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Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

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Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work." I really like this for a different reason. It’s one of the reasons I can appreciate flat-earthers (or other discordian-ish reality tunnels) from a slightly more philosophical standpoint: it really doesn’t matter

That quote has always bothered me. He uses incredibly small details to deduce incredible things, but thinks the solar system will never have any influence upon his casework. I can imagine scenarios where people thought the wrong things because of what the sun was doing, how far the sun was from the earth at the time, etc etc. It does matter, just not often... Much like the rest of what he uses to deduce things. It's…

>> but there are some beliefs that tell me people aren't critical thinkers and will just believe things they're told... And then stick to it no matter what. I definitely treat those people differently for my own protection.

What are some examples? I want to know so I may or may not learn to avoid your usual treatment of belief-normatives and instead be treated with your non-normative belief conditioned self-"protection" process, ultimately because I may or may not view your preference for "critical[/oppressive] thinking" as both or neither or simultaneously predatory and oppressive, not to mention self-deluding.

You are obviously excusing your propensity to oppress and judge others through your irrational attachment to your beliefs that amount to nothing but false pattern recognition--or "apophenia". Your demonstrable beliefs make you weak to the clustering illusion and reveal your illusion of control bias. Pareidolia leads you to tap into your capacity to focus and directs it into protecting yourself from "[non-]critical[/non-oppressive] thinkers", wasting your focus.

Yes, you can imagine, and yes you are right, but you are also more wrong than you may know. Your imagination is immaterial, your intuition however, is not. Regarding "small details to deduce incredible things"--don't take the quote so seriously... you are claim to know what the person quoited thinks ("but thinks the solar system will never...") ;) Every conscious being inherently groks interconnection. Your imagination is running your focus into a constipated mess, making you weak to FEAR where you feel the need to judge others based on their capacity to critically or oppressively think as a sort of protective mechanism.

It's YOU, not THEM, you think its THEM, because you don't recognize it's YOU that are losing focus IMAGINING it is THEM. You are attempting to protect yourself by giving preferential treatment to others, when really it's your own run away imagination and your attachment to it combined with the error of attributing the lack of awareness of the focus sink onto the actual non objects of your imagination (i.e. you are mistaking the finger for the moon).

Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#222

I have a strategy of layered speedbumps to screwing around on my digital devices. Next DNS to block some time wasting sites wholesale, Leechblock to limit time use on certain websites or during certain time frames, and Digital Wellbeing to time block whole apps and keep track of my usage. It would take me 1 minute to turn all of that off, but the time to instant gratification on a stock phone is so rapid, all I find…

> If every time I unlocked my phone it had a screen that displayed for 30 seconds that just said "what are you doing right now, and how long do you intend to do it?" I think it would probably have a similar positive effect.

I created and app for that. Called Actuflow.

Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#223
post #12

> Cal Newport said it best in his book Deep Work: the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive. The people who cultivate that skill, stay up late at night while everyone is asleep so they don’t get distracted. T…

> Do you spend your time marketing your self to others and letting people know your accomplishments, or do you spend the time doing work that will benefit others? I like the luck surface area analogy for this. Take a rectangle. Side A is "Quality of work". Side B is "How many people know about it". The surface area – A*B – is your luck and opportunity. If you do amazing work and nobody knows about it, your luck is ze…

Ok, how do we take this analogy and qualify the types of opportunity you get as a result? If you do mediocre work and everyone knows about it, do you get a lot of mediocre opportunities? Compared to someone who does better work, and gets a smaller number of, but GREAT, opportunities? How to value that piece?

Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#224
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, yeah we're in a really weird space right now where our tech is awesome and terrible. I wonder if it will get better. It would be cool to have like a feature phone but where the features are at current tech levels (and include maps), but there are no random notifications to manage, no social apps (instead of requiring you to have the discipline not to install them)... idk.

The LightPhone is working on getting there. I've been using it for about a year now as my primary mobile.

E-ink? Brilliant.

Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have my phone in do not disturb mode 24/7 Me too. I've recommended it to so many people, but I think many are so addicted to that dopamine hit they find it hard to do.

I have found that I am involved with too many things with too many random people for that to work, so instead I flip my phone to silent mode whenever I am doing something interesting or with people, and then if somebody notify when when I am browsing hn, that is probably fine. I have DND on during the night and work day. Like gp, if somebody can make it sound at 4 A.M, I want to be there to take the call, but it is a…

I do something similar but have my DND hours for my work apps set on outside work hours and at night. If someone really needs me, they can call me twice in a row to override the DND and sound my ringtone (at least on iOS).

Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you

#226
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only exceptions are "VIP" contacts from close family. Curious how you configured this? I'd be interested in this as well.

If you have an iPhone, you can flag certain contacts as allowing "Emergency Bypass". This lets their calls (and text messages if you flip another switch) vibrate and/or ring your phone even if you're in do-not-disturb mode. Can't speak for Android, but I'm sure it has a similar feature (and due to system access it allows third-party apps, maybe you can do the same for third-party chat apps as well).

Worth noting in iOS any contact may bypass DND by calling twice in quick succession even if the contact isn’t starred.
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