower with AI tools on familiar codebases, while believing they're 20% faster. The skills being commoditized are the ones ADHD developers lacked. (METR, 2025)
  • 3. Neurodivergent teams are 30% more productive in innovation-focused roles. Not despite ADHD, because the role matches the cognitive profile. (Deloitte)
  • 4. Six independent dimensions of structural similarity between ADHD cognition and LLM processing, from confabulation to context windows to hyperfocus. If you can manage your brain, you can manage an AI.

Who This Is For

Developers with ADHD who want to understand their brain
Team leads managing neurodivergent developers
Anyone curious about ADHD, creativity, and AI
Researchers looking for a cross-disciplinary synthesis

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$25

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Frequently Asked Questions

What formats do I get?

PDF. DRM-free. Read on any device, share with your team, keep forever.

Will I get updates?

Yes. When new research is published or chapters are expanded, you'll get the updated version for free. Buy once, benefit from ongoing research.

Can I share it with my team?

The ebook is for personal use, but you're welcome to share key insights with your team. For team-wide access, contact us about team licensing.

What if the free content is enough?

Most of the research is freely available on this site. The ebook adds a professionally formatted offline version, expanded chapters, and supports continued research.

Not ready to buy? Most of the research is freely available on this site.