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Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

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Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#111

Post by pedanticfreak »

jimboyoungblood wrote: post #77
melling wrote: post #48

HN should put a little entrepreneur badge next to your name for having shipped a product. That would motivate some people.

As an angel investor, does that mean I can start funding companies with badges instead of money?

You may laugh, but there is actually research showing people are motivated by recognition more than money. Sure, you need so much money to live. But really we want to be recognized by our peers.

Dan Ariely has a short podcast titled "Why peer recognition is worth more than monetary compensation" where he talked with economist Bruno Frey. He has a number of papers on motivating people with awards and prizes.

http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles.html#f

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#112

Post by aidenn0 »

albertsun wrote: post #78
edw519 wrote: post #62

Simple hack: 2 computers, one for work and one for the internet. Different workstations, preferably in different rooms. It's a lot harder to get up off your ass than to hit alt-tab. Harness that laziness to your advantage.

Cheaper hack if you can't afford two computers. Two seats. I don't work when sitting in my bedroom, but when I sit at my living room table I only work.

Really you can't afford 2 computers? I can build a machine good enough for web-browsing for under $200. You need a monitor, sure, but people are giving away CRTs. I got a 19" 1600x1200@70Hz CRT for free last year.

edit This is with all new components in the box; it's even cheaper if you can get "hand-me-down" components, which should be easy for anyone on HN.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#113

Post by iamwil »

alex_c wrote: post #80

I've never been at the stage where I don't do _anything_, but I'm often frustrated that I don't do _enough_. I went through a stage of spending way too much time on Reddit - on the order of 4-5 hours a day. This has been discussed often, but it can be crippling - as soon as you hit the tiniest mental roadblock, you switch your browser to Reddit, next thing you know it's 20 minutes later and not only is your roadblock…

I just have a "startwork" script that uncomments my etc/hosts files.

    #!/bin/sh
    bash -c "awk '{sub(/#127/, "127")};{print}' /etc/hosts > /etc/hosts.new; mv /etc/hosts.new /etc/hosts;"
And my etc/hosts looks like this:

    127.0.0.1               www.onemorelevel.com
    127.0.0.1               onemorelevel.com
    #127.0.0.1               www.hulu.com
    #127.0.0.1               news.ycombinator.com
    #127.0.0.1               www.facebook.com
    #127.0.0.1               www.youtube.com
    #127.0.0.1               www.netflix.com
    #127.0.0.1               mail.google.com
    #127.0.0.1               www.reddit.com
    127.0.0.1               www.techcrunch.com
Once I run the startwork script, sites are blocked by uncommenting the sites. There is no "startplay" script or "stop work" script, since I want to make it more painful to undo. To undo, you simply comment out the sites you want to visit.

It's been pretty effective so far. The mere fact of putting up barriers to the things that you don't want to do more of, and lowering barriers to those that you do want to do more of goes a long way.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#114

Post by tomerico »

duck wrote: post #57

I would recommend Rescue Time ( http://www.rescuetime.com/ - YC08). You can try to block HN (and other time wasting sites) multiple ways, but they are easy to get around. However if you see the total time spent it might make you change your ways. Plus you can see how much time you are in programming mode and have a couple weeks can really see some trends and work on them.

I can't vote you high enough. Rescue time is the biggest thing that happened to my working discipline. I don't even use the tools to block non-productive work, but seeing a report in which 70% of your time is spent on non-productive activities can be life changing.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#115

Post by sfphotoarts »

Since this community is largely made up of smart people, and since it seems pretty common to spend 'too much time' doing things like HN, and since we are currently the product of a lot of evolution I wonder if focus is actually all that's its cracked up to be. Possibly our overall productivity when viewed on a larger scale is better because we get distracted, possibly idea generation, possibly just the social aspect, or learning of a new technology etc. I just wonder if this is so bad really.

The Web2.0 Summit said that the tech sector is innovating at an unprecedented rate. One of the changes in the software industry in recent years is the rise of the social network and sites like HN. Maybe 'time wasting' isn't so bad after all - viewed at a higher altitude that personal productivity.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#116

Post by mortenjorck »

deepu_256 wrote: post #81
edw519 wrote: post #62

Simple hack: 2 computers, one for work and one for the internet. Different workstations, preferably in different rooms. It's a lot harder to get up off your ass than to hit alt-tab. Harness that laziness to your advantage.

Buy and iPad. use ipad strictly for consuming content - reading HN, facebook, twitter , Instapaper etc. use your computer strictly to create stuff - code, write, design, photoshop etc etc. If you want you can install some software to block sites and apps on your computer. This will reduce the distractions enormously. If you find yourself on ipad all the time you will feel guilty that you didnt create anything today a…

I did exactly this, combined with a variant of the chair method above. My reading, posting, tweeting, and video watching is now all on my sofa, and my working is all at my desk. It's worked wonders.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#117

Post by leif »

bd wrote: post #86
albertsun wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheaper hack if you can't afford two computers. Two seats. I don't work when sitting in my bedroom, but when I sit at my living room table I only work.

This. Also do not use wifi. If I need to concentrate, I physically unplug my notebook from the net (my only connection is ethernet cable) and move to a different room. It works wonders. It makes me think hard whether it's really needed to check something on the web. Usually I just preload in tabs background info I may need later in the day to get the job done.

When I need to concentrate, I reboot into another partition where I have neglected to enable wifi, and have a rather drab, but efficient-looking environment set up. Turns out FreeBSD and wmaker are great productivity tools.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#118

Post by kin »

duck wrote: post #57

I would recommend Rescue Time ( http://www.rescuetime.com/ - YC08). You can try to block HN (and other time wasting sites) multiple ways, but they are easy to get around. However if you see the total time spent it might make you change your ways. Plus you can see how much time you are in programming mode and have a couple weeks can really see some trends and work on them.

Rescuetime is my savior. It is way too easy to open your browser and click on those tempting little icons you've bookmarked for your self. Unfortunately, I can't save my self from external distractions but as long as I'm "wired-in" from external distractions Rescuetime allows me to work and stay focused.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#119

Post by lanstein »

deepu_256 wrote: post #81
edw519 wrote: post #62

Simple hack: 2 computers, one for work and one for the internet. Different workstations, preferably in different rooms. It's a lot harder to get up off your ass than to hit alt-tab. Harness that laziness to your advantage.

Buy and iPad. use ipad strictly for consuming content - reading HN, facebook, twitter , Instapaper etc. use your computer strictly to create stuff - code, write, design, photoshop etc etc. If you want you can install some software to block sites and apps on your computer. This will reduce the distractions enormously. If you find yourself on ipad all the time you will feel guilty that you didnt create anything today a…

A variation on this, I have certain music that I only listen to when writing code. One the one hand, this means that A Momentary Lapse of Reason has been lost for general enjoyment, but on the other, if I want to listen to it...

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#120

Post by ericb »

ericb wrote: post #61
melling wrote: post #48

HN should put a little entrepreneur badge next to your name for having shipped a product. That would motivate some people.

It could make a psychological difference by putting a shame/pride/credibility/game achievement effect in place. I'd put it in "feature requests" here and see what pg thinks--he is definitely interested in keeping the HN addiction in check for YC companies too. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363 In terms of an easy implementation, it could be something users self-manage on the honor system, and perhaps a "ship" i…

I took the liberty of submitting the feature request here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1918772

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