Infinite Loop, Baby

You ever open your editor with a sense of purpose, blink once, and find yourself 17 tabs deep in old GitHub issues, a Notion doc from 2022, and a Stack Overflow post about how to center a div?

Or maybe you opened the fridge, forgot why, walked into another room, and now you're googling "symptoms of raccoon brain."

If that sounds familiar, hello, fellow looper.

This issue goes out to everyone with a brain that replays, reopens, and recursively spirals its way through the day. Dev or not. If you've ever gotten stuck mid-task, mid-thought, or mid-scroll, you're in the club.

Loops are elegant in code. A neat little structure with a beginning, middle, and end.
In real life? Less so.

Neurodivergent brains, like those with ADHD, AuDHD, or autism, often loop in ways that ignore time, context, or bodily needs. One thought sparks another.

One task spawns a side quest. And suddenly, you're five tabs deep in a new adventure.

One task reminds you of a side quest. A Slack ping opens a mental browser tab you forgot existed.

Some of our loops look like:

• The Developer Loop:
  You try to fix a bug. You end up rebuilding the entire component library. Again. You swear it's necessary.
• The Email Loop:
  You read a message. Start to reply. Get distracted. Reopen it later. Repeat 12 times. Never actually send it.
• The Conversation Loop:
  You rehearse a response to a text so many times in your head, your brain marks it as "sent." It was not sent.
• The Fridge Loop™:
  You open it. Stare blankly. Forget why. Close it. Come back 3 minutes later. Repeat until you achieve snack or enlightenment.
• The Chore Loop:
  You start the laundry. See the cluttered counter. Start cleaning. Then the sink. Then the trash. The laundry is still in the machine. Unstarted. Damply judging you.

Why does it happen?

Because our brains are pattern-seeking missiles with no off switch.

Neurodivergent minds often crave closure, but aren't always great at recognizing it. So we chase open threads. We revisit unsolved problems. We replay awkward conversations from 2014.

Sometimes it's:

• a missing piece of info
• an unresolved feeling
• an unclear priority
• or just... too many tabs open in meatspace

We're not flaky.
We're not lazy.
We're just running a recursive function with no base case.

How to (maybe) break the loop

You can't always stop the spiral. But you can catch it in action and gently offer it a soft landing or a side quest with lower stakes.

🧠 Try this:

• Leave a breadcrumb. "Was writing birthday message" on a sticky note. "Fixing mobile nav bug" in a comment. Give Future You a breadcrumb trail back.
• Build a visible stack. Timers, bullet lists, tab groups, visual to-do stacks. External memory is friend-shaped.
• Let it run. Sometimes you need to go full loop to find the gold at the center. Give it space. But name it.
• Change context. Touch grass, literally or metaphorically. Different environment equals different energy.
• Debug out loud. "I was doing this, but then I got sidetracked by ___." Speak it. Hear it. Recenter.

It's not always a bug

Some loops are annoying.
Some are exhausting.
But some? Some are weirdly brilliant.

That rabbit hole you fell into on a Tuesday might turn into a personal breakthrough. That chore spiral might clear your whole house. That code rewrite might finally feel right.

You loop because your brain is trying to finish something, even if it forgot what it was.

And that's okay.

☁️ PS: We’re almost done (literally)

The Almost Done Discord community is nearly ready, and yes, it already has three channels named "draft-final-v3". Classic.

It’s a space for neurodivergent folks, devs, creatives, chaos navigators of all kinds to be weird together in the best way.

We’re building it around:

• body doubling and low-pressure coworking
• project ping-pong and side quest support
• safe, validating, meme-friendly connection

If you want to help shape the vibe before we open it up fully, reply to this email and I’ll send you a private beta invite. You’ll be part of the founding brain trust.

🧠 Got thoughts?

What do you want more of?

More coping rituals?
More dev tools?
More neurodivergent affirmations that don’t sound like a Pinterest board?

This newsletter is still growing, still looping, still figuring it out, just like all of us. If you’ve got feedback, ideas, or even a strong opinion on font sizes (relatable), hit reply and tell me.

📡 Share the loop

If this made you feel a little more seen, send it to a friend whose brain does cool things slightly out of order.

Or post it on LinkedIn, tag me, and help us grow this beautiful mess of a community.

Big shoutout to James, who’s shared the last 4–5 issues like an absolute legend. Massive love.

See you in the next loop.
Keep buffering. Keep building. Keep being your brilliant, nonlinear self.

Simen (and Buffer, who finally exited the loop just in time for snacks)