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I Got My Attention Back (2017)

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Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#81

Post by mtberatwork »

muonic wrote: post #29

I'd actually appreciate anyone's opinion or advice on this... I grew up on computers and the internet (absent, technophile parents made that very easy) and by the age of 13 or 14 my computer really just felt like an extension of myself. When I was in undergrad, I realized that the only way I'd ever actually properly study is if I had someone on my dorm floor take my computer from me and refuse to give it back for som…

> I started a new job in October and was able to start 'fixing' myself a bit by leaving all my electronics at the office after work, and by December I could actually feel a tangible difference in how I was thinking and making decisions.

Yup, one of the best things you can do is leave your work at work. I know that is easier said than done though especially now that our "offices" and homes are one and the same thing.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#82

Post by cgag »

ralphc wrote: post #80

Here's the problem I see with unplugging to work; maybe it's an actual problem, maybe I'm just fooling myself. I work on software. I want the finished product, to build something useful for myself or others. I don't necessarily want the "journey". When I work, my concern, or fear, is that I'm going to work on some library or method, multiple days, then find that someone else did it better in a library I can just impo…

Scrape the doc sites with httrack or something. Don't turn the internet on unless you actually hit that library problem, I think it's generally pretty clear when a significant problem has already been solved. Or move on and solve that problem tomorrow, and go do deliberate research on it and download everything at night, and then work on it again offline the next day.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#83

Post by bogwog »

ralphc wrote: post #80

Here's the problem I see with unplugging to work; maybe it's an actual problem, maybe I'm just fooling myself. I work on software. I want the finished product, to build something useful for myself or others. I don't necessarily want the "journey". When I work, my concern, or fear, is that I'm going to work on some library or method, multiple days, then find that someone else did it better in a library I can just impo…

> then find that someone else did it better in a library I can just import

If it involves working with some common standard or protocol, chances are it's been done before and you probably shouldn't attempt to do it yourself unless the existing implementations don't work for you.

But otherwise, why stress over it? The amount of "great" programmers in the world is tiny, so while the chances that someone did something already are high, the chances that it will be significantly better than anything you can make yourself are low.

Unless it's impractical because of the sheer size of it, the time investment involved, or some other reason, building something yourself gives many long-term benefits for the upfront investment. Owning the code, not having to deal with the community/politics, developing at your own pace, not having to worry about maintaining a fork, minimizing external dependencies and the associated risks, avoiding licensing concerns, etc.

Saying that you should use an existing library because "someone probably did it better" is F.U.D. If you're not confident in your abilities to do something better than an imaginary programmer you've never met, then you probably need to write more code and gain more confidence; and a great way to do that is to reinvent the wheel from time to time.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#84

Post by Press2forEN »

> That was the first thought I had the morning after the election. I woke. The crushing weight of a new reality reimposed itself on my mind. And then: I want my attention back.

Articles that begin like this always sadden me. I find myself unable to to continue from this point.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#85

Post by treebornfrog »

omreaderhn wrote: post #30

I built this service to help deal with this problem: https://omreader.co It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that ha…

Amazing.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#86

Post by Jtsummers »

muonic wrote: post #29

I'd actually appreciate anyone's opinion or advice on this... I grew up on computers and the internet (absent, technophile parents made that very easy) and by the age of 13 or 14 my computer really just felt like an extension of myself. When I was in undergrad, I realized that the only way I'd ever actually properly study is if I had someone on my dorm floor take my computer from me and refuse to give it back for som…

It's been hard for me, but I've got physical spaces in my home (helps to have a house for this) that I use for different things. Upstairs loft (which will be a space for kids later) is my office right now. Living room is time with my wife, sitting room is my reading room. If I take a book to the sitting room, I can actually read it and get something done. I usually leave my phone in another room.

Another thing that used to work really well (recovering from a pulled muscle so I can't presently) is to leave the office and go for a run. With WFH, I started doing that again 3 days a week after work, another day was lawn work. It's not something you can choose to focus on or not, you're out there and have nothing else to do but move. It creates a clean separation between my workday and the rest of my day.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#87

Post by simonebrunozzi »

omreaderhn wrote: post #30

I built this service to help deal with this problem: https://omreader.co It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that ha…

Don't apologize. Feel proud to have built something that people find so useful to bring your servers down. Good users know that you deserve a little patience.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#88

Post by omreaderhn »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #87
omreaderhn wrote: post #30

I built this service to help deal with this problem: https://omreader.co It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that ha…

Don't apologize. Feel proud to have built something that people find so useful to bring your servers down. Good users know that you deserve a little patience.

That's very kind of you. Thank you!

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#89

Post by ciarannolan »

omreaderhn wrote: post #30

I built this service to help deal with this problem: https://omreader.co It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that ha…

How do you actually build the Kindle file with the articles?

I've tried a couple times to hack together something similar for personal use but I could never figure out how to create the newspaper file.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#90

Post by foofoo4u »

omreaderhn wrote: post #30

I built this service to help deal with this problem: https://omreader.co It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that ha…

This looks terrific. It seems to be exactly the service I have been looking for. I too found myself easily distracted and addicted to my phone when browsing the news. To help combat my addiction, I wrote a script that'll parse my favorite news websites and email them to my Kindle. It's been "life transforming". I can now read my news addiction and distraction free. Plus, I have always preferred reading walls of text on an e-ink display, especially before going to bed. The only downside of my approach is that it takes a lot of time to write my scripts. Every website is different and some websites don't provide APIs. For example, the WSJ provides no APIs to consume their content even as a paying member. So I find myself resorting to selenium to do the parsing work for me. There are many other websites and blogs that I'd like to have sent to my kindle, but I dread the effort needing to do that. So I'd happily pay a small fee, such as your site, to have this work done for me.
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