As someone with significant attention problems, apps like Instapaper and later Pocket were a LIFESAVER and probably saved my career from mediocrity. My brain c

As someone with significant attention problems, apps like Instapaper and later Pocket were a LIFESAVER and probably saved my career from mediocrity. My brain craves constant stimulation and distraction. Do 30 mins of coding? Okay you've earned 5 mins of hacker news. The problem is those 5 minutes are never 5 minutes when you come across a bunch of really interesting articles that your brain is dying to consume instead of getting back to work. In the old days, I'd use del.icio.us, but that got out of hand. So, more often than not, I simply would take the time to read the posts, and my 5 minute breaks would become 20 minutes. I was a young hotshot developer and I could still manage to get my work done in half the day - truly. But I didn't grow. So, first, I got older (and slower). Second, web articles got longer. And my model no longer was sustainable. Now, what do I do? I just skim the article, note if it's something i should read, and add it to my pocket. Do I then get the collector's fallacy side effect? Absolutely. But it's the lesser of two evils.