Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a solid step up from WoW.
My ex-wife left me for her WoW guild leader. It's a rather addictive game, but I wouldn't exactly categorize it as social, because the 'social' atmosphere evaporates as soon as you quit the game. Social as long as you keep playing, perhaps, like drug addicts' societies, or IRC. As for avoiding distractions, I agree with Paul that the Internet is like crack, it's really bad. Like Paul, I never watched TV. (As an aside…
PG: Disconnecting Distraction
171–180 of 208 posts
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#172Since I work on one laptop and can't turn wifi off (IM w/ distributed workmates), PG's trick doesn't apply to me.
However I find simply separating work/fun applications has helped me work more efficiently and reduce distractions.
For examples: I switched to NetNewsWire from Google Reader. And I use Safari only for work and Firefox for general browsing. Trick is to keep the non-work applications turned off while working.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#173As a computer consultant I find time and time again that many people are wasting increasingly a lot of their spare time and even working hours browsing the Internet. Many times they start with a good reason, but after a little while they wander and end going to sites they never intended to go to in the first place.
For teens it is increasingly more difficult to stay away from networking sites like myspace.com, there they share more personal information than they ought to and do whatever it takes to have as many 'friends' as possible.
One problem with an ever increasing reliance on computers is that we are more and more getting away from physical actual contact with other human beings.
Kids are potentially vulnerable to predators and all kind of garbage found on the Internet like porno, violence, drugs, and much more.
I couldn't resist adding my pitch of salt to your essay, it is like much of what you write straight forward and to the point.
Would be nice if you were to write a new essay on how kids and teens could be better protected, and why they have to. A problem I frequently see is that there are many homes where the kids and teens are computer savvy, but the parents know next to nothing about computers. Just picture a teen or little kid as the computer admin with unrestricted access to the system and the Internet.
Some possible solutions, apart from trowing the computer out the window, should include besides parents training, better operating systems, that make from simple to easy to secure and filter Internet access, opendns to block unwanted content, and even this could be controversial more Government oversight, to really get rid of plagues like spy ware, virus proliferation, phishing, and many other Internet ills.
That's all, take care.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#174I'm going to say something unpopular now, so be warned. Is wasting time on..TV, MMORPGs, the Internet, senseless magazines etc. really that much of a problem for us as individuals? Procrastinating obviously robs time from "useful" activities like working, but how much use are these activities, really? Work applied correctly certainly brings humanity as a whole to new and better pastures, but I'm wondering whether thi…
The problem is that for most of us those four hours you feel ok about spending doing nothing are the only hours of the day that can be used for appreciably changing your life. For most employees those four hours are all their non-work hours that are truly discretionary and awake. If they don't use those productively they will be employees all their life until they retire. By then they will probably have forgotten what they really wanted to do in life and perhaps be too tired, run down, and or poor to do anything about it if they do remember or discover it.
If you are doing what you really want to do in your "work life" then I could see it. But if you are really doing what you want to do I sort of doubt that their are 4 hours a day that you could do something with that you would blow doing something other than "what you really want to do". We are not talking hobbies, keeping up with literature, exploring interesting things here so much as like sitting in front of the Tube or the equivalent, vegging.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#175Something that I have noticed really distracts me is computer eye candy. I am sort of glad that Linux laptops just aren't as visually WOW as OS X and Windows, especially OS X. I find that when I boot into Linux I get a lot more work done. The environment is just less distracting to me. For some reason a Linux desktop clicks me into work mode much more readily. I guess it could be conditioning but I really thing it is in large part that the screen isn't quite so pretty.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#176Can't you just print "What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?" on a big piece of paper and hang that somewhere near the time sinks? Shame yourself into doing something more interesting than watching TV or surfing the web.
Having something break and then not replace it, is good as well. My TV broke early last month and I simply haven't bought a new one yet. I had to laugh at myself a few times when I stumbled over to the TV (dinner, after dinner, after riding my bike, Sunday afternoon etc.)
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#177This is a reason why having a boss at work helps. If you know your web browsing may be examined you save (nearly) all the distracting reading for home and you get something like your 7 hours of work done but you can still search the web for unit test guidance or whatever.
I've never had a television and reddit is blocked in my home squid proxy (which I can bypass) as a reminder not to be there too much.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#178All work and no play makes Paul a dull boy.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#179You are living in the past. Just be aware of your choices as you make them. Thats all. Heard of Zen yet?
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#180Paul, I you have convinced this 82 year-old to stop procrastinating. I will now begin taking care of the pile of paper on my desk. Thanks, Bob