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Everything is good in moderation. I have begun banning myself from sites like HN or putting my cell phone in do not disturb mode. I am not sure why these vapid

Everything is good in moderation. I have begun banning myself from sites like HN or putting my cell phone in do not disturb mode. I am not sure why these vapid "productivity posts" only have either or options and why it must be 100% one side or another.

eponeponepon 9y ago
This is the key. "Moderation in all things, including moderation" is the most important advice my late father gave me. I will freely admit that this is advice that occasionally gives me cause to grumble at him when hungover.
notheguyouthink 9y ago
I did something similar. I picked up another hobby, and avoid these sites for all but a tiny window during the day. A while back I found myself wasting 4+ hours every night at home, "looking for something to do" online. This usually involved a lot of Steam, Reddit, etc. Never doing anything real, always wasting time. So I forced myself to pick up another hobby that will hopefully not share too much with the tired regions of my brain (i.e., programming work days). My goal is to fill my day with life improving things that I enjoy, but don't overlap is skillsets. Hopefully reducing fatigue. The last thing I want is to burn out on programming because I force myself to do that non-stop at home too. I'm just sick of wasting time.
loco5niner 9y ago
> Everything is good in moderation I would add "and in the correct context"
pdimitar 9y ago
My phone is almost always on DND and the apps that can send notifications are somewhere between 6 to 11 -- and I'll probably reduce them only to Slack and email these days. The weak points in the article you pointed out, plus the self-shaming the author does -- "I feel bad about it" -- don't help. Extremism doesn't help. One has to discover what works best for them, not being an extremist. And no, being an extremist doesn't work (well, maybe for 0.0001% of the world population).

eponeponepon 9y ago

This is the key. "Moderation in all things, including moderation" is the most important advice my late father gave me. I will freely admit that this is advice that occasionally gives me cause to grumble at him when hungover.

notheguyouthink 9y ago

I did something similar. I picked up another hobby, and avoid these sites for all but a tiny window during the day. A while back I found myself wasting 4+ hours every night at home, "looking for something to do" online. This usually involved a lot of Steam, Reddit, etc. Never doing anything real, always wasting time. So I forced myself to pick up another hobby that will hopefully not share too much with the tired regions of my brain (i.e., programming work days). My goal is to fill my day with life improving things that I enjoy, but don't overlap is skillsets. Hopefully reducing fatigue. The last thing I want is to burn out on programming because I force myself to do that non-stop at home too. I'm just sick of wasting time.

loco5niner 9y ago

> Everything is good in moderation I would add "and in the correct context"

pdimitar 9y ago

My phone is almost always on DND and the apps that can send notifications are somewhere between 6 to 11 -- and I'll probably reduce them only to Slack and email these days. The weak points in the article you pointed out, plus the self-shaming the author does -- "I feel bad about it" -- don't help. Extremism doesn't help. One has to discover what works best for them, not being an extremist. And no, being an extremist doesn't work (well, maybe for 0.0001% of the world population).