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PG: Disconnecting Distraction

paulgraham.com

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Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#91

Post by byrneseyeview »

ChaitanyaSai wrote: post #76
byrneseyeview wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because nobody imagines pg would be lame enough to fund a bad product, and then promote it with his name. That would turn off lots of good potential YC applicants.

That it is a good product and appeals to many goes without saying no matter who the investor is. Presumably, every investor is behind a product because he/she sees some merit.

Yeah, hence the part about Paul Graham. Some people have audiences but not credibility. Paul Graham seems to have gotten his audience because of his credibility . It wouldn't be evil to do what you're worried about. It would just be dumb.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#92

Post by andyn »

noahlt wrote: post #43

That's fine if you're PG and you write all the software yourself, but what if you're using a web framework or other open-source tools and need the web to access documentation or ask questions?

I've found personally I don't need to block the whole internet - just the top few procrastination websites - facebook, reddit, slashdot, bbc news etc. that I'd otherwise be tempted to read.

There's a Firefox extension called LeechBlock ( http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock.html ) that will do that for you, and allow fine control over how long or when the sites are blocked as well as the option to stop you simply disabling it during these time periods.

But you can still use the web for research.

(Hope it didn't sound too much like an advert, but it's helped me).

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#94

Post by menloparkbum »

I've found that I get sucked into severe surfing mostly when I'm unhappy. Like when I move to a new city and don't know anyone, or broke up with a girlfriend, or had a shitty job, or have some looming deadline for work that I have zero interest in.

About a month ago, we started having severe problems at the startup I work for. The finances are a total mess and the boss has been irrationally taking it out on a couple other employees who are friends of mine. What's ultimately going to happen is a bunch of people are going to leave en masse, and if I don't go with them, I'm going to be stuck cleaning up the mess they left behind. After learning this, it sort of feels futile to do anything at work, and subsequently my hacker news karma has finally passed 1000! It leaks out into the rest of my life, too. I feel pretty stupid that I quit my old startup to work at this one. I really should be looking for a new job, or working on a startup idea of my own. However, general fear and bummed-outedness has been steering me to instead do stuff like stay up until 4AM reading the entire blog archives of all my favorite female musicians.

Maybe a bit too personal and self-helpy, but I haven't ever felt like I was wasting too much time online when everything else in my life was going smoothly. On the other hand, maybe internet time-wasting is an unavoidable job hazard of a VC who funds a lot of fun projects.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#95

Post by technoguyrob »

maxklein wrote: post #9

An alternative is this: What I do (using my super secret self designed software) is that I monitor my usage of the internet, and for every hour firefox is open, I send $10 to my credit card account. So while I procrastinate, I lose cash money but repay my debts.

Can't you use RescueTime?

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#96

Post by webwright »

whacked_new wrote: post #52

Oh come on people... This one was rougher than the rest. Americans watch 4 hours of TV per day? Source? (Ok, there's Google, but that's not the good-old footnoted style.) Next, a bunch of fairly obvious things (TV is a time sink, so are other forms of distractions, and distractions prevent you from doing work!), then a submarine (plug for a personal investment). The "solution" of separating out a work machine isn't p…

"...then a submarine (plug for a personal investment)."

What? The way I read it wasn't a plug at all. To my knowledge, I don't think Paul has ever used RescueTime other than to poke around with it. Which is fine-- it's not for everyone. The way I read it was, "yeah there's software-- but my solution was a life-hack".

I appreciate the link (mostly for SEO reasons!), but I'm pretty sure that Paul could write an entire essay about RescueTime (heartily endorsing it) and it wouldn't have huge impact on our traffic (we've already been in front of many of the eyeballs that hit his essays).

Are you having a bad day?

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#97

Post by mechanical_fish »

andyn wrote: post #92
noahlt wrote: post #43

That's fine if you're PG and you write all the software yourself, but what if you're using a web framework or other open-source tools and need the web to access documentation or ask questions?

I've found personally I don't need to block the whole internet - just the top few procrastination websites - facebook, reddit, slashdot, bbc news etc. that I'd otherwise be tempted to read. There's a Firefox extension called LeechBlock ( http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock.html ) that will do that for you, and allow fine control over how long or when the sites are blocked as well as the option to stop you simply dis…

Excellent advice. I solved 80% part of the problem two days ago by simply blocking news.yc at the hosts file level on my main machine. My laptop is now my news.yc machine. It is hilarious to have PG publish the same solution two days later. :)

I tried the noprocrast setting on this site. Reading between the lines of his essay, I surmise that PG, like me, has evolved around noprocrast. My lizard brain has figured out how to click the override button before my conscious mind can notice.

Most of the rest of the stuff I read is a few dozen blogs. They update through RSS, and there are few enough of them (and I skim quickly enough) that they aren't a big time sink. It's news.yc -- which tends to embroil me in writing -- that's the sink.

Of course, there are worse ways to waste time than news.yc. Sometimes you need to tell yourself that.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#98

Post by domnit »

I'm not at the point where I need to disconnect my laptop, but during exams last week and the week before that I used this user stylesheet in Firefox:

    @namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
    
    @-moz-document domain(twitter.com), url-prefix(https://www.google.com/reader/), domain(news.ycombinator.com) {
      body {
        display: none;
      }
    }
It would have been easy to turn off if I had to (I didn't), but it worked great when I'd idly click a bookmark to one of these sites to be given a blank screen.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#99

Post by mechanical_fish »

aswanson wrote: post #80
mynameishere wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displays... http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.5... Evidentally, 8 hours per day per household. I suspect nielsen is using their meters or whatever, which clock up time even when no one is watching. Some households just let it run nonstop. The internet doesn't bother me so much, though I've noticed my ability to read books has shriveled up al…

As for drinking alone, I suspect it's better on the whole. It reduces the likelihood of violent crimes and car wrecks, anyway. Seconded.

I have a relative who drank alone. He drank himself to death when his kids were in their teens. Apparently nobody knew he was an alcoholic until he collapsed and died of liver failure.

I'll see your "seconded" and raise you 3e8.

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