It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that has a tendency to destroy ones ability to concentrate. It's super nice to be able to wake up without your phone near you and still be able to read long form content.
I just launched it out of beta but any feedback would be great.
Edit: HN is currently hugging the database to death. The site is still working fine but I apologize for any slowness. I will upgrade the database tonight.
I'd actually appreciate anyone's opinion or advice on this...
I grew up on computers and the internet (absent, technophile parents made that very easy) and by the age of 13 or 14 my computer really just felt like an extension of myself. When I was in undergrad, I realized that the only way I'd ever actually properly study is if I had someone on my dorm floor take my computer from me and refuse to give it back for some designated period of time.
After undergrad, I "relapsed" a bit in the sense that I would be on my laptop for 14+ hours a day every day, constantly context switching and never really getting any good work done. I'd still accomplish my work but would never really get to the things I wanted to get done, like practicing piano or reading a book.
I started a new job in October and was able to start 'fixing' myself a bit by leaving all my electronics at the office after work, and by December I could actually feel a tangible difference in how I was thinking and making decisions. Unfortunately, after COVID hit, the office closed, and now I've had the least amount of separation between my physical life and digital life, between work and leisure (as I'm sure is the same for all of you).
Do any of you have any systems that work for you in terms of a path towards self-control? I have very little self-control and a very addictive personality and I really don't like the way I spend my time at the moment. At this point I'm even considering finding Adderall or something similar as I don't feel capable of accomplishing this on my own.
We use digital devices for distraction from our anxieties when what we need is calm. I recommend something compelling, work-related, and thoroughly analog: get a really nice engineering notebook and give yourself permission to write all over it. Close the lid of the laptop when you do this, and put the phone aside. Write one paragraph that describes the problem you're working on, or draw a diagram. Allot ten minutes to this. You can afford to go dark for ten minutes. No one will notice. Pay close attention to the physical act of creation. This focus on a single thing is a gift you give yourself; turn to it selfishly. It feels like you're slacking off, to ignore the screens and do just one thing, to doodle in a notebook instead of being available on chat. Indulge yourself in this and banish the feelings of guilt that come from tuning out all of the people who need your attention. All of them can wait ten minutes.
I find this practice is easier to engage in than meditation, but it brings some of the same benefits. It quiets the squirrel-in-a-wheel spinning of your thoughts and takes the edge off the need to engage with whatever is distracting you. It's important to do this during work hours, especially at first, because taking time out from what you see as your free time is a lot harder.
I noticed that mindless browsing is a form of procrastination. The small trickle of dopamine from mindless browsing prevents me from starting more rewarding activities.
I learned two things: don't use your computer without a purpose, and turn it off when your task is done.
Computers make you fine with being bored. I found that just shutting the computer off and doing nothing for a few minutes is enough to spur me into action. The first step is to catch yourself browsing mindlessly, and stepping away from the computer.
Sometimes, I'll get busy with other things and spend days away from the computer. I'm always surprised by how few messages and notifications I missed.
I want to throw my phone away and switch to a "dumb" phone so I can rid my addiction to it, but I have become dependent on several core apps such as Google Maps. I wish Android would allow me full control to delete every app on there but the ones I most need. But unfortunately, its restrictions prevent me from doing so. For example, I want to delete all web browser apps so I am not tempted to the addiction of the internet, but Android won't let me. Does anyone here know how I can bypass this? I am close to purchasing the Light Phone 2 as a means to address my addiction, but again, it is missing Google Maps which I am heavily dependent on.
1. set up parental-control restrictions that lock you out of these apps;
2. hand your phone to someone you trust, and tell them to set the unlock password for the parental-control restrictions (so that only they will know it);
3. ask that said person also does you the service of typing the password to disable the restrictions when requested—but only with 24 hours' notice. (I.e. you ask, and then 24 hours later they'll do it.)
That way, you'll never be tempted to unlock the restrictions for trivial things; but you can still e.g. reset the phone if you want to sell it. (You just need to wait 24 hours first.)
There are dedicated GPS devices (by TomTom, Garmin, etc) which are much cheaper than smart phones. In the past they provided a far better experience too, I'm not sure how they compare to Google Maps nowadays though.
Try using the LessPhone[0] launcher. I have used it off and on and had some success with it. It locks you down to a slim set of apps (configurable), in a plain black and white interface. It's not perfect, but it's helpful.
I haven't seen anybody else mention it, but there is a method you can use. I've used it on my (unrooted) BlackBerry KeyOne to remove all Google apps, including Chrome and the Play Store.
