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Take a short break in a quiet place

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Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#51

Post by unwind »

iradik wrote: post #30

I thought that was awesome. Discovering this on info-fueled hacker news made it more special. I'd make several changes: #1 Fix the F-11 message. Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and display the right message. #2 Get rid of the share on Twitter links at the end. just tacky. #3 Get rid of the countdown. 30s break is cool, but countdown display speeds time up. Make the countdown hidden. If the user presses spac…

All the talk about "press space", when clicking the left mouse button (what I first did, instinctively) did the same thing, also made it feel confusing and not very polished.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#53

Post by user24 »

aMoniker wrote: post #31
akkartik wrote: post #3

It ruined it at the end by asking me to share it on Twitter.

Also by having music and asking for a donation of $1. A donation for what, exactly?

yeah, the music jolted me out of a quiet place. I muted my speakers.

Nevertheless, it's an important message.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#54

Post by VoxelBoy »

I find it confusing that a lot of people found this preachy and patronizing. A lot of things on the internet vie for your attention. You go places on the internet, like Facebook and Google, where you have to endure a lot of ads that tell you what you should buy, what you should like, and how you should live your life. What's so terrible about this one thing that reminds you to relax once in a while instead of giving you yet another point of distraction? This isn't trying to force you into some new way of life. It's just making a friendly suggestion. 'Take it or leave it' applies here as well.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#55

Post by mattraibert »

iradik wrote: post #30

I thought that was awesome. Discovering this on info-fueled hacker news made it more special. I'd make several changes: #1 Fix the F-11 message. Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and display the right message. #2 Get rid of the share on Twitter links at the end. just tacky. #3 Get rid of the countdown. 30s break is cool, but countdown display speeds time up. Make the countdown hidden. If the user presses spac…

It's interesting to see diversity in how people react to a little cursing.

Where do you live? I found the 'cursing' to be totally natural.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#57

Post by Stuk »

iradik wrote: post #30

I thought that was awesome. Discovering this on info-fueled hacker news made it more special. I'd make several changes: #1 Fix the F-11 message. Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and display the right message. #2 Get rid of the share on Twitter links at the end. just tacky. #3 Get rid of the countdown. 30s break is cool, but countdown display speeds time up. Make the countdown hidden. If the user presses spac…

I really liked #4, the juxtaposition of the relaxing site and "vulgar" cursing made me laugh out loud, and feel more relaxed.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#58

Post by cantlin »

irahul wrote: post #48

I have my phone on all the time, regardless of if I am on vacation or not. When I take a vacation and I have spare time, I work - sometimes billable, sometimes not. Vacation for me doesn't equate to switch off the laptop. I spend a lot of time glued to my laptop. When I am not at my laptop, I browse and read mails on my phone. I generally reply to the mails as soon as I get them. I like it this way - this is a worthy…

You're right about the tone here being misjudged, but I don't think the effort is completely indefensible. It can be difficult to make qualitative choices about things that have become omnipresent, a perceived necessity. Adolescents who were born into notification culture in particular may find "don't like it, don't use it" harder than those of us who recall life pre-smartphone. Clearly many of us relish our connectedness, but there is some value to taking a moment to mull over the inherent tradeoffs. Definitely a few wrong notes here, but I liked the intention.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#59

Post by josephg »

irahul wrote: post #48

I have my phone on all the time, regardless of if I am on vacation or not. When I take a vacation and I have spare time, I work - sometimes billable, sometimes not. Vacation for me doesn't equate to switch off the laptop. I spend a lot of time glued to my laptop. When I am not at my laptop, I browse and read mails on my phone. I generally reply to the mails as soon as I get them. I like it this way - this is a worthy…

I'm not going to defend the tone, or facebook bashing, or anything like that. I will say, I enjoyed that site a great deal.

I feel like I'm often on a slippery slope toward easy, short, quick and cheap entertainment. Sometimes I'll go to my computer not for any particular reason, just because I want something to do. I should be going to my computer to accomplish something I want, and if I want to relax I shouldn't do it reading blog posts. From time to time, I need to (yet again) jolt myself off the short attention span path and remind myself that I have agency. Then I'm alright for awhile longer.

I think its this tendency in people which makes sites like facebook so popular. I think this is what caused reddit to drift from an interesting discussion forum to a repository of memes and cat pictures.

I suspect a lot of the facebook bashing you see on hackernews isn't because we hate facebook, but because hate using a site like facebook as a crutch to procrastinate doing anything actually useful.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#60

Post by icebraining »

This would have more effect on me if I had a Twitter account. Or Facebook. Or Google+. Or if my phone "rang" more than a couple times per day, if that. Or if I had notifications for my email.

Seriously, I can't stand those. It's not willpower; it's a physical aversion to being interrupted.

Oh, and to relax I like either to kill the lights and listen to some Jazz, or to watch people on the street. Reading stuff isn't relaxing.

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