My flip phone isn't a source of distraction.
Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
171–180 of 226 posts
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#172I tried a flip phone for a week but got tired of explaining to people why I didn't receive the picture they texted me, and I was carrying my no-SIM smartphone around for the audiobooks anyway. It does feel like taking the proverbial digital leash off, and rather than text replying I was calling everyone back for convenience. I sure have strayed socially. I shall find this middle ground and report back.
I've stuck with the flip phone all along with no regrets. Pictures can be forwarded to your email for later viewing (though at a reduced resolution). There seems to be no way to see emojis, though, as they all appear as little squares (whether you perceive this as a benefit or a drawback).
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're making huge assumptions that a) people who cultivate this skill are late night folks and not morning people; b) people who cultivate this skill are unable to do deep work during the day; c) even ignoring the fallacies in A and B, that these folks' counterparts are blind to their accomplishments and assume they're lazy because they come in late; d) that someone cannot be capable of both completing meaningful de…
I am living proof that it's possible to change from a night owl to an early riser. I used to stay up till midnight or 1am as often as not. By nature? and lifelong habit, for over 40 years I was in the "stay up late, sleep in to compensate" camp. But a couple years ago someone I respect and admire challenged me to reset the pattern. I started setting a daily alarm and jumping into a brief ice-cold shower at 5am. It on…
> I used to stay up till midnight or 1am as often as not.
That's not a night-owl (midnight I mean, 1am might barely be).
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#174Yet no mention of car center console UI.
I find them particularly strange from a design perspective. If anyone here does design on car interfaces, please let me know why this is the direction you're taking, because I'm stumped. Car interfaces seem like something you would want to optimize for being able to be easily controlled without taking neither eyes nor focus off the road. This, to me, means physical interface elements with good built-in feedback (clic…
Touchscreens in cars were seen as luxury so once they became super cheap they threw them in every car with few no-screen options whatsoever. This was cemented in 2018 with a mandate for backup cameras[0] and, when you already have a screen, it makes little sense to only put a screen for the camera unless that's the market segment you're targeting (which, in itself, is small since most people are fine with touchscreens). Unless mandated, profit and sales will trump safety systems every day.
Tesla-esque huge touchscreens are taking off because other infotainment systems have been the absolute worst UX of all mass-market software since forever. Tesla fixed this and is gaining market-share fast, so traditional automakers are trying to prevent more people from switching to Tesla by emulating these selling points (and some recent Mach-E footage shows that the infotainment isn't on the same level, although it is faster than SYNC 3[1]).
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you spend your time marketing your self to others and letting people know your accomplishments, or do you spend the time doing work that will benefit others? I like the luck surface area analogy for this. Take a rectangle. Side A is "Quality of work". Side B is "How many people know about it". The surface area – A*B – is your luck and opportunity. If you do amazing work and nobody knows about it, your luck is ze…
I like this model, but I'd replace side B with "how much you self promote your work". Someone who's side A is 1 and side B is 20 has similar opportunity as someone whose side A is 20 and side B is 1. A talented developer who isn't great at self promotion gets the same luck as someone who doesn't know what they are doing at all but can talk a great talk and enchant the execs. Surely 10x10 is better but you can linearl…
>I'd replace side B with "how much you self promote your work".
I don't agree. The problem with "how much you self promote your work" is that if you're not good at promoting your work then you'll still be at, or near, 0. Whereas "How many people know your work" focuses on the outcome. Nearly everyone is promoting their work, not all of which gets noticed. How will you do it in a way that gets noticed?
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have my phone in do not disturb mode 24/7. The only exceptions are "VIP" contacts from close family...everything else can wait until next morning 8am when I'm checking personal stuff first thing or until around 8pm when I have my evening distraction session. So. If I do get an audible notification, it's almost always urgent, bad news.
> The only exceptions are "VIP" contacts from close family. Curious how you configured this? I'd be interested in this as well.
In Android, you can have starred contacts. Only their calls will get through.
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#177> Cal Newport said it best in his book Deep Work: the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive. The people who cultivate that skill, stay up late at night while everyone is asleep so they don’t get distracted. T…
I agree with this sentiment. Even if you manage to get to bed at an early time, it seems like the modern workplace still doesn’t reward deep focus. It rewards frequent context switching, being constantly available to answer pings in slack, providing updates to managers just “checking in” with you, attending tons of meetings, and being able to juggle numerous things going on at once. I can adapt to all that, but the 1-2 hours of actual work time I could squeeze out of any given day didn’t allow for much deep focus.
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like my Apple Watch, but I use it almost exclusively for fitness (workouts, trail running, etc). I decided early on to remove all the other things -- apps, notifications, etc. I get Messages, but that's about it. I like the balance, and it allows me to keep my phone farther away in a bag than before. Plus with the WorkOutDoors app, I can go on runs, with maps, without my iPhone. Love that.
Why not use a garmin in that case? I only use my fenix when I work out, as I strictly wear mechanical/quartz watches the rest of the time. The UX is definitely not anywhere close to an apple watch, but it is more suited for physical activity and tracking that data.
I do low heart rate training for long distance running. Only iPhone apps with a chest strap or the WorkOutDoors app tell me when I’m above or below my specified heart rate zone.
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#179> Cal Newport said it best in his book Deep Work: the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive. The people who cultivate that skill, stay up late at night while everyone is asleep so they don’t get distracted. T…
>> As a consequence, deep thought workers are seen by their immediate and responsive counterparts as obtuse, eccentric, or worse: lazy and unable to manage their time.
Literally just had this on my year end review. I won't go into the useless stack ranking the company I work for uses, but none of my project work was ever late (it was actually either right on time or early) but because I'm a night owl and do a majority of my work off hours, I'm considered "unavailable" when other regular folks need to get a hold of me because I'm not online at 7am like everyone else. Yet any issues are resolved in a timely manner regardless.
I literally got a lower rating because my manager said there was a "lack of effort" during business hours and that other team members said I was "aloof" and "not present" during long managerial meetings.
I had to spend most of this week refuting what my manager wrote on my review since if I decided to move departments, other managers will look at it since its a typical process managers to do when hiring internal candidates. Pulling in copious amounts of documentation to refute what he was saying cost me a days work, but in the end, I had no other choice.
I'm still bitter about the whole thing.
Re: Phones and apps reduce your ability to focus even when they don’t distract you
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd add that it really matters who know about your work. If a lot of people know you do good work, but they all have very similar skills sets, you get a lot less value than if only a few people with very different skill sets know about you. In that case, you get to become "their guy for X", and that generates a lot of opportunities. In this case, you also get the benefit that both of you can get credit for the same w…
Interesting, any tips on what to look out for identifying these people in the wild when you might not be able to work with them personally in the beginning?
Of the two I know, one is a general manager / executive type that surfs and used to be in a frat.
The other is a sales guy / stoner type, who always seems to have been to every new bar and restaurant and already know the owners by the time I've heard of the place.
These descriptions are just the two I know--but you get the idea. They genuinely value people, so it's not a chore for them to know people, and they never really "network". They just like people.
There's actually quite a lot of people with these kinds of traits. The trick, which is harder, is finding ones you respect and get along with, so you (the relative introvert) will keep up your end of the relationship.
A lot times, I see skilled specialists look down on the more generalists/people-oriented people as being some form of incompetent. Compared to the specialist in their field, they always are. The thing that makes these 2 special to me is that they're humble about their limitations in a way that makes really respect them. They're definitely not blowhards.