The Android Debug Bridge allows disabling packages and APKs. There's a walkthrough on XDA Developers [1] that (I assume) is more than enough for any HN reader. If not, shoot me a message and we can walk through it together :)
I have the exact same desire. I want to delete my web browsers and just keep google maps. My solution to this is to download a parental control app (I use AppLock), and block the web browser and google play.
I can advice you the Nokia Tough 800, I got it for exact the same reason. it’s a decent device that runs kaiOS, has maps, whatsapp and browser. The browser is so slow that it doesnt really become a time sink, (The bulk of websites are clearly not made for this screen size) so, I just check what i need to and that’s it. Maps works really nicely on it.
You could block internet access for your browser. There are a lot of apps that let you do that (and in some cases I think you can also manage internet access in your settings).
It seems that the american/OP mindset is all about throwing dollars to the problems. No, you don't need to buy another phone so you reduce phone usage.
Another way to look at it is: stop context switching (all the time).
Personally a lot of context swithing is giving me stress and is draining my energy. It also makes me less productive. So I believe the article is spot on.
My problem is way too much context switching, definitely. I have done at least 20 different things since I opened the tab to read the article. Still only 1/3 of the way through the article though.
In broader strokes: Verify your assumptions, especially about yourself.
Self-discovery was an important part of becoming an independent young adult. What am I good at, what am I bad at, what do I want/need to be good at? But your brain will continue to change through your life, for better and for worse. Just because you were good at multitasking at 24 doesn't mean you still are at 34. And coping mechanisms you used to deal with other limitations might not be helping you anymore.
I've heard a lot of adults say that they still see themselves as 30, and so it's a shock when someone calls them sir, defers to their experience in a tough situation, or when they see how much grey is looking at them in the mirror. If our sense of self gets set in stone, we start to miss things.
You can disable every notification on your phone, mute all non urgent email, change the way you read news, block social media for a day or delete it permanently... all the small things help.
But the worst interrupters are the hardest to tame. If anyone has a Slack containment strategy, I’m all ears.
Here's the problem I see with unplugging to work; maybe it's an actual problem, maybe I'm just fooling myself.
I work on software. I want the finished product, to build something useful for myself or others. I don't necessarily want the "journey". When I work, my concern, or fear, is that I'm going to work on some library or method, multiple days, then find that someone else did it better in a library I can just import. As I work I also look for these libraries, and look at questions on StackOverflow. I don't consider that time wasted. Between that, and docs that are all online nowadays, I don't see how I can work while disconnected.
Keep in mind that this is not mainly a technological problem, it's a problem caused by technology; which means that technological solutions will only go so far.
I've spent several months in similar or more extreme forms [0] of isolation, and I'd recommend anyone to consider trying it out just to get a taste of what's possible.
These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of it's effects to be negative.
The text starts with "there are a thousand beautiful ways to start the day that don’t begin with looking at a phone. And yet so few of us choose to do so.".
Is it really so? I'm only a single datapoint, but checking my phone is the last thing I do in the morning. Getting children up, coffee, shower, planning some today's work in my head - if the phone isn't ringing then I may well not fiddle with it until later in the morning or even the day.
Unfortunately my phone is literally the first thing I do when I wake up, and last thing at night. Is sometimes an hour on the phone before actually getting out of bed. I had to quit Reddit years ago because of the addiction. Don't really use Facebook. But Twitter currently has its hooks in me. It is a news source to me, about the pandemic, election, protests. But it manages to suck me in to reading extra comments and stuffs. I have been realizing it more lately, and don't want to give it up because I do think it helps me stay informed, but I need to find a way to change my usage habits because its not good.
Yesterday I spent 9h 31m on my phone (according to the built-in screen time tracker on my iPhone). It doesn't make me happy, but I can't stop scrolling. I think I have an issue.
Well, you have external constraints that prevent you from doing so. The suggestion is that, without such external constraints, it's fairly likely that you would be waking up with looking at your phone. But even if you didn't, it wouldn't be particularly relevant. Looking broadly across everybody I know, and that I know of, the use of electronic screens is ubiquitous throughout their lives.
Your statement basically amounts to "Well, I don't look at my phone in the morning, so clearly most other people also don't look at their phone in the morning". Which is obviously false (at least in the sense that one doesn't follow from the other).
I installed a small switch from Home Depot in line with the power to my router so I can turn it off at any point and it takes a few minutes to power back on (which is good that it takes a bit). No signal in the house at night. Easy way to control access for all parties in the house. I like his idea of no internet till after lunch.
Meatspace hobbies help a lot with this. If you're knitting or gardening or painting or planing a piece of hardwood it's a heck of a lot easier to keep going than to switch back to your Skinner Box devices.
