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I Got My Attention Back (2017)

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Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try using the LessPhone[0] launcher. I have used it off and on and had some success with it. It locks you down to a slim set of apps (configurable), in a plain black and white interface. It's not perfect, but it's helpful. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan....

Thank you! This is close to what I am looking for. I'll give it a shot and see if it addresses my problem. update1: Hmm. So it doesn't exactly address the core problem, which is I can still easily access those other apps that I wish to uninstall. So in a way, this app helps by making the UI less enticing to click on, but it doesn't address the core problem, which is to fully uninstall.

On Android if you have Digital Wellbeing you can set a timer for each app. Just set it at 1min for Chrome

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#162
post #138
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right. That sounds fairly severe. Addiction level. And yet, some people do manage to go cold turkey. And cold turkey is generally easier than a approach based on limitation. Your one strength here is you know you don’t really need the access, as you already did it. If you want to google something or message someone you can write it down on paper, and handle it in the morning. Perhaps this truly won’t work. In which c…

Cold turkey works, it worked for me dozen of times. Of course until i relapsed:)

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#163

> Nintendo recently released their first iPhone game, Mario Run. > The edges are clear. You pay once, and there’s no other way for Nintendo to extract money from you. No single player is a mark. There are no whales. Nintendo didn't make Super Mario Run, nor is it the first game with their name on phones. Their first two games, Pokemon Go and Fire Emblem Heroes, are both very much unbounded and, especially Fire Emblem…

I was pretty sure this was wrong, because there was a lot of hubbub about it being the first Nintendo-made game on phones, so I checked. From Wikipedia:

> Super Mario Run is a 2016 side-scrolling platform mobile game developed and published by Nintendo for iOS and Android devices. The game is one of Nintendo's first games developed for mobile devices, and one of the few instances that a game in the Mario series was officially released on non-Nintendo hardware.

Pokemon Go was developed (and published) by Niantic, and Fire Emblem Heroes came out over a year later than Super Mario Run did (and is also not a Nintendo game).

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#164
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'd recommend checking 'Dopamine Fasting'. It is a deliberately catchy title, no, you don't/can't abstain from dopamine, but the content is rock solid in terms of taking breaks from over-stimulation loops.

I personally try to mimic no-electronics "sabbath"s on Sundays (no religious affiliation). It is not as harsh as it sounds, just away from fast reward loops of apps and internet to more long form content such as a 3hr podcasts, an actual physical book, wandering in nature, conversing with people important in my life etc. Also feelings like loneliness and anxiety can present as overuse of tech, so I take that as a sign to double down on healthy self-care basics such as meaningful connections, adequate exercise, outdoors, sunshine, whole foods, laughter etc.

> At this point I'm even considering finding Adderall

I personally recommend you don't, based on my half decade, personal experience until about a year ago. Yes it will increase your task salience and perceived energy because your brain will be swimming in dopamine, but you won't have the matching wisdom to pick your tasks or use that energy appropriately. Believe it or not, feeling bored or not motivated is a crucial part of picking what we spend our energy on so that we can achieve meaningful, sustainable long term goals. Psychostimulants bias your sense of bio-economics, everything has a lower threshold of feeling like a good idea to do. You'll read reports of people cleaning their houses or masturbating all day on therapeutic doses (Yes these are outliers, but it exemplifies the class of errors you'll be liable to make on it.). Also over time your dopaminergic systems will physically downregulate to adapt to exogenous stimulation, in which case operating without meds will be harder and harder.

Obviously your current state don't seem to help achieving meaningful, sustainable long term goals either, so I recommend getting help in the form of talking about it. People overestimate their ability to call themselves on their own bullshit, but the ability of someone else seeing our self-deceptive patterns outshines it. Find a loving, caring professional invested in your growth and slowly make adaptive changes to this whole system. Slowly build such a nourishing, satisfying life that the shallow stimulus of internet feels like a waste of your life.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#165
One trick that worked for me:

* Don't keep my phone in my bedroom. I keep it several rooms away and now wake up to an analog alarm clock. Out of sight, out of mind, for me at least. I've seen my phone screen time drop from several hours a day to generally < 1 hour (of course some of this has been diverted to more computer time, but on net, it's less screen time overall).

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#166

I want to throw my phone away and switch to a "dumb" phone so I can rid my addiction to it, but I have become dependent on several core apps such as Google Maps. I wish Android would allow me full control to delete every app on there but the ones I most need. But unfortunately, its restrictions prevent me from doing so. For example, I want to delete all web browser apps so I am not tempted to the addiction of the int…

I look up directions before-hand and draw maps. It works most of the time as long as you plan to be a little late "snoopin" around.

Reviewing your route and drawing it out beforehand works amazingly. You learn the route pretty damn well, and hardly have to even look at the map. This makes your whole drive safer as you're not looking at a screen watching the countdown to the next intersection. You learn how to actually get where you are going, and you learn your way around town better as a result. Using GPS with turn-by-turn directions forces me to rely on it, as I don't tend to remember the route for the next time I go to that location.

I also find that if you look at the map and review it before you go, you can simplify most directions. Turn-by-turn directions tend give you every little detail that you may not need to remember to get to where you're going.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For all the people up and down this thread saying “just buy a dedicated GPS”, realize that Google Maps is not a GPS device. It has restaurant reviews and information about parks and bike paths and parking lots and busy hours and traffic data and street closures and pictures/menus and so much more. If the question is “what restaurant do we want to go to after we leave the theater, within walking distance or public tra…

You could also look this up at home on a dedicated computing terminal before going out.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#168

The ironie of reading this on HN. Just think about it. And think about reading this comment too.

Not really; it's exactly where people who need to read it are most likely to be found. Reminds me of an old British TV series called "Why Don't You...?" that was made for kids during the school holidays and was all about doing something other than watching TV. The full title, which was sung over the opening titles, was "Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?"

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#169
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…

1) Even very minor changes, like leaving electronics in a different room, help. 2) The best website blocker for me isn't one that that blocks me from Facebook/reddit/etc for a week -- I just start to rebel against it and eventually uninstall. The one I use is called "Focus" and blocks me out for 20 minutes. Enough to get work done, but also not enough for me to start resenting it. 3) I figured out that I could actual…

I used to bike to the library after work, about 4 km each way. It started out as a form of exercise (the library happened to be along the bike path), but eventually I was going almost every night just so I could pick a magazine from the library's large selection and read for 30 minutes or an hour. I still had my phone, but because I set out to go to the library, and the form of transport was so focused and meditative, when I got there I was able to just read without being distracted, something which was very difficult at home.

Re: I Got My Attention Back (2017)

#170

I want to throw my phone away and switch to a "dumb" phone so I can rid my addiction to it, but I have become dependent on several core apps such as Google Maps. I wish Android would allow me full control to delete every app on there but the ones I most need. But unfortunately, its restrictions prevent me from doing so. For example, I want to delete all web browser apps so I am not tempted to the addiction of the int…

Install time limiting apps like Open Limit or Digital Wellbeing.
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