Live data from Hacker News

The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

journals.uchicago.edu

271–280 of 393 posts

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#271
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that you would adore Dan Simmons first two "Hyperion" books. They're predominantly about poetry and how it's affected the human race, far into the future.

I second the opinion, although I loved the second two, the Endymion books best.

Interesting! I was told to avoid them when I was introduced to Hyperion. I'll check those two out...

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#272
post #256

I lost mine about six months ago and I haven't replaced it. First couple months I noticed I got VERY irritable when I got a momentary flash of boredom, especially waiting in line in stores, etc. Figured that might've been a budding mental issue, and decided to work on my patience and expectation-setting as a result. This has been part of a larger life exercise in practicing general moment-to-moment mindfullness, and…

I've often thought of going back to a dumb phone. The thing is, I want easy to use texting (only to reply with, I abhor texting but the rest of the world loves it), a phone, and this is the killer - good GPS. None of the dedicated GPS devices can hold a candle to what google maps has. I travel to new places too much not to have one.

I'm using a Nokia Asha 210 at the moment, its got a proper keyboard, GPRS, Wifi but no GPS.

Opera Mini is enough to browse most websites, and the lack of javascript support is a serious plus.

Half the features on the phone are dead though, the Nokia servers are gone.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#273
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a second I thought you were implying that not listening to music is a good thing. Glad to hear that's not what you believe.

Not using headphones too often is a very good thing, unless there are at a sufficiently low volume (which is never the case).

My life changed slightly when I decided to enable the EU recommended setting for volume on the iPhone. Not sure if this feature is available outside of EU but it's great.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#274
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yet the world did not end. Countless prophecies aboutvthe absolute apocalypse have gone and passed. So yeah it is by large irrelevant.

Their world did end for those 80 million people. If most of society dies in pain and hunger to climate change, would the survivors say "bah, just more fear mongering"? For me, humanity is the sum of human experiences, not the mere presence of the species. The end of the world being relative and analog.

9 million already due of hunger every year, what is the world doing about that presently?

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#275
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yet the world did not end. Countless prophecies aboutvthe absolute apocalypse have gone and passed. So yeah it is by large irrelevant.

Their world did end for those 80 million people. If most of society dies in pain and hunger to climate change, would the survivors say "bah, just more fear mongering"? For me, humanity is the sum of human experiences, not the mere presence of the species. The end of the world being relative and analog.

9 million already due of hunger every year, what is the world doing about that presently?

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#276
post #44

I want to learn Japanese. 3 months ago I changed my phone's language to Japanese. Everything is Japanese - maps, services, apps that read from the default phone language. Oddly enough, instead of learning Japanese, I just use my phone less.

Instead, you should set it to Netherlands (Dutch). The words are largely reminiscent of the corresponding English words but you might get a giggle out of some of them.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#277
post #153

I predict someone will invent a smart utensil. It will be a smartphone-like device that has a curated app store which only includes utilitarian apps. It'll contain all of the apps people think "I'd love to ditch my smart phone, but I'd really miss ". Apps I really want AND never waste time on: - ride sharing (Lyft, Uber) - calendar - calculator - mobile banking - movie times & reviews - booking a place to stay (Counc…

I feel like a device without a screen, but using spoken speech, could be adapted for this type of need. Nearly all these applications seem to me to not need visual overview for fast interaction (like “set up an alarm for tomorrow at eight”, “who directed the film seven ?”, “contact a cheap Airbnb with good reviews that is close by”), but could be accessed from another screen later on for more complex interaction. I t…

I think you just described the value proposition of Amazon's Echo device.

Google and Apple seem to agree there is a market need for such a device since they also have competing products: Google Home and Apple HomePod.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#278
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"More and more information, less and less meaning." - Jean Baudrillard "The more words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?" - Ecclesiastes 6:11 "Let's start from the premise that more information, more empowerment, is fundamentally the correct answer" - Eric Schmidt One of these two quotes is not like the others...

“I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.” -Albert Einstein

Which is clearly false: the meaning of words being readily looked up, for example, or common multiplications.

Probably he meant "I never make effort to ...".

Which IMO is foolish - for most people - but probably reflects more that he easily memorised facts without effort (something I was fortunate to experience in my youth and which is now sorely missed).

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#279
post #256

I lost mine about six months ago and I haven't replaced it. First couple months I noticed I got VERY irritable when I got a momentary flash of boredom, especially waiting in line in stores, etc. Figured that might've been a budding mental issue, and decided to work on my patience and expectation-setting as a result. This has been part of a larger life exercise in practicing general moment-to-moment mindfullness, and…

I've often thought of going back to a dumb phone. The thing is, I want easy to use texting (only to reply with, I abhor texting but the rest of the world loves it), a phone, and this is the killer - good GPS. None of the dedicated GPS devices can hold a candle to what google maps has. I travel to new places too much not to have one.

I don't have a 4G contract. It's much better than a dumb phone because I can actually see the messages I'm replying to, and many other features also come in handy, but there's no constant distraction.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's feasible. Barely, but feasible. Now try reciting the Library of Congress after one hearing. Or Wikipedia. That's a whole nother level of problem.

I really doubt it's feasible to memorize it in a single hearing without paraphrasing. The human brain couldn't have been different a few millennia ago, and we know that the greeks used the same memorization techniques we use today (e.g., the memory palace, chunking, ...).

We also see in history specific people tasked with recitation, and high status coming through that ability. Suggesting it's a rare and learned characteristic.
Post reply on HN