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I'm a professional attention engineer. After getting my PhD in NeuroEconomic I built two tools that I think are going to be really important in the coming atten

I'm a professional attention engineer. After getting my PhD in NeuroEconomic I built two tools that I think are going to be really important in the coming attention wars. I strongly agree with the author about the importance of an individual autonomy over attention. I also agree with the author that these tools create an opportunity to empower individual autonomy to a degree never seen before. And I get out of bed everyday to make sure that these tools are used that way. My tools: http://usedopamine.com/ http://usedopamine.com/ http://youjustneedspace.com/ http://youjustneedspace.com/

2845197541 9y ago
I wish there was a tool that would turn my smartphone into a dumbphone (only capable of texting and calling) for a period of time and the only way to unlock it would be a factory reset. I would like this for my PC as well. That would be some deep space.
- Terr_ 9y ago
  I'd rather be able to lock myself out from distracting apps for a relatively short span (e.g. 30-60m) and the mechanism to unlock it somehow requires either meditation or -- since calm is hard to detect -- a certain kind of novelty-less focus. Brainstorming: Suppose you must enter a random 3 digit code for an early "unlock" of no-distraction mode. The only way to get the code is to watch a blank screen for 2-3 minutes, where each digit is briefly visible at an unpredictable time spread out through the duration. The task would be relatively easy, yet also force the user to have a bit of "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts" time while waiting for the next digit to appear.
  - HashHishBang 9y ago
    Excuse my language but what the hell? You talk about meditation to unlock a phone but you don't have the self control to put it in a drawer for half an hour? You want novelty-less focus from the damn app store? What kind of app stores do you frequent? > Brainstorming: Suppose you must enter a random 3 digit code for an early "unlock" of no-distraction mode. The only way to get the code is to watch a blank screen for 2-3 minutes, where each digit is briefly visible at an unpredictable time spread out through the duration. Hold on a second here. You want people to stare at a blank screen as a form of introspection. Additionally you want them to pay attention to that blank screen to see if a number briefly appears then remember that number while staring and being introspective. Good lord you think that task is relatively easy? Also what is this "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts time"? Do people shower with their devices, are people literally never without these things? More importantly are you uncomfortable in your own head? I'm seriously confused by this to the point of being indignant and I'm only 25.
    - 2845197541 9y ago
      To be fair some people are literally almost never without these things. I think the blank screen idea could be somewhat worthwhile. There is a tiny app in the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.mindbell&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode... >MindBell rings periodically during the day as a mindfulness bell, to give you the opportunity to hold on for a moment and consider what you are currently doing, and in what state of mind you are while you are doing it. It is actually quite effective for me in halting briefly my careening thoughts. May seem silly to some.
    - Terr_ 9y ago
      You're barking up the wrong tree. This has nothing to do with meditation aids. This is about a user who already enabled a "distraction free" time on their phone, and how you might design a bypassing process which (A) deters a user who was really just looking for a quick dopamine hit and (B) tries to let them through in a way which is less-likely to lead to immediate backsliding. I only mentioned meditation because it would be nice if a hypothetical psychic mind-reading phone could tell that you were about to use it mindfully. > You want people to stare at a blank screen as a form of introspection. No, the real point is that it is boring and imposes a delay before gratification. Any kind of boredom-driven introspection is a side-benefit. > Good lord you think that task is relatively easy? Remembering three digits while having no other demands on your decision-making nor on your memory? Yes, you ought to succeed at that. > Also what is this "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts time"? "Hey, I've been staring at this goddamn thing for what feels like ten minutes already... did I really need to bypass this lockout just to check if I got another e-mail or tweetstagram?"
  - 2845197541 9y ago
    Interesting. Wouldn't work for me. I simply wouldn't use it because I know that every time I did and wanted to bypass it to use my phone I would. I would like to be able to use that same impulsivity that causes me to be glue to screens to impulsively block those screens for a long time. So if I wake up and decide in a moment that today is an analog day I make that decision and I am locked in. Having to reinstall an OS and lose data is the only deterrent that will work. One android app I used mentioned the "guilt" of having to reboot one's phone to use it again. No guilt here. I need to put myself in jail and throw away the key for a set time.
