Hacker News is part of the problem! This comment page is pure meta.
I'm now going to close the six other HN articles + comment pages I just opened before this one, and just not read them. See you all in a couple of days!
Addicted to Distraction
111–120 of 138 posts
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly! Boredom is very very important early on. It's something you have to internalize and become familiar with and not fear. Way too many adults try and make sure their kids aren't bored IMO and thus the kids start fearing it because they never learned what a powerful engine for reflection and thinking it actually become. Thats something you have to train.
Kids can get cranky and annoying when they are bored. It's so easy for an adult to give them an iPad when they are on the train to shut them up (so to speak). The less they learned to deal with these feelings themselves the more they begin to "need" the iPad for idle time and the more cranky and annoying they can get without it. Its a positive feedback loop.
And the parent learned that when it's bored, he pulls out a smoke, grabs a beer/food/chocolate, not being aware what he's doing when giving the iPad. It might seem more healthy compared to those, but it's really the same convenient habit.
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Example: I knew literally nothing about any of the engineering disciplines until junior/senior year of highschool when a careers quiz directed me towards them.
Sure how many kids that are exposed to those do you think are going to start working towards being engineers when they are 5? There is a big difference between finding an interest and then finding a career.
Ah, I see "before you start school" now..
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you meet a professional athlete you'll understand firsthand what drawbacks there are to spending your first 2 decades super specialising.
I don't understand the general social disparagement of professional athletes. They have been through a filter the likes of which most of the rest of us have never experienced. Their skills and abilities are evaluated ruthlessly at every level -- if they come up short, they are out. The ones who make it are the best of the best at what they do. For each of them there are thousands of little league, high school and col…
"The ones who make it are the best of the best at what they do."
I don't think the "social disparagement of professional athletes" is with regard to a lack of skill at "what they do", but the sacrifice of what they don't, coupled with a view that what they've sacrificed for isn't actually important.
My views on the matter are mixed.
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#115I recently wrote a chrome extension that helps me curb my "compulsion loop." It's pretty simple; each time the browser loads a website that has potentially distracting content (think: twitter, FB, reddit, hacker news, rotoworld, etc) that I tend to over-visit in search of new tidbits, the extension keeps track of my visit and the text content of the page. The next time I visit, I do a text comparison that checks how…
I may be misunderstanding, but isn't this like a heavy drinker having the bartender put more water than beer in his glass when he heads to the local pub? This doesn't seem to be treating the actual issue at hand (lack of self control, lack of training of the mind, etc.) is what I'm getting at. Not meaning to crap on your build, as it certainly seems cool. Maybe this could be viewed as a training tool, but only if it'…
[deleted]
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#116Reminds me of when the BlackBerry inserted itself into the corporate consciousness. Meetings went from being a focused affair to this round table of people staring incessantly down at their laps typing away as if their lives depended on it. In a way, they did. It was expected that all of us IT professionals would become addicted to the device, reachable 24/7. It's no wonder the entire internet is driven by that same mentality.
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#117I haven't really gotten my thoughts clear on this so excuse me for the probably unclear formulation. I recently realized that one of the unfortunate consequences of this is the way many in my generation (I'm 41) brings up our kids. Instead of teaching them one thing in depth we are forcing them through a million different subjects way before they even turn 10. It's not unusual in my circles that kids are both playing…
Another view on this is that being exposed to different concepts and ways of thinking increases perspective and creativity. All of the things you mentioned as examples (football, playing piano and learning a language) all use very different modes of thought and activate different parts of the brain. It seems like the majority of people would really benefit from that diversity of experience.
I hear what you are saying but I actually think this is the wrong way to think about it.
The point I was trying to make is that if you just learn a little bit of music, a little bit of football, a little bit of french you are still only learning the same and getting the same perspective no matter how many different things you learn.
The trick IMO is to dig deep into something as this will teach you how to dig deep into other things later. I.e. you are actually gaining perspective on other areas even before you learn about them.
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#118Hacker News is part of the problem! This comment page is pure meta. I'm now going to close the six other HN articles + comment pages I just opened before this one, and just not read them. See you all in a couple of days!
Don't dissmiss the act of learning through conversation. Keep in mind that the likelihood of you being surrounded by likeminded people is pretty slim. HN allow you to discuss and explore some more eccentric thoughts you won't be able to necessarily find an audience of places like Facebook.
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#119This isn't a real addiction. And it trivializes what addicts actually go through. This is demonstrated being that it was possible for the author to replace the "higher power" of the 12 steps with someone to unplug the Internet router. If you're actually addicted to something, you feel so trapped and subservient to your addiction that you concoct the idea of a higher power simply because you have no power left within…
[deleted]
Re: Addicted to Distraction
#120I recently wrote a chrome extension that helps me curb my "compulsion loop." It's pretty simple; each time the browser loads a website that has potentially distracting content (think: twitter, FB, reddit, hacker news, rotoworld, etc) that I tend to over-visit in search of new tidbits, the extension keeps track of my visit and the text content of the page. The next time I visit, I do a text comparison that checks how…
I may be misunderstanding, but isn't this like a heavy drinker having the bartender put more water than beer in his glass when he heads to the local pub? This doesn't seem to be treating the actual issue at hand (lack of self control, lack of training of the mind, etc.) is what I'm getting at. Not meaning to crap on your build, as it certainly seems cool. Maybe this could be viewed as a training tool, but only if it'…
One could argue that the addicted drinker gets no real value from even small amounts of alcohol consumption,
whereas the desire to seek distraction is born from the brain's need of new stimuli, and information[1]. In which case a few minutes of browsing the fresh posts of the day could be a healthy stimulation. The diminishing returns set in when most posts are already seen.
at least, that's what I like to tell myself.
[1]: see 'why do we get bored' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwd25JV-jnU