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It's getting harder to focus every day

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Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#141

Post by simpaticoder »

tenuousemphasis wrote: post #119
simpaticoder wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There exist problems which cause years of suffering which can be solved in hours (sometimes minutes). Not every problem is like that, of course, but some are. Procrastination is like that, sometimes posture is like that, and mental effects of social media are like that. At least for now - this may get worse with time. But the solution is not to consume more content - books seem to be a common suggestion. It is to con…

>There exist problems which cause years of suffering which can be solved in hours (sometimes minutes). Not every problem is like that, of course, but some are. Procrastination is like that, sometimes posture is like that, and mental effects of social media are like that. So simple to solve all those things in mere minutes, yet you can't even say how? Do I have to buy your book or subscribe to your website to find out…

How long has it been since you've gone a single day without a screen? I don't have a miracle cure, just a suggestion to try going without for a day and see how you feel. Similar to how a pile of work in the corner can make you feel bad until you finally do it. The ratio of suffering time to cure time in both cases is very high.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#142

Post by swader999 »

This week I've got all the feeds: slack, email, ticketing system, dev story board, prod system health, prod user activity, prod job queues -- all coming to one dashboard. They are distilled by a local LLM, when I get bursts it offloads to Google's low cost Flash lite so I only read the essential text, no threads, no scrolling and scanning to get to the content.

It's freaking amazing, I know everything going on. I can look at it every half hour and be caught up in three minutes. I double click about one in ten messages to reply and it takes me right to the source app to reply.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#143

Post by dundercoder »

hnlmorg wrote: post #61
hgomersall wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get the same effect by going for a walk.

It’s an option, but it’s worth noting that you’re not always idling your brain in quite the same way unless you happen to work somewhere were there are no roads to cross, cars and cyclists to dodge, nor other pedestrians to navigate around. I sometimes find toilet breaks or coffee breaks (waiting for kettle to boil) fill the “daydream debugging” requirement. But that depends on having a clean bathroom with enough sta…

Kids are like management that way. Tough to get work done efficiently when they’re around.

But unlike management, you get to tuck them in and “I love you” for no reason is a standard bonus with a free hug.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#144

Post by JKCalhoun »

graemep wrote: post #19
lardosaurusrex wrote: post #4

People often question me how I manage to focus for more than a few minutes and I'm always confused because back in the day I was constantly informed I didn't have any focus and needed to be treated (adhd). I'm not convinced attention spans themselves have changed; I think it has more to do with the fact that people's brains aren't defaulting to daydreaming anymore when bored. I think it's still an issue with people b…

I agree. I am not sure it is as similar to sleep as you claim, but its definitely good for your brain. I say something similar in the context of parenting, that a reasonable amount of boredom is good. I think it likely that being constantly entertained makes people more prone to seek constant stimulation. This did not start with phones either. I am Gen X and it happened in my childhood with kids being dumped in front…

I highly recommend road-tripping to those that can. At least once a year I end up driving out from the Mid-Waste to the Bay Area or SoCal. A few years ago the wife and I traded duties to drive to various parts of Alaska and back.

We've spent a week or so exploring just one state at a time…

There's nothing so mentally refreshing as a long, boring drive.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#145

Post by ryandrake »

ssl-3 wrote: post #54
plastic-enjoyer wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's a very interesting perspective but now that you mention it, I can't even think of the last time I daydreamed, even when I'm not on a device. Sometimes I just turn my phone off and stare at a white wall for 15 minutes. People made fun of me when I told them how relaxing I find white walls, but it seems it turns out, that I'm not the only one doing this?

I found that people would make fun of me for that, too, if they were made aware of it. Back when I was still stuck to a desk in school (up hill both ways and without a pocket computer), I learned that folks would tend to leave me alone if I had a book open. It didn't really matter what book it was. I could just gaze at it with my eyes relaxed and unfocused, with the printing appearing as some kind of indistinct phori…

When my wife and I started dating, she constantly was asking me what I’m thinking about (as people who care about you sometimes do). She was amazed that I could just sit down in a sofa and zone out, thinking about absolutely nothing. At first she would ask “come on, you meat be thinking about something” and later admitted she couldn’t do that and didn’t think people actually could!

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#146

Post by snarfy »

ssl-3 wrote: post #33
lardosaurusrex wrote: post #4

People often question me how I manage to focus for more than a few minutes and I'm always confused because back in the day I was constantly informed I didn't have any focus and needed to be treated (adhd). I'm not convinced attention spans themselves have changed; I think it has more to do with the fact that people's brains aren't defaulting to daydreaming anymore when bored. I think it's still an issue with people b…

There's only one important thing that I miss about smoking: A smoke break was an excuse that was tolerated by others, wherein I could go outside and just let my mind wander (daydream) with no particular goal for a short period of time. Daydreaming should be perfectly acceptable either way, but people seem to think it's weird (concerning, even) when someone spends a bit of time to stand (or sit) around while appearing…

I quit smoking years ago but I still go for walks with the same regularity I would smoke.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#147

Post by torlok »

tmoertel wrote: post #95

Here's something that worked for me: put your phone in your pocket and go on a design walk . While walking, design the next step in whatever you're working on. Design walks work great with more than one person, too. Aristotle was on to something when he adopted a peripatetic approach to thinking.

I don't think this is a solution. I do this often naturally, I walk around and "plan", and it feels like I'm just avoiding sitting down and doing the actual task.

The author talks about it; when facing a difficult problem, they go get a glass of water, and get distracted. That's what this is. Anything but doing the actual task. If you're going to take a break, take an honest break and rest, but then go back to work. That's the real solution, and boy is it hard to do these days.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#148

Post by gullywhumper »

It seems that so many minor parts of the day don't work as expected and my attention is destroyed by a thousand annoyances. My watch only unlocks my computer 1/3 of the time. My car only recognizes my phone 1/2 of the time. 3/4 of the time I go to press/click on a song I want to hear, the data in the UI updates between the time I start to move to the song and I press/click and I end up hearing something I don't want. Annoying feature that I've disabled n times was re-enabled, and I have to disabled it again. Fighting autocorrect on my phone. I was signed out a service unexpectedly and have to re-authenticate. Programs X, Y, and Z are unresponsive. My VM says my network connection is unstable. My new car beeps because it thinks I'm distracted and then I get more annoyed and distracted.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#149

Post by ed_elliott_asc »

I listened to the dose effect [1] and that has really helped me get my attention back.

I’ve deleted TikTok and now get blocks of focused work done and I haven’t been this effective or happy in years.

I genuinely believe the next generation will be defined by people who can and who cannot focus their attention and get stuff done.

[1] https://open.spotify.com/show/2YCIVADHhUbpTtuCIvV7dG?si=lOiV...

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#150

Post by gehsty »

I’m guess “all you need is attention” is a good reflection of ourselves as well AI.

I’m off anything with an algorithmic feed. My brain can’t handle these. I turn off shorts and YouTube auto play using iOS safari extensions. I block the linked in feed. I read a handful of blogs via rss. The most regular feed I check is HN a few times a day. I’m reading books again for the first time in a decade or so.

It feels good and certainly not worse than before.

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