- tdaltonc 9y ago
  If you block an app, you still want it, but your wanting is frustrated. Our goal with Space is to actually rewire your wanting system. If you use space, the impulse to open the app should decrease. For us, real freedom is to kill the wanting.
ThrowAway123543 9y ago
Dopamine seems to be an API that automates and optimizes the display of "rewards" (positive messages or images) in an app to increase usage, right? And there's ML to optimize timing of the rewards, but it's basically exploiting the same effect seen with randomized rewards, i.e. the thing that makes gambling addictive, right? Is that a fair summary? That doesn't seem like it's giving "an individual autonomy over attention". It seems like the exact opposite. I don't understand what the other thing, Space, does. Does it just interrupt social media apps periodically? It seems more like an attempt at viral marketing for Dopamine than something that's intended for real people to use, but I can't tell what it does and I'm not on iOS.
- c54 9y ago
  Just installed it. It generates a link on your homescreen from the app you need space from (ie twitter, in my case). Link looks like the twitter app icon. When I tap it it loads the browser on a page saying "breath with me" for a second or two, and then loads the twitter app. I can imagine 1) needing the breath and that working out, 2) ditching the process of loading twitter if i'm asked to breath both would be good outcomes
  - tdaltonc 9y ago
    Glad you like it! There's a third benefit too. Putting a lag between the action and the reward rewires the brains wanting system. That itch at the back of your brain or the impulse to reach for your phone at the briefest hint of boredom doesn't have to be there. Using space will kill that wanting impulse.
    - akkartik 9y ago
      Very interesting idea. I wonder how hard it would be to write a plugin to do this transparently on my browser.
anigbrowl 9y ago
I did not know (but am not surprised) to know that 'attention engineer' is a standardized job description now, or indeed that there's a whole field of neuroeconomics - most interesting. I can't help noticing that your two tools seem to be directly opposed to each other; usedopamine offers to leverage dopamine hits for commercial purposes, whereas youjustneedspace seems designed to insulate users from exactly that problem - I hope. If the two are designed to complement each other in order to increase the commercial payoff of individual dopamine hits then I would have to question whether you were being altogether straight with users of the latter tool. You may find my other comment on this post interesting or boringly obvious. I'm fascinated by what you're doing here but right now I'm not sure whether I love you or hate you.
- tdaltonc 9y ago
  I would prefer to say that they're 'symmetrical.' It should be easy for a person to add and remove habits from their life. The Dopamine API makes app more effective at creating habits so that users can add them. Space makes it easy for users to out down habits that they wish they didn't have.
amelius 9y ago
I think the problem to be solved is a simpler one: choice. Right now, our focus/attention is at the mercy of only a few big companies. Because of the silos/"network effect", we can't switch to other providers, and there is basically no competition, and no way out for consumers. If there was choice, we could switch to service providers that are more decent regarding our attention. Another angle on the problem could be ads. If we would not allow ads, but just paid a fixed amount of money for a service, then the whole attention-grabbing problem would not exist.
- skybrian 9y ago
  Maybe, but if anything, smaller companies tend to be more attention-seeking, since they don't have anything to fall back on. Subscriptions don't do it either, by themselves. Many companies will try to get more revenue out of your existing customers. And even charities are attention-seeking (if you get on their mailing list). Furthermore, it's hard to say what kinds of attention-seeking are actually wrong. On the one hand there's spam, and on the other it gets very blurry.
eveningcoffee 9y ago
The http://usedopamine.com/ http://usedopamine.com/ does not work properly with Firefox. It would be great if you fixed this issue.
skybrian 9y ago
"Space" is exactly the browser extension I was thinking of writing myself. I might still need to write it though, because the permissions are scary: "Read and change data on all the websites you visit." It's hard to see how a small company can win that trust. I think maybe this needs to be open source, or built into the browser.
orthoganol 9y ago
I thought this was satire, especially looking at the team page. You help people get addicted to apps and then with the other hand you help them cope with their addiction so it doesn't get to a breaking point where they actually quit the app. And this is what you are so proud of that gets you out of bed every morning? Interesting people out there...
hammock 9y ago
Does Dopamine work for email and other channels as well or just app notifications?
- tdaltonc 9y ago
  Yep! Shoot us an email and we'd be happy to explain it in more detail.

