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I Got My Attention Back (2017)

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Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#111

Post by minerjoe »

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…

> I don't see how I can work while disconnected.

I'be been programming for many years almost completely offline. It has changed the way I develop in ways that are very powerful.

Having local copies of all of your needs allows for things that you just cannot do with online resources, such as locally index.

Having instantaneous (not internet fast, FAST!) fuzzy search through my entire collection of doucmentation AND all source code was a game-changer for me.

Especially when learning a new language, its powerful being able to immediatly find example uses of functions from within your local collection of libraries without having to hit on google (and wait, and click, and read, and ...).

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#112

Post by graeme »

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…

Others have given good replies about how to fill the void, and I encourage you to explore those. I’ll stick to commenting on blocking.

It sounds like you went completely cold turkey, and it worked fairly well. You truly had no electronic use outside of work?

If you can manage that, and you live alone, there is a simple solution: unplug your router and modem after work. Plug it back in before work. Then put your devices in a drawer.

This has actually worked for me, where other blocking systems have failed. The physicality and totally of the unplug do it. But it is usually difficult as most people need some access at home. If you truly don’t, this total block option opens for you. You’ll prob have to temporarily give up your data plan as well.

There are other options to block in software, or at a technical level on the router.

You can track your success with this plan on paper. Maybe one piece of paper always on your desk. Write a description of why you’re doing it, then make a “don’t break the chain” calendar and mark it off for each day. You can use this as a log too of how it’s going.

The advantage this system has is you have to consciously choose to plug in, unlike digital systems where you can sort of drift into disabling it. If needed, you can also keep a physical log book on the router to write your checkins, or have a friend try calling you to see if it’s working. (You can keep a voice plan on your phone. Without data or wifi the phone won’t be very addictive most likely)

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#113

Post by j4ah4n »

cgag wrote: post #82
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.

FWIW I've used offline docs via Dash[0] when working away from network access before. It works great!

MacOS only though.

[0] https://kapeli.com/dash

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#114

Post by muonic »

graeme wrote: post #112
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…

Others have given good replies about how to fill the void, and I encourage you to explore those. I’ll stick to commenting on blocking. It sounds like you went completely cold turkey, and it worked fairly well. You truly had no electronic use outside of work? If you can manage that, and you live alone, there is a simple solution: unplug your router and modem after work. Plug it back in before work. Then put your devic…

I think the issue here is that it's so easy to make excuses to plug it back in, and it's so easy to walk over to the router to do so.

When I left my devices at work, whenever I had the urge to go on the internet at home, I would realize it would take me another hour commute to get there and back, and that wasn't worth it.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#115

Post by omreaderhn »

contactlight11 wrote: post #104
omreaderhn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha no worries. I've tried to find a good balance with the free tier. It's actually a bit more generous than what the copy on the marketing site says so I'll go ahead and update that today. Would love to hear any feedback that you have.

I will be trying this out later! One of the first thoughts I had was creating a middle tier, you have a big gap between what the free tier and $8 tier offers. Assuming it works well for me, I could see myself going for something in the $1.99-$3.99 range that offers 5-10 newspapers, 1 delivery per day, 10-20 articles/delivery, etc. Congrats on receiving the HN hug of death!

Perfect, thank you. This is really good feedback. I am still very much in the early stages of figuring out a pricing model.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#116

Post by eezurr »

From the article:

>Returning to those (mythical?) halcyon minimalist information days: You could read all of the news in a single day. Grab the two or three papers and read. The information had edges; it could be understood by a single human over one cup of first-wave coffee. Were you insatiable, the library was available to dig deep on the topics of the day.

I wrote this comment in 2018, I think it's relevant here:

>I think we've tipped over to the other side of the "convenience/humanity" pyramid. We climbed to the top some years ago where the lack of excess convenience gave us the opportunity to make things our selves and interact with other people face to face (which I think are very important human qualities) while being comfortable. Now we are sliding down the convenience side of the pyramid, unable to grasp what is important and fundamental. We are literally snowballing (e.g. obesity epidemic).

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#117

Post by mathieuh »

coldpie wrote: post #107
codr7 wrote: post #102

Keep in mind that this is not mainly a technological problem, it's a problem caused by technology; which means that technological solutions will only go so far. I've spent several months in similar or more extreme forms [0] of isolation, and I'd recommend anyone to consider trying it out just to get a taste of what's possible. These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of it's effects t…

> These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of its effects to be negative. I'm pretty close to this point myself. The big thing that keeps me from just ditching the phone entirely is Google Maps. I guess I could just chuck the thing in a drawer until I need to use it to go someplace.

You could buy a standalone GPS device, I know Garmin make ones for hiking, I'm sure there are other probably cheaper options out there.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#118

Post by pkrznaric »

muonic wrote: post #114
graeme wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others have given good replies about how to fill the void, and I encourage you to explore those. I’ll stick to commenting on blocking. It sounds like you went completely cold turkey, and it worked fairly well. You truly had no electronic use outside of work? If you can manage that, and you live alone, there is a simple solution: unplug your router and modem after work. Plug it back in before work. Then put your devic…

I think the issue here is that it's so easy to make excuses to plug it back in, and it's so easy to walk over to the router to do so. When I left my devices at work, whenever I had the urge to go on the internet at home, I would realize it would take me another hour commute to get there and back, and that wasn't worth it.

Something that I've heard of people doing is getting a timer box. Basically what it is, is something that locks for a designated period of time.

When you're done work you can pop your stuff in it, set a timer for 16 hours or whatever is necessary then you can't access these things at all.

Here's a rough link to what I mean (https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Safe-Locking-Container-Height...)

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#119

Post by codr7 »

coldpie wrote: post #107
codr7 wrote: post #102

Keep in mind that this is not mainly a technological problem, it's a problem caused by technology; which means that technological solutions will only go so far. I've spent several months in similar or more extreme forms [0] of isolation, and I'd recommend anyone to consider trying it out just to get a taste of what's possible. These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of it's effects t…

> These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of its effects to be negative. I'm pretty close to this point myself. The big thing that keeps me from just ditching the phone entirely is Google Maps. I guess I could just chuck the thing in a drawer until I need to use it to go someplace.

I carry a CAT phone with KaiOS that has Google Maps but not much more. That being said, I've never felt the urge to use it yet since it's a serious pita and I'm on a cash card which means data traffic is REALLY expensive.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#120

Post by misev »

coldpie wrote: post #107
codr7 wrote: post #102

Keep in mind that this is not mainly a technological problem, it's a problem caused by technology; which means that technological solutions will only go so far. I've spent several months in similar or more extreme forms [0] of isolation, and I'd recommend anyone to consider trying it out just to get a taste of what's possible. These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of it's effects t…

> These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of its effects to be negative. I'm pretty close to this point myself. The big thing that keeps me from just ditching the phone entirely is Google Maps. I guess I could just chuck the thing in a drawer until I need to use it to go someplace.

If maps is the only thing, you could easily replace it with a cheap dedicated GPS device?
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