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Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

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Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#211

Post by darkwater »

artisanspam wrote: post #142
guitarlimeo wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.

You can make it up to 128 characters. That's impressive that you are able to type a random string of nonsense so fast. My hack was to take a picture on my phone, have Apple's image recognition copy the string to my iCloud clipboard, and I'd paste it on my mac. It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.

May I ask you why you did install it in the first place, if you then hack your way around it?

Maybe the goal was to motivate you to find a hack anyway :)

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#213

Post by TeMPOraL »

I installed this in the morning to give it a test drive, and after several hours, I learned the following: it's great when I reach for the phone as a distraction; it's a big annoyance otherwise.

E.g. each time I want to change the currently playing song, what was muscle memory gets scrambled by the interruption. Or, when I'm taking a lot of photos (like on my daughter's kindergarten event today), I tend to keep the screen off in between, and rely on being able to turn it on and shoot a photo in less than two seconds, total. Guess how that got screwed up by this app.

The app itself is great, and I'm still a believer in the concept of managing executive function issues by throwing obstacles in front of bad habits and known focus black holes. However, this experience made me discover the third class of phone activity, next to "distraction" and "work" - quick, intermittent, on-the-fly use, the kind you ideally don't think much about. This class does not distract you... unless someone adds friction to it.

I just saw the app has "every N unlocks" option, I'll try it out and see if this helps with the "third class".

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#214

Post by youainti »

jarko27 wrote: post #115
retSava wrote: post #106

Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing. The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should no…

Advanced reminders are going to be a thing for the next big release. I agree that one problem is to pass the unlock, but staying on track with your intention is a different story. One periodical notification with static text can in theory fix that, but the chances are low in comparison to the full-screen pop-up. I intentionally focused on the unlock procedure first. For now, you can combine it with other apps like mi…

Just thinking about this, there might be room for a home launcher that helps manage attention this way. Probably more work than you are thinking of doing though.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#215

Post by mdaniel »

tasn wrote: post #199

Love it! Reminds me of an app my brother and I built 10 years ago (time flies!). It's no longer on Google Play because of the maintenance burden of keeping it there, but here's a page with some screenshots: https://apkpure.com/spinach-motivation-lock-screen/com.tengu... The idea was that if you're unlocking your screen, you should at least: (1) reinforce a mantra, or (2) force yourself to acknowledge you shouldn't be…

Up to you, but if the app has (or could have) an OSI license, you could submit a PR to f-droid and the app could live on. They don't care if you ask for donations, so it could even resurrect a bit of revenue

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#216

Post by tasn »

mdaniel wrote: post #215
tasn wrote: post #199

Love it! Reminds me of an app my brother and I built 10 years ago (time flies!). It's no longer on Google Play because of the maintenance burden of keeping it there, but here's a page with some screenshots: https://apkpure.com/spinach-motivation-lock-screen/com.tengu... The idea was that if you're unlocking your screen, you should at least: (1) reinforce a mantra, or (2) force yourself to acknowledge you shouldn't be…

Up to you, but if the app has (or could have) an OSI license, you could submit a PR to f-droid and the app could live on. They don't care if you ask for donations, so it could even resurrect a bit of revenue

Yeah, I have a few apps on f-droid, maybe worth doing!

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#217

Post by mdaniel »

fny wrote: post #187
retSava wrote: post #106

Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing. The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should no…

Might I recommend charging? You get X for free, and then you pay a fee that grows.

And the fee gets deposited into a high-yield savings account of your choice, so you're paying yourself (it reminds me of those sites that allow you to make a "bet" to your friends that you'll (stop smoking/exercise more/lose weight/whatever) and if you don't do it then you have to pay your friends

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#219

Post by kibwen »

artisanspam wrote: post #142
guitarlimeo wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.

You can make it up to 128 characters. That's impressive that you are able to type a random string of nonsense so fast. My hack was to take a picture on my phone, have Apple's image recognition copy the string to my iCloud clipboard, and I'd paste it on my mac. It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.

> It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.

Things like the OP and LeechBlock are tools for people who have already mostly conquered their addiction, to help keep them from relapsing. On their own, they're not sufficient to turn an addict into a non-addict.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#220

Post by Y_Y »

madeofpalk wrote: post #64
cowsandmilk wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is, everyone believes all apps should be free when this developer spent time building, testing, and iterating to come out with quite the useful app. And the developer respects users, so they chose to monetize in a way that doesn’t collect our data or shove ads in our faces.

The first thing OP says is "Cool idea - don't deserve to get paid for it though".

I think you'll find that's not quite true.
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