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Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

theminimalists.com

251–260 of 278 posts

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree that internet addiction is not something without highly negative social connotations. There is a significant number of people who fall into poor social circumstances via too much exposure to internet. There are a lot of internet communities out there that amplify deviant and antisocial behavior in people who spend way too much time on the internet. I agree that it's a different beast than a substan…

> There is a significant number of people who fall into poor social circumstances via too much exposure to internet. I'm not convinced that causality is not inverted there.

Some alcoholics are genetically predisposed to addiction and some are just using it to cope with something traumatic. Some basement dwellers (predisposed) gravitate towards depraved social forums and some well adjusted people are radicalized by political memes on Facebook.

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with the Internet is a tool... statement. The Internet is definitely not just a tool. It's a different type of consciousness; it's not completely mature yet as to approach the organic, human type, but it's definitely much bigger than a tool . Your disconnection from it may help you rediscover your own consciousness and do things the old-fashioned way but it doesn't confer any superiority or higher levels o…

What kind of higher information evaluation abilities are you talking about? The way I understand it is that if you're using the internet, is you're disconnecting from the pipeline, and evaluating information that you already have. Internet is for gathering, maybe filtering information. But the actual evaluation is usually separate from it.

You're looking at a very specific case. My point is more general.

Some people tend to believe that a return to the old ways of no invasion of the zeros and ones of the Internet would make their lives better by some significant margin. They see some less digitalized folk and wish they could have that life because they also believe the lives of these folks are much simpler, more triangular, etc.

Nassim Taleb and a few others have advocated a disconnect from news. This makes sense from a knowledge building POV as some folks actually only know stuff about the world through mainstream media, which I believe is particularly unhealthy and misleading.

Disconnecting from the entire Internet however is a different matter. My point is that such a recoiling into a zero Internet shell doesn't necessarily confer any superior analytical abilities on anybody. It may help your sanity/peace of mind/mental health (depending on what your obsessions are)/etc.

And to your point about actual evaluation being separate from the information processing pipeline, I also disagree. More often than not you still need the various resources available on the Internet to aid in the evaluation of the data/information you have collected.

There's such a thing as a responsible/profitable use of the Internet and the gains are probably much higher than whatever any sound minded individual would gain from a disconnection.

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#255
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author suggests that if you assume that not having an internet connection at home is highly impractical, you should take a moment to really think about whether you're assuming too much. I agree. As for me, I'm a remote worker but I rent a desk in a coworking space, which means I can use their high speed internet for hours every day. That's a lot of time to acquire information and do chores. So the consequence of…

> The author suggests that if you assume that not having an internet connection at home is highly impractical, you should take a moment to really think about whether you're assuming too much. Perhaps it is my young age, but all the people I know are effectively lepers if they're not, atleast, connected to the internet. I was rash in assuming everyone was similar. Now that I think of it, there are older people that wo…

Maybe being a bit of a leper wouldn't be too bad.

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#256
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's something truly unique about alcohol that isn't true of any other addictive substance on the planet. Except nicotine, sugar, caffeine, etc. Honestly I'd say your argument is a much better fit for sugar. I'm saying this as someone who went off it for a few years, and now back on it, trying to quit. Tremendously addictive, and it's EVERYWHERE. Birthday? Cake. Meeting up with friends? Drinks. Easter? Candy. Da…

Definitely. By the way, if you're looking for a way to get a clean break from sugar, following the paleo induction plan "Whole30" has worked well for me. The initial withdrawal symptoms are not fun, but the limited time span and the clarity of the program made it relatively easy to do. Feel free to email if you want to discuss. I'm so glad to be off it again; I feel healthier and my mood is so much more positive and…

Thanks! I'll look into it.

I didn't have any trouble quitting last time, but having a family and more commitments now makes it tougher to completely revamp your habits.

What I find most fascinating is how I can look outside myself and notice how my rational brain time and time again gets disregarded by impulse, while knowing what I know. It's like observing someone else.

I have clear memories and notes over how (as you describe) my mood was better and I felt healthier, yet an immediate impulse with a fleeting effect takes priority, while knowing it will only prolong the problem.

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#258

Some people are alcoholics. They can't exist near an open can of beer without their life going to shambles. But most people aren't and don't have the urge to binge drink. I'm not sure how this is any different. The author of this article is an Internetaholic, therefore I should cut my tether to the Internet? And what of my LTE connection?

Even if I cut off my home internet, I still have my phone. Am I suppose to cut off both?

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#259
post #52

I think I should do something similar to my addiction to HN. I find myself glancing HN feed several times in the day with insatiable need to know the shiny new things. I'm going to try to restrict myself to one time a day visit to HN. Lets see if that can get my lazy ass to finally make more contributions in GitHub and do something more productive.

Check noprocrast in your profile. From the FAQ: In my profile, what is noprocrast? It's a way to help you prevent yourself from spending too much time on HN. If you turn it on you'll only be allowed to visit the site for maxvisit minutes at a time, with gaps of minaway minutes in between. The defaults are 20 and 180, which would let you view the site for 20 minutes at a time, and then not allow you back in for 3 hour…

Ah cool. I updated my profile with noprocrast. Now going to check back again after a while to see if it works ;-)

Thanks for the tip.

Re: Removing Home Internet Is the Most Productive Thing I've Done

#260
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really only true for big companies like Ab-Inbev. You aren't going to see any of that at your mom and pop vineyard or craft microbrewery. You also don't see much of that pathological, exploitive behaviour in 1 person indie game shops either, however.

You aren't going to see any of that at your mom and pop vineyard or craft microbrewery. Half the craft microbreweries are owned by Ab-Inbev and the likes.

Yes, and tons of indie developers are beholden to big publishers like Sony and Microsoft. That doesn't change the fact that there are plenty of properly independent folks.

Also, I am not aware of the craft microbreweries owned by the big companies engaging in the sort of abusive behaviours that the main brands engage in, are you?

Needless to say, it's a complicated picture.

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