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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

#341

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 s…

it's a hard problem. I often open the phone to do something legit but then get distracted by a notificiation or unread count.

maybe a better solution would be "why?" when you switch or launch apps. Then being able to select apps that don't cause the prompt like camera and bank apps

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

#342
post #341

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 s…

it's a hard problem. I often open the phone to do something legit but then get distracted by a notificiation or unread count. maybe a better solution would be "why?" when you switch or launch apps. Then being able to select apps that don't cause the prompt like camera and bank apps

This is my problem in a work context. I know I'm distractable, yet for security reasons I have to have a distraction device which I have to pick up and use for signing into certain applications.

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

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacture these with some slick styling and a nice website and I'd probably buy one for $99 lol. Give it a name like "B R I C K" and a slick logo.

Someone already did. I'm trying to remember the name of it.

NoPhone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoPhone

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

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my use case, randomness would make it even worse. For muscle memory, consistency is key. I don't know what the solution is - ideally, the app would not interrupt such quick actions like unlocking to take a photo or switch the song, but in practice, it can't exactly guess what I'm going to do before I do it. I was thinking about maybe "unlock and don't show the popup for the next 5 minutes", but then I already kno…

On my phone (Pixel 5) I don't need to unlock to take a picture (double click on power button) or switch to the next song (slide menu down, click Next). Not sure if it helps. Have not tried the app yet. Edit: sorry, didn't see the almost identical answer

As mentioned elsewhere, I have double-click on power button bound to toggle the flashlight, as I find it way more useful day to day, plus quick launch of camera becomes redundant after you launch the app.

As for songs, I specifically mentioned picking a next song. As in, picking from a list, possibly navigating or doing a search first. Next/prev is both trivial and something I rarely use anyway.

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

#345
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody can help the weak minded. However, they need to learn that the rest of us is no longer willing to reat them like grown up adults.

This is an extremist position and disagrees with a century of science on the topic. That simplistic "weak-minded" indicates that you are just looking for a chance to make yourself feel/look better than others and are unable to get positive stimuli on your own positive merits. Additionally, you seem to need this illusion of control, that you and your "strong mind" are actually in charge, which current research heavily…

> unable to get positive stimuli on your own positive merits

Ahh, the typical reaction, lashing out, and ad-hominem. I am sooo unsurprised.

I am well aware that everyone has their breaking point. What is easy for one individual is hard for another. No worries. However, I never expected phone compulsion to make someone fail the Gom Jabbar test. I mean, seriously? If you have trouble regulating your tool usage, how do you even get through life!

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

#346
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody can help the weak minded. However, they need to learn that the rest of us is no longer willing to reat them like grown up adults.

> However, they need to learn that the rest of us is no longer willing to reat them like grown up adults Yes! Outcast the people who have an addiction. I'm sure that will help get them back on track! Have you ever thought about writing a book?

No, I never said "outcast". We dont outcast children either, we just treat them like non-adults.

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

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where an OS-based agent would help. If it semantically understood the tasks we're trying to accomplish, it could filter the cases we care about. I'm even more excited about browser or OS agents being able to unilaterally scrub the web of all advertisements, spam, polarized toxicity, etc. Forget adblock - I can effectively block all the bad things Google, Meta, Twitter, etc. do and their army of PMs won't be a…

neither Apple or Google will ever develop this given that their core Business depends on users using their phones often

In what way does apple depend on users using their phones often? I am also hoping somebody would develop helpful agents like gp suggests
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