351–360 of 685 posts
When # things I need to do > # things I want to do, I become more stressed.
Although each task has a weight to it as well. Needs are weighted on importance and wants are weighted on desire.
This allows the “stress scale” to tip with many tasks or a few larger tasks.
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The only place I've gotten the regularity feeling of a third place was a really specific gym I used to both work and train at. Everyone knew who I was even if I didn't train with them, because I also worked there, so when I trained there it was my third place as well and I was always having great conversations. I haven't had anything like it since, and I've been relatively proactive too. I have hobbies, go to meets,…
On of the best "third place" locations I've had was a gym as well. This was about 15 years ago, before iPhones and Airpods, etc. existed, or were as prevalent, so it was easy and common for gym regulars to strike up conversations and get to know each other. I don't go to the gym anymore, but a few years ago when I resumed for a bit, everyone was on their phone, or dead-eyed while listening to music or a podcast, etc,…
Once I got a job, partner, and pets, at any moment something can demand my attention. Enough times of having to abandon a multiplayer game, break concentration, break my flow, and at some point I just started choosing to do things that have zero commitment. I still play games, but only ones that I feel I can drop at a moment's notice and don't require practice. Music is a faint echo of the presence it used to be in my life. The only thing I still get to do every single day is code, because I have to do it in order to live.
I also feel the loss of the "third spaces" in my life. It used to be a few select hangout spots with my friends, then it was the rest of the college campus. I've lived in a car dependent hellscape my entire life and it only got worse when I moved to the US capital of suburban sprawl for work. None of my friends live within ten miles of me anymore.
I wouldn't say I'm addicted to them, but when I find myself bored, I open a meme site (which shall remain unnamed) and just look at mildly popular memes. Doesn't matter what they're about. I just like the occasional laugh I get out of them. I also like social topics being turned into dark, twisted humor which is sometimes captured perfectly in memes. But when I was going through a rough patch of my life (depression,…
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Switching Twitter to timeline mode rather than their poor excuse of an algorithm helps. Learned that from HN....but I have a browser plug-in that also removes all their recommended and "Joe also owed this tweet" junk.
Which browser plug is this? It sounds amazingly useful.
If you need it for mobile, on my mobile (Android) I downloaded Kiwi Browser so I can install that plugin.
it's cheap - i could go for a walk - go to the gym - call my mother - clean the house - na - clicking the same 3 buttons in a different order on youtube - hoping for something new and amazing-- is "cheaper" - it's easy - & very occasionally - I win something amazing- think this has always been true tho - mum used to buy the sunday times then read the same pages multiple times throughout the week - not sure she though…
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> The average shot length of English language films has declined from about 12 seconds in 1930 to about 2.5 seconds today https://www.wired.com/2014/09/cinema-is-evolving/
I think it's much shorter now, that article is almost 8 years old. With the ubiquity of digital cinema, I suspect the average shot length is 1.x seconds.
If you have social media apps, TURN off notifications, block them forever! I also tried using greyscale screen modes in accessibility and I found it cut my phone usage in half. Definitely a cheap win for me to the point that I barely ever use my phone for "idle" time anymore, and certainly not "the" place I go to satisfy my need to spend time.
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Because we still need certain utilities on our phone, like Maps and Music and Search and Camera. Those aren't the problems--we still want those things, which are not addictive and fruitful, but we want less of things which are addictive and fruitless, like Twitter and Reddit. Cigarettes have no such essential and positive utility.
That's why I like this phone that can do those things, but I really have to be sure I want to do them. It's surprising how often I actually don't, though. Rarely am I going anywhere I actually don't know how to go. Rarely do I actually need to take a photo of something (though to be fair, I've never really been into photography; this would be different for people who are). I prefer quiet to music (although again, adm…
Anyone who is seriously into photography will be carrying a proper camera. The idea of professional photographers using smartphone cameras is just pure marketing bullshit IMO. Smartphone cameras are severely limited by physics and always will be.
As someone who used to be heavily into photography, my smartphone may as well have not even had a camera because if I wanted to go out and take pictures I would bring my DSLR.