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Disconnect. Offline only

chris.bolin.co

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Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#131

Post by Unbeliever69 »

mattmanser wrote: post #56
bostand wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all black and white I'm reading your comment on my smartphone, while in a bathroom, while on a conference trip.

Instead of thinking about what was said at the conference, who were the best speakers, which people you should talk to more, or one of the million other, possibly much more beneficial, things that would pop into your head if you didn't occupy yourself with this thread. I'm as guilty as everyone else here, admittedly. What's making me think seriously about something like this is that while I was on holiday recently an…

A number of years ago I did a year without the Internet (except at work, but only for work purposes). You would be amazed how much I got done without the distraction. To be more specific, I designed over 12 table top games, wrote numerous stories, and learned a ton by reading good old fashioned books.

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#132

Post by thinbeige »

beat wrote: post #127
thinbeige wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another person mentions, the book delivers a great nessage/idea, question is if a book is needed for sometthing which could have been summarized in a post. But 99% of self-help books belong to this category. Besides, I am wondering if HN is a good and free lead generation channel for self-help books since I see many people pointing to the right book in the right thread and context. This could be easily scaled.

That would require it to be controlled, really. People recommend certain books because they're good. Word of mouth advertising. You can't just take word of mouth and automate it and productize it somehow. That kills its nature.

This is what I subtly questioned: How do you want to know if it's real word of mouth or growth hacking?

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#133

Post by manigandham »

gambiting wrote: post #129
tzakrajs wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting? Like ten years ago they started and now it's in nearly every plane.

I fly probably a 15-20 times a year and I've never been on a flight with wifi. I'm super curious what it's like though.

90% of the time it's like really bad coffee shop wifi unless you get a nice airline with ViaSat connections installed, then it's actually pretty good.

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#134

Post by noxToken »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #12
danmeade wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess more work could be done around limiting features on a device when outside of a set period. For instance, Data services could be restricted outside of a person's normal working hours. Or if not just data, limiting all features that aren't core to a phone, taking it back to simple calls and text messaging.

I've got an older Nexus, and it noticeably strains whenever there's some sort of network event going on - signing onto wifi, coming within range of known wifi, re-gaining a network connection - I suspect it's all the apps trying to desperately play catch-up ("MUST UPDATE MAPS!") I wish I had a way to toggle selective-airplane-mode. That is, only the current app gets to know that I'm connected - Slack, Twitter, Google…

Check to see if your phone has a power saving mode that limits the background activity of apps. If you're only concerned with how the foreground app is functioning, then this would probably work perfectly for you.

Also within the settings, you can select what to do with apps that are pushed to the background. It'll be under the developer settings.

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#135

Post by graphitezepp »

ceefan wrote: post #31
grecy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next step: "dumb" phone. Next step: no phone.

I would trade my smartphone in an instant for a dumb phone with a great camera, 3.5mm audio port, and LTE/WiFi for tethering. The closest thing out there right now is the LG Exalt LTE.

GPS is the killer app for me. I'm young enough to have never had to get around without it, would be a heck of a transition.

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#137

Post by setzer22 »

maccard wrote: post #105
tzakrajs wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting? Like ten years ago they started and now it's in nearly every plane.

I'm in Europe, and fly 4-5-6 times a year. It's only in the last 5 years that you're allowed have electronic devices turned on in planes here.

Out of curiosity, why were electronic devices banned in planes on the first place? Is there any scientifical evidence either for or against it?

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#138

Post by coderholic »

setzer22 wrote: post #137
maccard wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Europe, and fly 4-5-6 times a year. It's only in the last 5 years that you're allowed have electronic devices turned on in planes here.

Out of curiosity, why were electronic devices banned in planes on the first place? Is there any scientifical evidence either for or against it?

Great article here: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130604-why-we-turn-devices...

Also good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#139

Post by arkano »

norswap wrote: post #63
beat wrote: post #41

For those interested in managing online time and getting ourselves offline regularly, the book Deep Work , by Cal Newport, has some very useful ideas. One that I plan to start experimenting with is the idea of scheduled internet access - allow yourself to get online only at certain times of day. This isn't just for work. Even if you're, say, standing in line at the grocery store, you don't get to pull your phone out…

While I'm fond of "deep work the idea", the book was a real disappointment. It's mostly selling the idea instead of explaining how to do something with it. I followed the author's blog for a while, and I'd say a few key blog posts are enough to get the point accross. Even there it gets repetitive quickly. The idea is good, it just doesn't require so much elaboration.

> While I'm fond of "deep work the idea", the book was a real disappointment. It's mostly selling the idea instead of explaining how to do something with it.

Sadly, most self-help book are like this. :-(

Re: Disconnect. Offline only

#140

Post by khedoros1 »

Karunamon wrote: post #43
alanfranzoni wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the smartphone is a great thing to take with you when something unpredictable happened and you're forced to wait 1/2/10 hourse, and you didn't take anything with you (a book, your computer, etc). But how often does this happen, and how often, instead, does a smartphone distract from better tasks? How often I choose not to pick a book when leaving, because I've got the smartphone "just in case" ? Of course I hav…

Serious, non-snarky question: In what way is a book better than a link on Hacker News or Facebook? The problem I see (and have yet to get a good answer for) with all of these extreme productivity tactics like shutting off all internet access is that carry a value judgment that older > newer, for all values of information absorption. It reminds me of how some of the financial advice for people in debt is to eschew all…

> In what way is a book better than a link on Hacker News or Facebook?

Most individual links on HN and FB don't have a few hundred pages long of organized material delving into a topic, and most collections of links won't have the same cohesive nature that a good book does. Some do, but it's atypical. If you put any belief into the idea that other senses contribute to learning, then a book covers more senses than an electronic reference does. And it's easier to go sit in a corner with, without worrying about how much you're draining the battery in some device, or being distracted by other things on the internet. Books don't receive push notifications, and that's a wonderful thing!

> I see a poster upthread mentioning we've "forgotten how to be bored".

> I don't know about people here, but I saw boredom as an awful state of mind even before the proliferation of smartphones.

I see it as a statement that we've forgotten how to drift a bit, contemplate, and allow ourselves to be alone with our thoughts; most people grab for a quick bit of entertainment or information when they've got a few otherwise unoccupied seconds.

> It reminds me of how some of the financial advice for people in debt is to eschew all forms of credit and live on cash only.

Look at it from the perspective of an addict. Sometimes being forced to rent is a smaller negative than crippling piles of credit card debt. And sometimes inaccessibility of your accustomed distractions is a smaller negative than being able to focus on something important for as long as it takes to get it done.

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