A bad workman always blames his tools.
A good workman has opinions on his tools that are deep, and profoundly negative. Also always.
So maybe not a good heuristic, and not a helpful thing to quip.
Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
31–40 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#32Maybe the problems aren't as compelling as you'd like to imagine they are. I had this problem for a long time, always reading such and such thing because I felt like it should be important. But then I realized none of it really mattered at all, not even email mostly, and I just try and do one or two things that have a tangible value. So email stays closed, and I chat with people in moderation. The other tool I'd really recommend is SelfControl, which allows you to block everything you don't want to engage with.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#33If you sit and don't engage your reptilian moving-about system it will engage anyway. You'll be looking for distractions in front of you. And then you'll be stuck on those, tripping out.
On the other hand if you were to step out for 15 minutes and then come back, just walking and looking around, thinking of what you'll be doing when back at the computer; then when you're back you'll have something to do. Good luck not getting stuck doing that. Because you will.
Turn off all notifications, time-box all calls and emails to twice a day, and reduce the use of color in the UI. Don't let yourself be prompted into getting stuck on something. You have your own agenda and the world around you can manage for 3-4 hours without your input. It really can. Make sure it can.
Being prepared is half the job.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, spend your time maintaining a Linux distro on the desktop instead. Everytime it breaks, you won't have time to surf any toxic forums.
There's a lot of things to pick at desktop Linux for, but maintenance is not one of them, especially not on a mainstream fixed-release distro like Ubuntu. Once you're set up, you're good to go, and you have full control over what you want to change.
That's not exactly the whole truth though. There are tons of issues with desktop Linux lurking in the background, waiting to bite you. Even something as simple as changing one your monitors might land you in deep trouble, or a printer that somehow doesn't work.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#35$ defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true
then quit the finder... forever : p
Seriously changed my relationship to mac os. As semi-non-voluntary mac user from 199X to present. It used to be a love-hate relationship. Now macs are just aesthetically appealing unix hardware vectors.
Idunno Im sure some other HN entities have smarter thoughts on this.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#36Don’t connect to the internet. If you need it for reference or reading, gather it before your “work session” where you want to get in the zone. If you need Internet (ie for what you are working on) simply don’t open a browser, or if you need it for work as well, don’t open other tabs.
I always take a laptop camping, but it’s a outdoor converted (Pixel Qi display) circa ‘08 netbook. Its slow but fast enough, and I do a lot of great work on it, distraction free with no internet connection in the woods.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#37Part of it you won't be able to fix by making changes to your device, because its you. You can take away all the distractions, but you're a human being, you will be looking for them at some point and you need to be able to stop yourself at that time.
For me, the following has helped:
* Turn off all notifications, that means on all devices.
* Leave your phone in silent mode, better yet hide the screen from your view so you don't see incoming notifications
* Log out of any social media, for me having to log in and do 2FA again is usually the barrier where I remember why I was logged out in the first place
* People have said it but set your dock on auto-hide, you can also turn off the red dots on most applications
* Tons of apps now allow you to go full screen, some writing apps are super minimal, so you really only see text.
* I use a pomodoro timer if I need real focus, there's videos on YouTube that will also just run 45 mins then have 15 minute break, though that might be too distracting an environment initially.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#38The closest one can reasonably get to the late 90’ power user desktop experience is getting Linux. In my experience MacOS and Windows have just so many nags and distractions built in. They are great digital assistants and platforms but not necessarily the best tools anymore. That being said it is much easier to switch for developers than other professions.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#39Somewhat related, but I'd recommend you to read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I was already underway of doing some of the things he proposes before finding that book because I also felt that this machine I have grown up with is actually eating my precious time away. He proposes very concrete steps and I've pushed things a bit further for myself after reading it.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#40Earlier I used the hosts file extensively on my devices to nuke time wasting web sites from my work zone.
On Mac I also used to use a program called vitamin-R which helped me somewhat back im the day, but it doesn't make the computer less distracting, only helps me cope with it. (Yes, it still exists, I was pleasantly surprised that it still existed when I got a Mac mini last year after being away from Macs for almost a decade. Now if someone could recreate Alarms, the visual countdown program I used until it broke on Snow Leopard I'd probably happily pay for it again.)
With reference to toxic forums, as the saying goes: it is not a problem if the submarine is in the ocean but a big problem if the ocean is in the submarine. Stick to places where your hull tolerates the pressure and where you can do something useful.
I've seen plenty of nasty posts the places I go and I can also say I and others have succeeded somewhat in flagging and smacking down trolls and (actual) nazis that at least one place that used to be ugly is now somewhat safe (i.e. no complaints anymore about Hitler dying to young after articles about the middle east).