2845197541 9y ago

I wish there was a tool that would turn my smartphone into a dumbphone (only capable of texting and calling) for a period of time and the only way to unlock it would be a factory reset. I would like this for my PC as well. That would be some deep space.

Terr_ 9y ago
I'd rather be able to lock myself out from distracting apps for a relatively short span (e.g. 30-60m) and the mechanism to unlock it somehow requires either meditation or -- since calm is hard to detect -- a certain kind of novelty-less focus. Brainstorming: Suppose you must enter a random 3 digit code for an early "unlock" of no-distraction mode. The only way to get the code is to watch a blank screen for 2-3 minutes, where each digit is briefly visible at an unpredictable time spread out through the duration. The task would be relatively easy, yet also force the user to have a bit of "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts" time while waiting for the next digit to appear.
- HashHishBang 9y ago
  Excuse my language but what the hell? You talk about meditation to unlock a phone but you don't have the self control to put it in a drawer for half an hour? You want novelty-less focus from the damn app store? What kind of app stores do you frequent? > Brainstorming: Suppose you must enter a random 3 digit code for an early "unlock" of no-distraction mode. The only way to get the code is to watch a blank screen for 2-3 minutes, where each digit is briefly visible at an unpredictable time spread out through the duration. Hold on a second here. You want people to stare at a blank screen as a form of introspection. Additionally you want them to pay attention to that blank screen to see if a number briefly appears then remember that number while staring and being introspective. Good lord you think that task is relatively easy? Also what is this "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts time"? Do people shower with their devices, are people literally never without these things? More importantly are you uncomfortable in your own head? I'm seriously confused by this to the point of being indignant and I'm only 25.
  - 2845197541 9y ago
    To be fair some people are literally almost never without these things. I think the blank screen idea could be somewhat worthwhile. There is a tiny app in the play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.mindbell&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode... >MindBell rings periodically during the day as a mindfulness bell, to give you the opportunity to hold on for a moment and consider what you are currently doing, and in what state of mind you are while you are doing it. It is actually quite effective for me in halting briefly my careening thoughts. May seem silly to some.
  - Terr_ 9y ago
    You're barking up the wrong tree. This has nothing to do with meditation aids. This is about a user who already enabled a "distraction free" time on their phone, and how you might design a bypassing process which (A) deters a user who was really just looking for a quick dopamine hit and (B) tries to let them through in a way which is less-likely to lead to immediate backsliding. I only mentioned meditation because it would be nice if a hypothetical psychic mind-reading phone could tell that you were about to use it mindfully. > You want people to stare at a blank screen as a form of introspection. No, the real point is that it is boring and imposes a delay before gratification. Any kind of boredom-driven introspection is a side-benefit. > Good lord you think that task is relatively easy? Remembering three digits while having no other demands on your decision-making nor on your memory? Yes, you ought to succeed at that. > Also what is this "uncomfortable alone with their thoughts time"? "Hey, I've been staring at this goddamn thing for what feels like ten minutes already... did I really need to bypass this lockout just to check if I got another e-mail or tweetstagram?"
- 2845197541 9y ago
  Interesting. Wouldn't work for me. I simply wouldn't use it because I know that every time I did and wanted to bypass it to use my phone I would. I would like to be able to use that same impulsivity that causes me to be glue to screens to impulsively block those screens for a long time. So if I wake up and decide in a moment that today is an analog day I make that decision and I am locked in. Having to reinstall an OS and lose data is the only deterrent that will work. One android app I used mentioned the "guilt" of having to reboot one's phone to use it again. No guilt here. I need to put myself in jail and throw away the key for a set time.
tdaltonc 9y ago
If you block an app, you still want it, but your wanting is frustrated. Our goal with Space is to actually rewire your wanting system. If you use space, the impulse to open the app should decrease. For us, real freedom is to kill the wanting.