I get properly irritated when I'm doing yardwork and my phone blows up, because I have to stop what I'm doing, pull off the gloves, check for how much dirt got through/into the gloves, then pull out the device and deal with the glare to see that... nobody is dying, they just wanted to show me something funny. God. Damnit.
The book Walden by Henry David Thoreau would be a nice read for anyone interested in additional experiences from this article. I wanted to start gardening at a local club, but due to the situation it has been hard to do so. I encourage anyone who might not want to travel to participate in community organizations that involve gardening or related activities. Or alternatively, taking long walks also helps! Thank you for sharing!
At age eight I was persuaded into taking a job as a newspaper carrier, which I kept until I was 16. I regularly wonder how much those few hours, six days per week, to let my mind wander during those formative years, gave me, me.
I'm constantly amazed how often I step outside to smoke and a problem I've been grappling with is immediately answered without even much thought, the answer arrives. Perhaps many of us don't realise how much attention is stolen from looking at the screen.
I've found that the most effective way of regaining focus, is to find something real to do or think about, and write them down as a list. When a time of idleness comes, check the list and occupy the mind with it.
My phone easily distracted me when I'm idling in the middle of some task, for example, waiting for a compilation to finish. But when I'm practicing music, despite my phone being always on as the metronome, I don't get tempted at all. There's no need to fight an urge of browsing the internet.
I have found that the addiction to internet is not really that strong; it cannot compete with what I really want to do. So, as long as I don't let the idleness creep in, I can keep my modern smartphone with me.
What stuck out for me was the bit about farmers in Myanmar playing Clash of Clans. This is something I noticed when I was in South Korea for work a few years ago, everyone was constantly playing CoC and similar games. Of course these are very different countries, but I wonder if there's a cultural factor at play that makes these games popular in East Asia? I live in a developing country but I never see people playing games on public transportation, usually people browse Facebook or Instagram or whatever.
As for the rest of the article, `echo "0.0.0.0 twitter.com" >> /etc/hosts` works for me.
Families I know in India 10-ish years ago used to be against the whole technology wave and were concerned with the effects of electronics. Now that they have gotten their hands on smartphones and other devices: oh man they will put the American stereotype of being obsessed with the screen to shame. 24/7 Whatsapp, Instagram, and mobile games. They will come to the same realization as we are though. Just a matter of time.
> I walked Brooklyn. At best, everyone was funereal. At worst, in tears, inconsolable. It’s impossible to overstate just how dour the world felt at that moment.
> The entire city — country? world? — had been infected by a terminal disease, the prime vector of which was memes.
> Simone Weil writes, “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love.” Then is the lack of attention the opposite? Does it presuppose fear and hate?
- - -
I think there’s really something to this. I have to admit there have been a number of times I’ve been caught up in something “tragic” on the internet, generally some political battle, and felt like the world was falling apart. But then if I step away from the computer and go for a walk in the nearby park, I see hundreds of people just relaxing and enjoying life, not caught up in the daily trivia. I often bring my kids along and watch them just run and play, carefree.
And I sometimes wonder: if we just turned it all off, shut down the internet, radio, and TV... would we be happier?
I’ve lived through a few long power outages as well, (1 day or longer), and on those days, rather than things feeling dire, things felt light and playful. The neighbors all came out and chatted, the kids all played up and down the street. It was nice.
I realize that our world would not function very well without the mass communication systems that link us together. But I also wonder if something like a scheduled, controlled, power outage every Saturday would be really good for us all.
>Returning to those (mythical?) halcyon minimalist information days: You could read all of the news in a single day. Grab the two or three papers and read. The information had edges; it could be understood by a single human over one cup of first-wave coffee. Were you insatiable, the library was available to dig deep on the topics of the day.
I wrote this comment in 2018, I think it's relevant here:
>I think we've tipped over to the other side of the "convenience/humanity" pyramid. We climbed to the top some years ago where the lack of excess convenience gave us the opportunity to make things our selves and interact with other people face to face (which I think are very important human qualities) while being comfortable. Now we are sliding down the convenience side of the pyramid, unable to grasp what is important and fundamental. We are literally snowballing (e.g. obesity epidemic).
Choosing "dumber" technology has drastically helped my ability to stay focused when reading longform articles (including this one!) while retaining more useful information. I wrote an iOS Shortcut that converts a web page to PDF and sends it to my reMarkable tablet. It works very well.
