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Off the Grid

stephenfry.com

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Re: Off the Grid

#81

Post by k-mcgrady »

StavrosK wrote: post #74
k-mcgrady wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After owning an Apple Watch I would say it just makes the distractions worse. Somehow it's much easier to ignore a vibration from the phone in your pocket than it is to ignore one on your wrist.

I have turned all vibrations and sounds off except for phone calls. It has been fantastic, I highly recommend it.

I did try things like that but at the end of the day I had a very expensive device that I used for very little so I sold it. For me the only thing I miss about it is the health tracking. Once they build in a lot more of that the costs will be worth the benefit for me because I just looked back on that data and during my time with the Apple Watch I lost quite a lot of weight just following the activity tracker.

Re: Off the Grid

#82

Post by jasonkostempski »

braythwayt wrote: post #21
jasonkostempski wrote: post #14

I've been trying to do this and as of this week, HN and stackexchage are the last social accounts I have but only because I can't find a way to delete them. I could just log out and walk away but it feels like there's no closure that way. Anyone know of a way to close an HN account?

Change the email address to a random uuid-like hash @example.com, then change your password to a random hash. Do not allow your browser or password manager to save these values. Now you’ve locked yourself out with no way back in.

It's not really about keeping myself from commenting here or anything like that. There's something about the account being out there, the karma associated with it and such that nags at me a little, probably only because it's my real name and the volume of content associated with it. If I could change the username it'd bug me a lot less. I'm sure I'll come to terms with it somehow and still feel like I've successfully jacked out. Still, it seems like it'd be easy to add functionality like reddits: delete the account, keep the content, replace the username with [deleted]. [deleted123] would keep the content grouped under a single name if that's important. Maybe I'll write a letter to HN suggesting it.

Re: Off the Grid

#84

Post by goldbrick »

ablation wrote: post #9

Goodness me, that's a lot of bloviation. I think there's a point buried in there somewhere that has been made far more succinctly by a lot of other people.

In fairness, that's kind of Stephen Fry's thing. He does have a certain way with words, but I can only tolerate it in small doses.

Re: Off the Grid

#85

Post by tonyedgecombe »

swah wrote: post #65
darkclarity wrote: post #52

I have gone through a similar phase. Got rid of social media, switched back to a feature phone, am reading real books, listening to music on physical media, using cash where possible and whatever else. The Internet has gone from a place with a high barrier of entry (and the interesting characters that self selected for that barrier), to an all encompassing entity with a load of moralisers, businesses and governments…

Many of us depend on it to pay the bills, though. On the internet, to build stuff for other people to use the internet more and generate more internet related jobs...

People had jobs before the internet came along.

Re: Off the Grid

#86

Post by RivieraKid »

coldtea wrote: post #77
RivieraKid wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That analogy doesn't make much sense...

Here's another way to put it: "I have heard many People say, 'Give me the Ideas. It is no matter what Words you put them into.' To this I reply, Ideas cannot be Given but in their minutely Appropriate Words." - William Blake

Oh ok, I get the point... But for a lot of articles it seems that 90% of the value can be conveyed with 10% of the length, so I usually just quickly skim it - unless it's the type of text where the value is in the experience of reading and not information (stories, poems, ...).

Re: Off the Grid

#87

Post by forgetsusername »

ascorbic wrote: post #53
coldtea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Justifiable? Based on what he actually said? -- there's an accurate transcription down in the link.

“It’s a great shame and we’re all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place – you get some of my sympathy – but your self-pity gets none of my sympathy because self-pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity.” The 58-year-old went on to say: “Grow up.” So, yes.

Do you deliberately ignore the first half of the sentence?

It’s a great shame and we’re all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place – you get some of my sympathy

His criticism is of "self-pity". I can agree.

Re: Off the Grid

#89

Post by gus_massa »

takno wrote: post #59
iammew wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is people down-voting this?!

If you shared why it was relevant to the discussion and what it was people would likely be more positive

[Spanish speaker here.]

This is a video of "La Cosquillita" by Juan Luis Guerra. I didn't know this song, so I listened to all of it. I'm completely clueless about why this may be related to the discussion.

Bad autotranslation of the lyric: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... (It's difficult to translate because it uses a local variations of the spelling/pronunciation of the words. tl;dl: Someone fell in love and is "ticklish".)

Re: Off the Grid

#90

Post by drb311 »

ablation wrote: post #9

Goodness me, that's a lot of bloviation. I think there's a point buried in there somewhere that has been made far more succinctly by a lot of other people.

The best part is the WH Auden quote, which provokes more thought in 10 words than the rest of the essay put together:

"Poets love their handwriting, it’s like smelling your own farts."

Don't I love to read my own Hacker News comments?

And I bet Stephen Fry loves to read his own essays.

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