ThrowAway123543 9y ago

Dopamine seems to be an API that automates and optimizes the display of "rewards" (positive messages or images) in an app to increase usage, right? And there's ML to optimize timing of the rewards, but it's basically exploiting the same effect seen with randomized rewards, i.e. the thing that makes gambling addictive, right? Is that a fair summary? That doesn't seem like it's giving "an individual autonomy over attention". It seems like the exact opposite. I don't understand what the other thing, Space, does. Does it just interrupt social media apps periodically? It seems more like an attempt at viral marketing for Dopamine than something that's intended for real people to use, but I can't tell what it does and I'm not on iOS.

c54 9y ago
Just installed it. It generates a link on your homescreen from the app you need space from (ie twitter, in my case). Link looks like the twitter app icon. When I tap it it loads the browser on a page saying "breath with me" for a second or two, and then loads the twitter app. I can imagine 1) needing the breath and that working out, 2) ditching the process of loading twitter if i'm asked to breath both would be good outcomes
- tdaltonc 9y ago
  Glad you like it! There's a third benefit too. Putting a lag between the action and the reward rewires the brains wanting system. That itch at the back of your brain or the impulse to reach for your phone at the briefest hint of boredom doesn't have to be there. Using space will kill that wanting impulse.
  - akkartik 9y ago
    Very interesting idea. I wonder how hard it would be to write a plugin to do this transparently on my browser.

anigbrowl 9y ago

I did not know (but am not surprised) to know that 'attention engineer' is a standardized job description now, or indeed that there's a whole field of neuroeconomics - most interesting. I can't help noticing that your two tools seem to be directly opposed to each other; usedopamine offers to leverage dopamine hits for commercial purposes, whereas youjustneedspace seems designed to insulate users from exactly that problem - I hope. If the two are designed to complement each other in order to increase the commercial payoff of individual dopamine hits then I would have to question whether you were being altogether straight with users of the latter tool. You may find my other comment on this post interesting or boringly obvious. I'm fascinated by what you're doing here but right now I'm not sure whether I love you or hate you.

tdaltonc 9y ago
I would prefer to say that they're 'symmetrical.' It should be easy for a person to add and remove habits from their life. The Dopamine API makes app more effective at creating habits so that users can add them. Space makes it easy for users to out down habits that they wish they didn't have.

amelius 9y ago

I think the problem to be solved is a simpler one: choice. Right now, our focus/attention is at the mercy of only a few big companies. Because of the silos/"network effect", we can't switch to other providers, and there is basically no competition, and no way out for consumers. If there was choice, we could switch to service providers that are more decent regarding our attention. Another angle on the problem could be ads. If we would not allow ads, but just paid a fixed amount of money for a service, then the whole attention-grabbing problem would not exist.

skybrian 9y ago
Maybe, but if anything, smaller companies tend to be more attention-seeking, since they don't have anything to fall back on. Subscriptions don't do it either, by themselves. Many companies will try to get more revenue out of your existing customers. And even charities are attention-seeking (if you get on their mailing list). Furthermore, it's hard to say what kinds of attention-seeking are actually wrong. On the one hand there's spam, and on the other it gets very blurry.

eveningcoffee 9y ago

The http://usedopamine.com/ http://usedopamine.com/ does not work properly with Firefox. It would be great if you fixed this issue.

skybrian 9y ago

"Space" is exactly the browser extension I was thinking of writing myself. I might still need to write it though, because the permissions are scary: "Read and change data on all the websites you visit." It's hard to see how a small company can win that trust. I think maybe this needs to be open source, or built into the browser.

orthoganol 9y ago

I thought this was satire, especially looking at the team page. You help people get addicted to apps and then with the other hand you help them cope with their addiction so it doesn't get to a breaking point where they actually quit the app. And this is what you are so proud of that gets you out of bed every morning? Interesting people out there...

hammock 9y ago

Does Dopamine work for email and other channels as well or just app notifications?

tdaltonc 9y ago
Yep! Shoot us an email and we'd be happy to explain it in more detail.