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PG: Disconnecting Distraction

paulgraham.com

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Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#101

Post by mechanical_fish »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #6

I like the separate computer concept. Is there a way to make that more practical for people who are developing websites on their primary computer? I'd like to be able to get at the websites I own and the core documentation at least. I feel like you could co-opt some of these child-safe browsing tools to only let you on to the sites that were necessary for work. Maybe this could be the next step for rescuetime--only l…

One wonders how hard it would be to hack up a tool that enforced a time limit on sites that were flagged (by you, in Rescuetime) as time-wasters. You know, after 15 minutes on slashdot.org the hosts file gets rewritten to automatically rickroll all requests to slashdot.

I'm not sure if RescueTime has a public API, but I think it already has the triggers and warnings and feeds that you would need to drive this.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#102

Post by nadim »

jsrn wrote: post #42

Donald Knuth has a dedicated work computer, too - but apparently completely without network capabilities: I currently use Ubuntu Linux, on a standalone laptop—it has no Internet connection. I occasionally carry flash memory drives between this machine and the Macs that I use for network surfing and graphics; taken from an interview with Knuth: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856 (it was posted her…

And Richard Stallman:

For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time. [1]

[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#103

Post by DaniFong »

I used a poor person's variant on the 'internet computer' solution. I didn't have internet at home at all. If I wanted to get on the internet, I had to wander on down to a cafe and use their wireless. This took a while. In particular, it shut down at 12. One could continue to work by plugging in outside and kneeling in the darkness. If you did this, you were certain to have better things to do than procrastinate. I did get an awful lot done.

Sadly, it was only temporary. It was cold out there, I caught the flu, and decided I might like internet at home after all.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#104

Post by ph0rque »

keating wrote: post #67
pg wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. I don't mean to imply one should do nothing but work. The problem with many types of procrastination is that they're not even all that fun. I think the right thing to do is when you work, really work, and when you're just having fun, really have fun.

Sounds like a job for the Fun Police. "Observance of 'Fun Time' will be strictly enforced."

obligatory pbf comic:

http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF193-Fun_Bot.gif

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#105

Post by prakash »

nostrademons wrote: post #86
prakash wrote: post #35

PG and others, instead of using 2 computers, you might want to try what works for me. I used RescueTime for a few months before realizing I was asking the wrong question i.e. ( Where & how long do I spend my online time? ). The correct question , for me, was to spend as much time online as I wanted as long as I have completed the things I wanted . Once you start browsing, while you are supposed to be working, you go…

"The correct question, for me, was to spend as much time online as I wanted as long as I have completed the things I wanted." I've tried this, and it's generally a better approach, but then I run into a new question: what do I want to complete today? There's always more work that I could be doing, and it's sometimes hard to judge what's a fair day's worth of work. For example, I finished one feature yesterday, compar…

"There's always more work that I could be doing, and it's sometimes hard to judge what's a fair day's worth of work."

I agree. But, isn't this an independent question?

For such things an individual's flavor of "The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity" should help. http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid.html

Also, look at this gem posted by edw519, :http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=191275

What do you think?

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#106

Post by mattmaroon »

SwellJoe wrote: post #74
keating wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News is just a half-baked Reddit clone with less functionality catering to a specific demographic, mainly people who want YC to endorse their start-up. Edit: Don't just reflexively downmod this. Point out where I'm wrong.

"mainly people who want YC to endorse their start-up" You're wrong on this count. Many folks here have already had YC "endorse" their startup, and so stand to gain nothing by being the hottest nerd on Hacker News.

Many don't even have a startup.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#108

Post by kashif »

nostrademons wrote: post #27

I've found that it never works long-term. Your habits just adjust to the new situation. Every year ('cept the last couple, when I've been working) I go on vacation for 2-3 weeks to my parents' summer cottage, where there is no Internet access, no cell reception, not even a touch-tone phone. I find that I'm super productive for about the first 3 days, and then I end up playing a lot of Hearts. Without the different en…

I have different method. A two step approach.

1. I dont waste time surfing or doing other distracting things for more than one hour a day.

2. When I dont feel like working, I sleep.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#109

Post by earthboundkid »

nostrademons wrote: post #27

I've found that it never works long-term. Your habits just adjust to the new situation. Every year ('cept the last couple, when I've been working) I go on vacation for 2-3 weeks to my parents' summer cottage, where there is no Internet access, no cell reception, not even a touch-tone phone. I find that I'm super productive for about the first 3 days, and then I end up playing a lot of Hearts. Without the different en…

> The only thing that seems to work for me is to make whatever I'm working on significantly more fun than what I should be doing.

That's very true. Having two or more tasks at hand is always key, so that you can do the least intimidating of the two. The downside to this approach is that sometimes you really do need to do the more intimidating one.

Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction

#110

Post by whacked_new »

webwright wrote: post #96
whacked_new wrote: post #52

Oh come on people... This one was rougher than the rest. Americans watch 4 hours of TV per day? Source? (Ok, there's Google, but that's not the good-old footnoted style.) Next, a bunch of fairly obvious things (TV is a time sink, so are other forms of distractions, and distractions prevent you from doing work!), then a submarine (plug for a personal investment). The "solution" of separating out a work machine isn't p…

"...then a submarine (plug for a personal investment)." What? The way I read it wasn't a plug at all. To my knowledge, I don't think Paul has ever used RescueTime other than to poke around with it. Which is fine-- it's not for everyone. The way I read it was, "yeah there's software-- but my solution was a life-hack". I appreciate the link (mostly for SEO reasons!), but I'm pretty sure that Paul could write an entire…

I'm just really upset today and I had to troll... no, I'm fine, and I wrote that post sincerely. You made a valid point, and perhaps I was reading too deep, but you have to agree that pg being an investor of RT implies partiality and marks an easy target. Hit or miss is a different matter, but I used it as an example of something that didn't do much for the quality of the essay. But don't get me wrong, I have nothing against RT.
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