[+] [-] omreaderhn|5 years ago|reply
It allows you to read blogs (RSS feeds) and email newsletters on your Kindle. I originally started working on this to help me read financial news without needing my phone which I find to be a really distracting environment. I would find myself mindlessly opening up and scrolling through reddit or HN and in my experience, repeatedly doing that has a tendency to destroy ones ability to concentrate. It's super nice to be able to wake up without your phone near you and still be able to read long form content.
I just launched it out of beta but any feedback would be great.
Edit: HN is currently hugging the database to death. The site is still working fine but I apologize for any slowness. I will upgrade the database tonight.
[+] [-] muonic|5 years ago|reply
I grew up on computers and the internet (absent, technophile parents made that very easy) and by the age of 13 or 14 my computer really just felt like an extension of myself. When I was in undergrad, I realized that the only way I'd ever actually properly study is if I had someone on my dorm floor take my computer from me and refuse to give it back for some designated period of time.
After undergrad, I "relapsed" a bit in the sense that I would be on my laptop for 14+ hours a day every day, constantly context switching and never really getting any good work done. I'd still accomplish my work but would never really get to the things I wanted to get done, like practicing piano or reading a book.
I started a new job in October and was able to start 'fixing' myself a bit by leaving all my electronics at the office after work, and by December I could actually feel a tangible difference in how I was thinking and making decisions. Unfortunately, after COVID hit, the office closed, and now I've had the least amount of separation between my physical life and digital life, between work and leisure (as I'm sure is the same for all of you).
Do any of you have any systems that work for you in terms of a path towards self-control? I have very little self-control and a very addictive personality and I really don't like the way I spend my time at the moment. At this point I'm even considering finding Adderall or something similar as I don't feel capable of accomplishing this on my own.
[+] [-] sevensor|5 years ago|reply
I find this practice is easier to engage in than meditation, but it brings some of the same benefits. It quiets the squirrel-in-a-wheel spinning of your thoughts and takes the edge off the need to engage with whatever is distracting you. It's important to do this during work hours, especially at first, because taking time out from what you see as your free time is a lot harder.
[+] [-] nicbou|5 years ago|reply
I noticed that mindless browsing is a form of procrastination. The small trickle of dopamine from mindless browsing prevents me from starting more rewarding activities.
I learned two things: don't use your computer without a purpose, and turn it off when your task is done.
Computers make you fine with being bored. I found that just shutting the computer off and doing nothing for a few minutes is enough to spur me into action. The first step is to catch yourself browsing mindlessly, and stepping away from the computer.
Sometimes, I'll get busy with other things and spend days away from the computer. I'm always surprised by how few messages and notifications I missed.
[+] [-] foofoo4u|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] derefr|5 years ago|reply
1. set up parental-control restrictions that lock you out of these apps;
2. hand your phone to someone you trust, and tell them to set the unlock password for the parental-control restrictions (so that only they will know it);
3. ask that said person also does you the service of typing the password to disable the restrictions when requested—but only with 24 hours' notice. (I.e. you ask, and then 24 hours later they'll do it.)
That way, you'll never be tempted to unlock the restrictions for trivial things; but you can still e.g. reset the phone if you want to sell it. (You just need to wait 24 hours first.)
[+] [-] misev|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vollmond|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.aswinmohan....
[+] [-] 29083011397778|5 years ago|reply
The Android Debug Bridge allows disabling packages and APKs. There's a walkthrough on XDA Developers [1] that (I assume) is more than enough for any HN reader. If not, shoot me a message and we can walk through it together :)
[1] https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-system-app-bloatware-...
[+] [-] saeranv|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmcp|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cristicismas|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bathMarm0t|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] someusername99|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] choicenotchance|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] robertdenir0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andalusian_ipa|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thdrdt|5 years ago|reply
Personally a lot of context swithing is giving me stress and is draining my energy. It also makes me less productive. So I believe the article is spot on.
[+] [-] Bedon292|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hinkley|5 years ago|reply
Self-discovery was an important part of becoming an independent young adult. What am I good at, what am I bad at, what do I want/need to be good at? But your brain will continue to change through your life, for better and for worse. Just because you were good at multitasking at 24 doesn't mean you still are at 34. And coping mechanisms you used to deal with other limitations might not be helping you anymore.
I've heard a lot of adults say that they still see themselves as 30, and so it's a shock when someone calls them sir, defers to their experience in a tough situation, or when they see how much grey is looking at them in the mirror. If our sense of self gets set in stone, we start to miss things.
[+] [-] coffeefirst|5 years ago|reply
You can disable every notification on your phone, mute all non urgent email, change the way you read news, block social media for a day or delete it permanently... all the small things help.
