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A receipt printer cured my procrastination

laurieherault.com

441–450 of 634 posts

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feedback is a response to an input. Okay, sure, clicking the remote to turn on a TV and selecting a channel is input. So, by a stretch, we can call the four hour binge a kind of feedback generated by two button clicks. Sometimes people get glued by a screen that they did not turn on; is that still feedback? E.g. kids watching a screen in some waiting room at a children's dentist.

I think we can talk about feedback without input, yes. The reality of feedback is actually very broad. If we just look at the world of video games, and consider all the different types that exist, there is a wide variety of feedback, some more or less tied to input. In some cases, like narrative games, the feedback is much less connected to the input than in a fast-paced FPS, for example.

I think that the consumption of streams is not entirely passive; there is an internal feedback. The stream itself is not part of the feedback loop.

E.g. suppose the subject is watching a game show. They get internally involved, within their mind, by trying to guess an answer before the contestant does and then fist pump when they get it. When watching a crime story, they try to guess whodunit. That sort of thing.

There can definitely be a sense of working toward a reward.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#443

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

> I'm sure phones are just as stimulating for some. This is one of my big objections do 2FA. My work has been pushing it hard, and from a security perspective, I get it. However, it’s all via an Authenticator app on the phone. We can no longer set down our phones and simply work. To start working, and periodically throughout the day, we are now forced to pickup our phones to authenticate. This invites the chance to s…

This is one of the thing that smart watches should be doing, or even better, something like https://blog.singleton.io/posts/2022-10-17-otp-on-wrist/.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#444

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

even the Gen Z and Gen Alpha have noticed this effect and came with their own term: Brain Rot.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#445
post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whiteboards have been my main strategy too. And a little while ago I ran across this: https://community.frame.work/t/whiteboard-input-module/58985 and bought the same stickers and pens and it works much better than I expected - the pens write super-durably for dry-erase and light bumping doesn't erase them at all. I have weeks-old reminders on there that are almost new looking. For day to day stuff I just use a more…

The good thing about todos on physical objects like a whiteboard is that the space is limited. Todo software tends to accumulate tasks until there are so many you’re overwhelmed with anxiety just opening the app, and pruning them would be yet another tasks on top of the mountain.

Yep. Forces me to erase some and/or move it to some kind of backlog that I never look at.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you do drugs? If not then you're already 'starving' yourself of the purest form of pleasure (which is a good thing, don't get me wrong). I don't think taking one step further is that sad.

I think this is more akin to literally starving yourself so that a single bit of spinach tastes great. It turns out you can in fact eat a candy bar and have pizza and not become obese or otherwise damage your health. It's not one or the other and OP might need some kind of professional help to mediate their moods... Like this is clearly not healthy.

I wouldn't overthink it, or take it to extremes just to find a strawman. A charitable reading of my comment shows we agree. I talked about indulgences displacing healthier options.

More specifically, when TFA talks about difficulty writing an email vs playing hours of video games, I thought it was worth mentioning that 2 hrs of factorio 3 or 4 nights a week might actually dampen the excitement of work a little by providing a perfectly tailored experience designed to engage the part of your brain that your employer would pay your for.

The analogy isn't about "hunger is the best seasoning" (although isn't that an apt colloquialism !), the analogy is insulin resistance is something like "dopamine resistance" both take consistent large over indulgences or poor decisions (however socially acceptable!) to cause a runaway effect which degrades "health".

Hope that's clearer. It's about establishing healthy habits not starving oneself.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#447

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

>When I "fast" from those "treats", work takes on new enjoy-ability. Dopamine diet is probably the wrong technical term, but it nails the practical effects well. Man no offense but this sounds devastatingly sad. "We must starve ourselves of fun so that the barest excitement at work feels good."

> Man no offense but this sounds devastatingly sad. "We must starve ourselves of fun so that the barest excitement at work feels good."

Interestingly these seemed to be one of the messages of Severance, and Dylan's character even appeared to have ADHD

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#448
> Imagine an FPS where you only meet an enemy every 30 minutes. That wouldn't be engaging. The loop must repeat quickly to keep you interested.

False! Plenty of horror games have basically nothing happen most of the time but are very engaging (perhaps even too much so). Alien games are my go to example.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#449

> Imagine an FPS where you only meet an enemy every 30 minutes. That wouldn't be engaging. The loop must repeat quickly to keep you interested. False! Plenty of horror games have basically nothing happen most of the time but are very engaging (perhaps even too much so). Alien games are my go to example.

Yeah but how many times you repeat horror games compared to multiplayer esports game where you can play it for years????

most horror game fans I know is treat it as a "one time experience"

that's why most horror games have a shorter game time/playthrough

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