Part 1: Foundation 4 min read
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- •The bibliography spans 80+ sources across scientific studies, industry reports, developer experience accounts, and community discussions.
- •Key scientific foundations include White & Shah on ADHD creativity, Castellanos on DMN hyperconnectivity, and METR's 2025 RCT on AI productivity.
- •Industry evidence comes from Deloitte, Microsoft, and UK Department for Business and Trade — all documenting neurodivergent advantages with AI tools.
- •Community sources include r/ADHD_Programmers (65,000+ members), Stack Overflow blogs, and individual developer case studies from Proser, Khater, and Putz.
Complete Bibliography
Scientific Studies
ADHD and Creativity
- White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2006). Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with ADHD. Personality and Individual Differences. ScienceDirect
- White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with ADHD. Personality and Individual Differences. ScienceDirect
- Taylor, A. (2020). ADHD characteristics and divergent thinking in engineering. Journal of Engineering Education. Wiley
- Taylor, A. et al. (2022). Replication: ADHD predicts figural divergent thinking. Frontiers in Psychology. Frontiers
- Girard-Joyal, O. & Gauthier, B. (2022). Creativity in inattentive and combined ADHD. PMC. PMC
- Boot, N. et al. / Majeur, D. et al. (2020). Creativity and ADHD: A review of behavioral studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. ScienceDirect
ADHD Cognition and Neuroscience
- Castellanos, F. X. et al. Attention network hypoconnectivity with DMN hyperconnectivity in ADHD. JAMA Psychiatry. JAMA
- Sun, L. et al. (2021). DMN integration and response control in ADHD. PMC. PMC
- Liu, J. et al. (2024). DMN interference in adult ADHD. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics. Wiley
- Soliman, A. & Elfar, R. (2017). False memory in adults with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders. SAGE
- Martinussen, R. & Tannock, R. Central executive in ADHD. PubMed. PubMed
- Working memory meta-analysis. PMC. PMC
- Compensation strategies in adult ADHD. PMC. PMC
- Time-based prospective memory in ADHD. Nature Scientific Reports (2025). Nature
- Procedural sequence learning deficits in ADHD. Frontiers in Psychology. Frontiers
- Structured environments and ADHD performance. Frontiers in Psychology (2025). Frontiers
- Creativity in ADHD: Goal-directed motivation. PMC. PMC
AI and Cognition
- METR (2025). AI slows experienced developers by 19%. arXiv:2507.09089. METR
- Anthropic (2025). AI assistance and coding skills. Anthropic
- Exploring LLMs Through a Neurodivergent Lens (2024). arXiv:2410.06336, ACM CSCW. arXiv
- LLMs and Cognitive Science: Comprehensive Review (2024). arXiv:2409.02387. arXiv
- LLM confabulation vs hallucination (2023). PLOS Digital Health. PLOS
- Millward et al. (2024). Confabulation value in LLMs. ACL 2024. ACL
- Exploration vs. Fixation in Human-AI Co-creation. arXiv. arXiv
- Human Creativity in the Age of LLMs. arXiv. arXiv
- AI and Creative Problem-Solving. Scientific Reports. Nature
Industry Reports and Articles
- Deloitte: Divergent thinking and agentic AI. Deloitte
- Deloitte: The neurodiversity advantage. Deloitte
- Microsoft: AI helps neurodivergent professionals. Microsoft
- CNBC: People with ADHD say AI agents help them succeed. CNBC
- InfoWorld: AI slows experienced developers. InfoWorld
- CIO: 10 reasons CS degrees must change for AI era. CIO
Developer Experience and Identity
- Psychology Today: AI-driven identity loss. Psychology Today
- Hojberg, S.: The Programmer Identity Crisis. hojberg.xyz
- Phillips, D.: My AI-driven identity crisis. dusty.phillips.codes
- Developer Success Lab: AI Skill Threat. DSL
- Avelino, T.: Developer resistance to AI. avelino.run
- Faros AI: Driving AI adoption in senior engineers. Faros
- The Revenge of the Junior Developer. Medium
- The Bootstrapped Founder: Evolution of coding in AI era. Link
- Osmani, A.: Vibe coding vs AI-assisted engineering. Medium
ADHD-Specific Resources
- Barkley, R.: ADHD, Executive Function, and Self-Regulation. Factsheet
- Neurodivergent Insights: Interest-based nervous system. Link
- Neurodivergent Insights: ADHD and the DMN. Link
- ADDitude: Flow state vs hyperfocus. ADDitude
- ADDitude: ADHD brain chemistry. ADDitude
- ADDitude: Creative thinking ADHD specialty. ADDitude
- ADDA: Hyperfocus. ADDA
- ADDA: Time blindness. ADDA
- Scientific American: The Creativity of ADHD. SciAm
- Perez, C. E.: Reframing ADHD as Cognitive Architecture. Medium
- HealthyPlace: Associative thinking with ADHD. Link
- Happiful: Enhanced pattern recognition in ADHD. Happiful
- Neurolaunch: ADHD pattern recognition. Neurolaunch
- Neurolaunch: Coding for ADHD. Neurolaunch
- Harbor London: ADHD strategies for adults. Link
Community / Blog Sources
- Proser, Z.: Claude as external brain. Link
- Khater, M. A.: Vibe coding out of ADHD. Link
- Putz, J.: Coding with AI and ADHD. Link
- Ayers, C.: Copilot as rubber ducky. Link
- Dragonfly Thinking: Strange Attractors - ADHD Minds Meet AI. Link
- Stack Overflow: Developer with ADHD. SO Blog
- Stack Overflow: What devs with ADHD want you to know. SO Blog
- Hacking Your ADHD: Outsourcing executive function with AI. Podcast
- CHADD: Harnessing AI to live better with ADHD. CHADD
- AI Insights News: AI body doubling for ADHD. Link
- AI Competence: Vibe coding empowers neurodivergent devs. Link
- Bastaki Software: AI code assistants for ADHD devs. Link
- Navigating STEM Doctoral Programs with ADHD. ACM SIGACCESS (2025). ACM
- Harvard Business School: AI and creative problem solving. HBS
Hacker News / Reddit Threads
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