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Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#41

Post by nonameiguess »

I had some issues with a sort of generalized need to frequently check updates like this in the past. Maybe a noteworthy world event, maybe just national signing day for some NCAA sport or a pro draft, an argument on some phpBB forum. Breaking it was largely a matter of not having access. I was in the Army a while and often not engaged in work where you can shift attention all that easily or safely. Then when I got out, I was doing mostly classified work from a SCIF where I had no Internet access at my primary workstation. Just having that sort of small effort barrier was enough. I lived without a constant info dump update feed scrawling through my eyeballs for many years and realized it made no difference and I did not need that. It's not that I now watch or read no news ever, but infrequently, mostly on weekends. I still kind of care about sports but not nearly as much. Hacker News is the only site I still visit where I can comment and receive feedback, but I make no effort whatsoever to see if anyone has replied to try and reply back.

If you find you can't do it through sheer willpower alone, there are plenty of ways to more or less simulate an airgap. Various browser extensions can block sites during work hours. If you find yourself turning it off all the time, you can make it harder on yourself by keeping a set of firewall rules at your router or DNS rules at a filtering provider that takes more than a click or two to turn off. If you're using company issued workstations from an office and they don't block the sites you find yourself wasting time on and don't allow you to install extensions or configure your own DNS, those won't work. A less drastic possibility is listening to news via radio as a constant background noise type of thing, or possibly even a television feed. At least that way you can still work while receiving updates. It should be less addictive since it's non-interactive and the feed is not algorithmically curated to be maximally addictive to you personally.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#42

Post by chinathrow »

omgmajk wrote: post #35

It's an addiction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomscrolling

I've heard of the term but never read up its definition, thank you, that's it:

"Doomscrolling, the compulsion to engross oneself in negative news, may be the result of an evolutionary mechanism where humans are “wired to screen for and anticipate danger”.

The anticipation bit made it clear. So now is the question: how to over come it? Looks like I need a full blown news detox.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#43

Post by SapporoChris »

ianai wrote: post #22
drstewart wrote: post #3

I don't glue myself to the news. What's the point? Do you really need minute by minute updates of every operation or event? What actionable difference will it make?

You’ve clearly never worked nor lived somewhere high on the list of places a hostile would want to destroy. When I worked in a very tall building (tallest for thousands of miles) I would keep an eye towards the news “just in case”. Right now any such place is probably on high alert regardless of whether it would seem an obvious target to randos on the internet.

I'm curious of the odds of danger while being in a very tall building on a day to day basis. Additionally, I'm wondering what sort of news alert you're looking for that would be actionable. Do you really expect a news flash that will give you adequate time to take actions.

Balance all this against the time you spend looking at news daily.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#45

Post by [deleted] »

ianai wrote: post #22
drstewart wrote: post #3

I don't glue myself to the news. What's the point? Do you really need minute by minute updates of every operation or event? What actionable difference will it make?

You’ve clearly never worked nor lived somewhere high on the list of places a hostile would want to destroy. When I worked in a very tall building (tallest for thousands of miles) I would keep an eye towards the news “just in case”. Right now any such place is probably on high alert regardless of whether it would seem an obvious target to randos on the internet.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#46

Post by chinathrow »

nonameiguess wrote: post #41

I had some issues with a sort of generalized need to frequently check updates like this in the past. Maybe a noteworthy world event, maybe just national signing day for some NCAA sport or a pro draft, an argument on some phpBB forum. Breaking it was largely a matter of not having access. I was in the Army a while and often not engaged in work where you can shift attention all that easily or safely. Then when I got ou…

> If you find yourself turning it off all the time, you can make it harder on yourself by keeping a set of firewall rules at your router or DNS rules at a filtering provider that takes more than a click or two to turn off.

I tried that wiht my hosts file (/etc/hosts) and failed since it's a password and a comment character to enable the site back on. I do not control the firewall on the WiFi where I have my work setup.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#48

Post by colechristensen »

Why?

Wars go on every day, people suffer every day, it doesn't benefit you or them to obsessively watch.

I'd get it for people who live in or have close connections with the affected area, but knowing every update when you're on the other side of the world? What's the benefit?

Keeping up with the general situation, sure, but up to the minute all day watching... I don't get the point or the motivation besides which is ultimately entertainment, and not good entertainment.

Don't you get bored with news sources? CNN just repeats itself all day.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#49

Post by jacquesm »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #17

I am not in Europe, but American, and this war does affect me, since we are the largest member of NATO, but also the first target of Russian aggression in this weird neo-Soviet era if Russia decides to deploy nukes (a low, but non-zero, chance). I give the news 15 minutes of my time every day. Even when events like this happen, 15 minutes. I, nor you, can meaningfully change the course of events; even if we could, ne…

> also the first target of Russian aggression in this weird neo-Soviet era if Russia decides to deploy nukes

On the contrary, you'll be the last target.

Ukraine is obviously the first, the countries bordering Ukraine in the South, especially Poland are at risk, then the rest of Europe and finally the US.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get work done while there is a war in Europe?

#50

Post by chinathrow »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #37

How did you keep your focus on working for the last several years, while the war has been raging in Yemen? Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Yemen, with a millions displaced and starved to death - many orders of magnitude greater than the death and suffering that has taken place in Ukraine. Unfortunately it is because "new sources" generate your outrage and decide what you are going to focus on. Thi…

> How did you keep your focus on working for the last several years, while the war has been raging in Yemen? Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Yemen, with a millions displaced and starved to death - many orders of magnitude greater than the death and suffering that has taken place in Ukraine.

My question was about recent events - I am not diminishing any other wars ever stated, at all. Disclosure: I am a pacifist.

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