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Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#201

Post by lobocinza »

goldfeld wrote: post #193
lobocinza wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do something but on the computer. I issue `j w` on the terminal, which means journal write, to create a new time coded entry and open it on an editor where I copy the URL and any immediate thought I have in my mind. Most people will just bookmark and forget which I also do often. Anyway, we replaced a tab overload problem with a notes/bookmarks overload.

I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard.

> I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again.

I do look at mine extensively. Though I invested a significant amount of time organizing them. Having a way of quickly searching notes and previewing their contents does help. I use fzfx, which is basically opinionated shell functions on top of fzf to do the search. In the future I want to autosync the public notes to my site and implement an improved search system there.

> Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard.

C-C + C-V isn't a huge hassle at least for me. I have a bind on Neovim to format the link in Markdown format so I don't have to type []() and carefully paste the link in the right place but honestly I always forget to use and lately I'm just pasting the raw link and not caring about formatting. I think formatting should be done automatically in the background. In the future I may adapt or write a formatter for those niche cases. It can be triggered by a save or pre-commit hook (everything is in a repo inside a single monorepo). Might even hook up a LLM to it. Developing my own Notion lol.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#202

Post by drinian »

I wrote about the tools I use to help with this a while back:

https://auspicacious.org/posts/2020/10/03/rehumanize-yoursel...

For HN specifically, I don't browse the site but rather subscribe to the once-weekly Hacker Newsletter; there's already more than enough commenters and voters here. This is the first comment I have made here in many years; usually I'm many days late.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#203

Post by ezedv »

Apart from watching YouTube videos like you, I also read blogs about things I'm interested in.

For instance, I'm getting to know more about Blockchain, so this is a blog I usually read if I want to catch up on new things: https://www.ratherlabs.com/blog

So, blog reading is also another option to keep up-to-date.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#204

Post by xk3 »

I use to get anxiety that I would miss out on something. Information FOMO? I think you need to identify the cause of your frustration.

You feel that the consumption is shallow yet you get value from it. Your work is tedious. If your desire is to do some work-like activities after work but you feel that you don't have the mental energy, you should try some activities like physical exercise, naps, or cold showers.

https://www.betterup.com/blog/mental-fatigue

If you're just feeling guilty pleasure from the Internet variety of "watching TV" I'd say get over it. You deserve it even if you've only been productive one minute today but your job is stressful.

If you want to do a different activity but you can't stop your behavior then you are addicted. In this case you should try to change your environment so that it becomes easier to do the thing you want to do and much harder to do the activity that you want to do less. If this doesn't work you might need professional assistance but that's not something to be ashamed of

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#205

Post by schimmy_changa »

dinkleberg wrote: post #114
zzzbra wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this -- adding these to my quotes Anki deck. I would also add to these the TS Elliot quote from his work, the Rock: > “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

I’m curious, how do you use quotes in your anki deck? Do you do a card like “What did TS Elliot say about knowledge?” And have the answer be the quote?

I'm also curious! If anyone has ideas, please let me know...

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#206

Post by goldfeld »

lobocinza wrote: post #201
goldfeld wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard.

> I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. I do look at mine extensively. Though I invested a significant amount of time organizing them. Having a way of quickly searching notes and previewing their contents does help. I use fzfx, which is basically opinionated shell functions on top of fzf to do the search. In the future I want to autosync the public notes to my…

Yes, fzf is amazing, back when I used and customized my linux box a lot finding out about it was a breakthrough in experience and speed of usage. My dotfiles suffered so much bitrot after over five years of not using them (it's on GH goldfeld/dotfiles the mess of both nvim and emacs init files) that I still think of cleaning them up and using one of those editors again, someday.. I guess. Ironically today my only interaction with the world of tech is as a user (not API coding, just end user) of AI[1]. By the way you seem to be a portuguese-speaking fellow (I assume also by the username's gender) and so am I.

[1] as a matter of fact today I "launched" (on a barren desert let's say) a substack newsletter to feature code reviews by the chatG man (and soon feature open source AI projects too), and at first I'm having it review the old Vim plugins I once authored, including vim-seek on next issue, if you want to be my first subscriber, lol: https://generativereview.substack.com/p/the-generative-revie...

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#207

Post by adamhp »

gessha wrote: post #120

I found HealthyGamerGG’s recent video really useful for this: https://youtu.be/8PYhEWK2wVA Some scattered notes from this video: - when you're bored, your mind is looking for a particular stimulation - when you allow yourself to resolve boredom with dopaminergic activities like video games, you reinforce for yourself the idea that this is how to relieve yourself of boredom. Your brain in turn will learn to immediatel…

Man, this guy really communicates effectively. He goes on and on but each new sentence has high information density. Solid share, thanks!

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#208

Post by zzzbra »

dinkleberg wrote: post #114
zzzbra wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this -- adding these to my quotes Anki deck. I would also add to these the TS Elliot quote from his work, the Rock: > “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

I’m curious, how do you use quotes in your anki deck? Do you do a card like “What did TS Elliot say about knowledge?” And have the answer be the quote?

The approach I take with quotes is more subjective than it is with almost all of my other cards, since it would pointless to really judge whether or not I know some piece of maybe abstruse wisdom, I just rate it on a subjective grading of, how well am I living my life relative to this statement, and if it feels like it's something I'm really lacking I'll fail it or mark it hard. The card has no back, something that I also do for more axiomatic pieces of CS theory as well, where it's too difficult to meaningfully capture the whole idea in many different question-answers.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#209

Post by lobocinza »

goldfeld wrote: post #206
lobocinza wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. I do look at mine extensively. Though I invested a significant amount of time organizing them. Having a way of quickly searching notes and previewing their contents does help. I use fzfx, which is basically opinionated shell functions on top of fzf to do the search. In the future I want to autosync the public notes to my…

Yes, fzf is amazing, back when I used and customized my linux box a lot finding out about it was a breakthrough in experience and speed of usage. My dotfiles suffered so much bitrot after over five years of not using them (it's on GH goldfeld/dotfiles the mess of both nvim and emacs init files) that I still think of cleaning them up and using one of those editors again, someday.. I guess. Ironically today my only int…

I see that you're a capixaba fellow. I added it to my RSS reader.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with information and internet addiction?

#210

Post by aqwsde »

Hayarotle wrote: post #5

Find out if your addiction is because you find the world boring, or if you're trying to escape from something you fear. If it's the former, block the addictive content and replace it with other things you find fun (hobbies, books, movies, etc), paying attention to how it's more worthwhile to do so. If it's the latter, find out how to overcome such fear / anxiety and to stop using addictive content as a crutch.

I argue that the former reason is an undercover version of the latter.
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