Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I regained concentration and focus

innoq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 429 posts

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#251

Post by koonsolo »

tootie wrote: post #227
Zanneth wrote: post #154

Aaron Swartz wrote a blog post about the news[1] and just how terrible it is for the brain. Reading his post had a major impact on me—since then I have always thought differently about the time I spend online. It’s interesting how people, including myself, try to justify various addictions. How am I supposed to stay informed about important topics without the news? How do I know how to help people in need without kno…

Man, I don't get it. News is bad for you so become deliberately ignorant? Don't get distracted by the world so you can work more? It's like saying traffic lights distract you from driving.

I much rather want to talk to the person who reads books written by experts, than to talk to the person who watches the news every day.

I'm sorry but there just isn't any comparison. Have you ever read news about something you are an expert at? It's just laughable inaccurate.

News is entertainment, not information. If you want information, read a book written by an expert at the field.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#252

Post by aeze »

tootie wrote: post #227
Zanneth wrote: post #154

Aaron Swartz wrote a blog post about the news[1] and just how terrible it is for the brain. Reading his post had a major impact on me—since then I have always thought differently about the time I spend online. It’s interesting how people, including myself, try to justify various addictions. How am I supposed to stay informed about important topics without the news? How do I know how to help people in need without kno…

Man, I don't get it. News is bad for you so become deliberately ignorant? Don't get distracted by the world so you can work more? It's like saying traffic lights distract you from driving.

Reading news that will have little to zero impact on your life takes away time you can spend doing more meaningful activities. It doesn't just have to be 'work'. It can be hobbies, spending time with your kids, whatever you want.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#253

Post by ben_w »

dageshi wrote: post #247
JacobThreeThree wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. People just want their worldview spoon-fed to them. Once they realize that it's not healthy, it's too daunting to actually put in the effort needed to construct their own worldview and apply it to their life, thus the head-in-sand ignorance approach. I'm surprised Aaron Swartz, of all people, had this view.

No, they just realise it's not productive anymore. It's a time sink that pushes misery and drama into your life without any practical way to do anything about it. I don't think the human mind is designed to absorb all the worlds ills and misery, the news amplifies the worst of what's going on in the world and delivers it to you minute by minute, the only rational way of dealing with it is to either cut it out or beco…

I realised a long time ago that even shedding merely a single tear every time an evil deed is done would lead to dying of dehydration in one's sleep.

I mostly try to cut out the news, but the options are not limited to just cutting it out or becoming cynical: an ex went into politics with a genuine desire to make the world right. She is (or was) Green Party (US), so not making much progress, but it is at least a different path.

I definitely agree our minds aren't fit for this world: more people online than heartbeats in our lifetimes, combined with a psychology that treats a list of more than 7-ish items as infinite.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#254

Post by spacemark »

tootie wrote: post #242
landemva wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More time to play in white water river parks and more time well wasted on ski lifts. I sometimes chat with tourists and listen when they tell me what is important to them. 'Deliberately ignorant' is your value judgment. Spend some time in rural eastern Europe, and the perspective changes for the better. Media propaganda is simply unimportant.

I don't understand this at all. Work and family restrict my travel. Reading news on my phone is inherently portable. And I'm not sure what visiting rural Easter Europe is supposed to prove. A lot of it is engulfed in war and I can't imagine those people are better off being completely ignorant of what Russia is doing. Certainly many of them are to everyone else's detriment. Media propaganda is obviously a bad thing,…

Yes, deliberate ignorance pendulum swings too far. Of course "free" information is not very useful because someone else is paying for it, motivated by their interests not yours. So do the adult thing and don't throw up your hands and give up, instead pay just a bit for useful information. That way you know a bit more about who is funding it and why.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#255

Post by marcinreal »

Great article and important message.

