141–149 of 149 posts
Sometimes you find real gems, either in the articles or the discussions (on HN often the latter as much or more than the former), and sometimes just noise. But you never know which will turn up on the front page and when, so you keep checking back over and over.
Most people like edw519 have talked about practical solutions to it, but have you ever considered why you do it? Maybe you just need excitement and intellectual company? Maybe you just want to have someone in your life that inspires you to do something? Maybe you just need to find the right people? The point is that physical hacks for behavioral problems are ineffective until emotional hacks are taken into account. J…
So you got more or better or smarter friends or work partners in your life, which stopped your HN addiction? Or by "someone in your life that inspires" do you mean a sexual or romantic partner? Specifics please.
For details sake I found better friends.
I've never been at the stage where I don't do _anything_, but I'm often frustrated that I don't do _enough_. I went through a stage of spending way too much time on Reddit - on the order of 4-5 hours a day. This has been discussed often, but it can be crippling - as soon as you hit the tiniest mental roadblock, you switch your browser to Reddit, next thing you know it's 20 minutes later and not only is your roadblock…
very good chrome equivalent: StayFocusd https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmip...
In short: I highly recommend StayFocusd for Chrome users.
Simple hack: 2 computers, one for work and one for the internet. Different workstations, preferably in different rooms. It's a lot harder to get up off your ass than to hit alt-tab. Harness that laziness to your advantage.
Cheaper hack if you can't afford two computers. Two seats. I don't work when sitting in my bedroom, but when I sit at my living room table I only work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use the /etc/hosts block, but defeat myself if I edit it... would you be willing to share the cron job? Much oblidged!
If I understood correctly it should be as simple as having an extra file setup to replace your hosts file say /etc/hosts.override and put all your blocked hosts there along with your regular hosts file. Then you just add a 30 minute cron job to do cp /etc/hosts.override /etc/hosts
I've never been at the stage where I don't do _anything_, but I'm often frustrated that I don't do _enough_. I went through a stage of spending way too much time on Reddit - on the order of 4-5 hours a day. This has been discussed often, but it can be crippling - as soon as you hit the tiniest mental roadblock, you switch your browser to Reddit, next thing you know it's 20 minutes later and not only is your roadblock…
But what if I miss out on an insightful "How to get on TechCrunch" article or fail to provide my $0.02 advice for a "Ask HN" post?
Ha ha. Though I've shamefully spent all-nighters "working" on that problem, even while knowing the futility of it all. The upside is that in the process I often end up updating, refining, and researching my own opinions on important topics. The downside is that the sometimes egregious lack of sleep probably shortens my life.
Here's what sucked up a chunk of my should-be-sleeping time recently: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M...
(found via HN, I think?)
I've never been at the stage where I don't do _anything_, but I'm often frustrated that I don't do _enough_. I went through a stage of spending way too much time on Reddit - on the order of 4-5 hours a day. This has been discussed often, but it can be crippling - as soon as you hit the tiniest mental roadblock, you switch your browser to Reddit, next thing you know it's 20 minutes later and not only is your roadblock…
One thing that has worked well for me is the Postrank addon for Chrome for Hacker news: http://bit.ly/aKLjCT
It means rather than spending hours on Hacker news I can quickly glance to see if there is anything interesting to read and add it to Instapaper. Then read it later on Instapaper app on my phone when I have downtime on the train for example. Kind of best of both worlds, get my fix of interesting info on HN and don't lose too much productivity at work.