But the worst interrupters are the hardest to tame. If anyone has a Slack containment strategy, I’m all ears.
[+] [-] anoplus|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ralphc|5 years ago|reply
I work on software. I want the finished product, to build something useful for myself or others. I don't necessarily want the "journey". When I work, my concern, or fear, is that I'm going to work on some library or method, multiple days, then find that someone else did it better in a library I can just import. As I work I also look for these libraries, and look at questions on StackOverflow. I don't consider that time wasted. Between that, and docs that are all online nowadays, I don't see how I can work while disconnected.
[+] [-] codr7|5 years ago|reply
I've spent several months in similar or more extreme forms [0] of isolation, and I'd recommend anyone to consider trying it out just to get a taste of what's possible.
These days I don't even carry a smartphone anymore, as I've found the sum of it's effects to be negative.
[0] https://www.yogameditation.com/retreats/the-3-month-sadhana-...
[+] [-] bpizzi|5 years ago|reply
Is it really so? I'm only a single datapoint, but checking my phone is the last thing I do in the morning. Getting children up, coffee, shower, planning some today's work in my head - if the phone isn't ringing then I may well not fiddle with it until later in the morning or even the day.
[+] [-] Bedon292|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kthartic|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mekantis|5 years ago|reply
Your statement basically amounts to "Well, I don't look at my phone in the morning, so clearly most other people also don't look at their phone in the morning". Which is obviously false (at least in the sense that one doesn't follow from the other).
[+] [-] baxtr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thordenmark|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ejolto|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tade0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scottndecker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13392292
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13457580
[+] [-] hinkley|5 years ago|reply
I get properly irritated when I'm doing yardwork and my phone blows up, because I have to stop what I'm doing, pull off the gloves, check for how much dirt got through/into the gloves, then pull out the device and deal with the glare to see that... nobody is dying, they just wanted to show me something funny. God. Damnit.
[+] [-] grativo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] digitalsushi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ricardo81|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] powersnail|5 years ago|reply
My phone easily distracted me when I'm idling in the middle of some task, for example, waiting for a compilation to finish. But when I'm practicing music, despite my phone being always on as the metronome, I don't get tempted at all. There's no need to fight an urge of browsing the internet.
I have found that the addiction to internet is not really that strong; it cannot compete with what I really want to do. So, as long as I don't let the idleness creep in, I can keep my modern smartphone with me.
[+] [-] coolspot|5 years ago|reply
https://bulletjournal.com
[+] [-] f00zz|5 years ago|reply
As for the rest of the article, `echo "0.0.0.0 twitter.com" >> /etc/hosts` works for me.
[+] [-] bobobob420|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicbou|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asdfman123|5 years ago|reply
In order to get my hit of internet I have to bike all the way home again, so I'm forced to focus.
[+] [-] burlesona|5 years ago|reply
> The entire city — country? world? — had been infected by a terminal disease, the prime vector of which was memes.
> Simone Weil writes, “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love.” Then is the lack of attention the opposite? Does it presuppose fear and hate?
- - -
I think there’s really something to this. I have to admit there have been a number of times I’ve been caught up in something “tragic” on the internet, generally some political battle, and felt like the world was falling apart. But then if I step away from the computer and go for a walk in the nearby park, I see hundreds of people just relaxing and enjoying life, not caught up in the daily trivia. I often bring my kids along and watch them just run and play, carefree.
And I sometimes wonder: if we just turned it all off, shut down the internet, radio, and TV... would we be happier?
I’ve lived through a few long power outages as well, (1 day or longer), and on those days, rather than things feeling dire, things felt light and playful. The neighbors all came out and chatted, the kids all played up and down the street. It was nice.
I realize that our world would not function very well without the mass communication systems that link us together. But I also wonder if something like a scheduled, controlled, power outage every Saturday would be really good for us all.
[+] [-] eezurr|5 years ago|reply
>Returning to those (mythical?) halcyon minimalist information days: You could read all of the news in a single day. Grab the two or three papers and read. The information had edges; it could be understood by a single human over one cup of first-wave coffee. Were you insatiable, the library was available to dig deep on the topics of the day.
I wrote this comment in 2018, I think it's relevant here:
>I think we've tipped over to the other side of the "convenience/humanity" pyramid. We climbed to the top some years ago where the lack of excess convenience gave us the opportunity to make things our selves and interact with other people face to face (which I think are very important human qualities) while being comfortable. Now we are sliding down the convenience side of the pyramid, unable to grasp what is important and fundamental. We are literally snowballing (e.g. obesity epidemic).
[+] [-] siraben|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whytaka|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hybridtupel|5 years ago|reply