> Lifting the phone should not unlock it. This setting is called “Display & Brightness/Activate on Lift” on the iPhone

On my phone it's called "Raise to Wake". I didn't know that you could turn this off, but I just did so because it's inconsistent and sometimes doesn't work. I like predictable behavior, even at a minor cost to convenience.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#256

Post by landemva »

ben_w wrote: post #249
tootie wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this at all. Work and family restrict my travel. Reading news on my phone is inherently portable. And I'm not sure what visiting rural Easter Europe is supposed to prove. A lot of it is engulfed in war and I can't imagine those people are better off being completely ignorant of what Russia is doing. Certainly many of them are to everyone else's detriment. Media propaganda is obviously a bad thing,…

Are you going to do anything about the war in eastern Europe? If the news causes no change in your actions, you might as well have put a small pebble in front of the phone and had it, instead of your eyes, absorb the photons emitted by the screen.

You suggest I do what? I could talk to people about two decades of NATO encroachment on (shall not be spoken) R. Or discuss with people how in the weeks prior to conflict, VP Harris was in Munich and said Ukraine should join NATO. Or discuss how comedian and Vogue model Zelinsky said Ukraine should re-acquire nuclear weapons. While true, none of those fit the rythmn of the mainstream narrative.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#257

Post by pphysch »

It should frankly be criminal to predate on user's attention to the extent that most popular apps do.

I keep my phone on DnD 100% of the time and ruthlessly disable notifications, but have a semi-smart watch that vibrates for texts/calls. I'm still addicted to checking my news feeds but at least they aren't literally yanking my attention.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#258

Post by marcinreal »

atmosx wrote: post #230
leobg wrote: post #204

Isn’t it funny how much attention these anti-procrastination posts are getting on essentially a procrastination site? (Tongue in cheek! I love HN. I just know that I sometimes do abuse it as a procrastination device.)

It’s also funny how all these posts are so “western” in style: ‘Hey look at me, I did something a bit difficult for 3 days, now I am a guru!’ Not trying to knock the author but the time window is simply too small and this approach is simply too common online. Let’s see if the author can actually change lifestyle for more than 5 years and then we can discuss about “lessons learned”.

This is a bit harsh; the article does contain a lot of useful advice. I myself implemented many of these tips about two years ago, and am still going strong. I do fall off the wagon here and there and get sucked into my phone, especially when I'm avoiding something in real life, but I really value having minimal notifications. I also love focus modes (though I've only known about them for about a year I think) -- great for working, sleeping, and overall mental health. But I would stress this important point: if you have trouble implementing these steps, there may be a bigger issue in your life that you're avoiding.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#259

Post by brudgers »

kortex wrote: post #174

"Trivial inconveniences" are a big hurdle when trying to build a habit, but are a great tool for breaking bad ones. Anything you can do to break the dopamine loop helps, however small it may be. I've had success with: - setting long passwords to social media that aren't autofilled (saved in bitwarden) and logging out after each session - nerfing addicting parts of webapps (plugins which block the facebook news feed b…

I find trivial inconvenience essential for establishing positive habits.

They make me focus on my intent to establish a habit.

Habit establishing requires perseverance in the face of a bit of bother.

The big hurdles are the big hurdles. Small frictions get smoothed by repetition…or by simply becoming ordinary parts of the process.

Willingness to do things that suck is the nature of positive habits.

To a first approximation if it doesn’t feel a bit unpleasant at first, it probably isn’t a positive habit.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#260

Post by ninkendo »

atmosx wrote: post #230
leobg wrote: post #204

Isn’t it funny how much attention these anti-procrastination posts are getting on essentially a procrastination site? (Tongue in cheek! I love HN. I just know that I sometimes do abuse it as a procrastination device.)

It’s also funny how all these posts are so “western” in style: ‘Hey look at me, I did something a bit difficult for 3 days, now I am a guru!’ Not trying to knock the author but the time window is simply too small and this approach is simply too common online. Let’s see if the author can actually change lifestyle for more than 5 years and then we can discuss about “lessons learned”.

What does that have to do with being “western”?
Post reply on HN