"like getting really into healing crystals or Peloton." A dude with an apartment like that is going to tell me Peloton's a cliche?
I'm not a cyclist, what does reduced drag by biking in a group have to do with healing crystals?
I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
121–130 of 171 posts
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#122“I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren’t helping.” So don’t take the call and keep having the conversation. Delete all apps that aren’t a net benefit. Is this really that difficult?
Yes. The system is designed to be difficult to ditch. For a lot of people, the little thrill of an unread notification badge is like mainlining heroin. It's a dump of happy chemicals right to their brain.
Cigarettes might be a better analogy: that little pick-me-up in small bursts throughout the day.
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#123> changed my lock screen to one that showed three questions to ask myself every time I unlocked my phone: “What for? Why now? What else?” How does one do this? Asking for a friend...
I'm assuming they just made a wallpaper with that text on it and set it as their lockscreen background?
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my current job I'm almost daily going by subway and see most people fumbling on their phone all the time. Many can't even stop when hopping on/off the train. Now when I carefully look at just what it is that captures their attention, it's mostly cheap games or endless-scroll taboola-style crap. A guy sitting next to me the other day simultaneously phoned and frantically clicked on random crap on his phone with no…
There isn't much else to do on public transportation. You either fumble around on your phone or stare blankly at the wall. When I took public transit regularly I would read sometimes but there was too much noise and movement around me to really focus. Clearly you find yourself bored as well since you're looking over people's shoulders.
Before there was the iphone people would read the newspaper. People having their attention glued to some 'thing' is nothing new.
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
>You are the master of your own destiny. You don’t have to spend time in any way that you don’t choose to, so you might as well spend time taking care of yourself rather than trying to figure out how. Fundamentally, I don't think this is true. I think free will is a meme. When you exercise self-possession to change your habits (insofar as you really did it consciously to begin with[0]), you're moving within a predefi…
> But what if the space is only confined to "succumb to bad habits" for some people? No person would be so constrained. The space of possible behaviours is simply too large, so you're arguing a moralistic stance from an unreasonable assumption. Furthermore, free will and determinism are not at odds. Even if someone were fully constrained to act in only a single way, that doesn't entail they would not be morally blame…
> No person would be so constrained. The space of possible behaviours is simply too large, so you're arguing a moralistic stance from an unreasonable assumption.
Can you elaborate on why the space is simply too large to make this a possibility? From my observations of people suffering from severe addictions, it seems entirely possible that they have no agency when it comes to combating their addiction. They either are completely unable to grok the consequences of their actions or unable to choose actions that they know will benefit themselves.
> The mistake you and others who argue against free will make, is that you assume moral blameworthiness necessarily entails punishment
I don't think GP assumes moral blameworthiness necessarily entails punishment. I think, rather, he assumes that immoral acts are worthy of punishment. That is, if we happen to decide to punish a certain set of actions, we should punish immoral actions. I think this is a fair assumption. The primary goal of morality discussions is to determine which actions we want to strive for and which actions we want to avoid.
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#126When the author mentioned the joy brought on by having that "digital retreat" it reminded me of my cross country motorcycle trip this past March. I rode from Boston to Chicago to Seattle to San Francisco to Utah and Colorado and then back to Boston in 3 weeks. If you do the math, I think it averaged out to like 450 miles a day on a motorcycle. Which if you've ridden you'd know is a shit ton of riding back-to-back. So…
I'm sorry you broke your phone. We just got back from a Caribbean island, and once or twice my wife used Google maps as a backup to our paper map. It was almost always wrong. Google was always selecting really stupid routes that anyone actually living there would tell you are really impractical. It became a kind of running joke, and we would amuse ourselves by talking back to the Google voice which was always telling…
This is a fantastic strategy! The times I’ve done this have always resulted in more fulfilling journeys. Even just the act of burning new routes into the synapses of your brain and honing your internal compass is super rewarding.
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#127How do you separate the enriching part from the addictive part? To me the problem is that my laptop and my phone are magical doors that lead to both smart people at HN and some niche subreddits/blogs that really make me think, change my opinion, make my life more interesting... and right next to it there are social media bubbles, overwhelming stream of news and insight porn that I can read/watch for hours anxious tha…
I think a lot of commenters have made productive comments on how to get started in changing bad habits. A commonality between these suggestions is a process of self-evaluation -- that is, it's important to set aside time to analyze how you spent your time and whether it was productive.
One thing I'd like to add is that the process of self-evaluation becomes a lot easier when you learn to shut off the part of your brain that negatively judges yourself. Many people (including myself) have an inner monologue that chastises yourself when you do something that is sub-optimal to your value system. This negative superego makes it REALLY hard to start honestly evaluating your behavior because you equate negative actions with negative self-worth, and nobody wants to put themselves down.
Part of my path towards mental fitness has involved replacing this negative super ego with the same love and compassion that I would show a friend. Then, the process of self-evaluation becomes psychologically much easier to tackle. I like to think of the time I've set aside for self-evaluation as an opportunity to work on my self-compassion as well as a way to identify corrective actions -- two birds one stone.
Nobody is perfect, and even if we end up wasting a ton of time on this earth on mindless activities, it's not the end of the world. At the same time, it makes sense to take actions that lead to our most fulfilling life. And, it sounds like you've identified one change that you could make, so good luck :).
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I've noticed this too. I used to be able to finish pretty long books in one sitting and be completely absorbed in them, but now I struggle to finish a chapter.
It could also be that you've grown older, and have more responsibilities now, so you just don't really have as much time in continuous blocks? I used to be a reader in my teens as well, but in adult life, with work, social life and the tons of other activities that I have access to, it just isn't a priority. Slightly older friends of mine who are married/have kids have even less time. So it seems like free time reduc…
Yeah, it's probably somewhat that, though I usually do most of my reading before bed and I'm still not able to concentrate nearly as much as I was able to.
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#129I am amazed at how my brain's ability to focus on long term tasks has been diminished over the past few years. I used to be a voracious reader, but lately have struggled to read (offline) more than a few pages at a time. I won't blame smartphone usage entirely, but it certainly has been a large contributor to that. This year, I've begun a concerted campaign to reduce my phone time. The latest iOS screen time tracker…
Yeah, I've noticed this too. I used to be able to finish pretty long books in one sitting and be completely absorbed in them, but now I struggle to finish a chapter.
Same here. Still thinking about this Nietzsche quote: “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” [That I consider a valid explanation of why Twitter is so damn great!... [1]]
[1]: ... once you have curated your perfect list of "following".
Re: I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you figure out a way to solve this problem, please let me know - as someone who works from home, internet distractions are the biggest thing that stand between me and success. I've heard the advice for writers of "turn of your wifi and just write without distractions". But, coding requires the internet in most cases. Hacker News is simultaneously enriching and distracting for me. Youtube is the source of all knowl…
One suggestion and one question: - Consider using a tool like Dash to create an offline cache of docs so you can turn off WiFi and still program effectively https://kapeli.com/dash - What freelancer community did you join?
I'm in Kai Davis's Freelance Camp (http://freelance.camp). It's a wonderful group of people.