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"Until I made a real effort to combat it, I found myself getting extremely addicted to the internet." This seems to imply sama is resisting the inevitable merg

"Until I made a real effort to combat it, I found myself getting extremely addicted to the internet." This seems to imply sama is resisting the inevitable merge. Can't we instead try to steer it in a more positive direction? Where are the startups trying to keep you addicted to the internet in a way that improves your life? They don't seem to exist, because the incentives aren't right -- it's way more profitable to keep you hooked in ways that make your life worse. How do we fix those incentives?

beaconstudios 9y ago
they do exist - consider the gamifying elements of Khan Academy, Duolingo and other e-learning sites for example. The problem seems to be that they are out-earned by the sites that feed into our narcissistic and negative impulses - social media, addictive games, "recommendation engines" on shopping sites and such.
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  >> Where are the startups trying to keep you addicted to the internet in a way that improves your life? > consider the gamifying elements of Khan Academy, Duolingo and other e-learning sites for example It's worth noting that I've heard a lot of criticism of e.g. Khan Academy from certain components of the mathematics education community. Concretely, they feel that the material there is designed to increase engagement and provide a sense of accomplishment ASAP, and that the learning processes that fit those goals are detrimental to development certain mathematical skill sets. I.e. you might learn how to compute derivatives really well, but at the expense of really understanding limits or the fundamental theorem. Mind you, mathematics educators have always been an internally divisive bunch, so take from it what you will.
njarboe 9y ago
Ban ads, marketing, and public relations would be a start. Seems unlikely.
swlkr 9y ago
Recently I've been getting into cryptocurrencies (too little, too late, right?) and it's actually improving my life by making me money. It feels like the more I learn about them and the more I gamble, the better my life is at least while the value keeps climbing. I get close to zero value out of HN/Instagram/Twitter, but I may be using them wrong.

beaconstudios 9y ago

they do exist - consider the gamifying elements of Khan Academy, Duolingo and other e-learning sites for example. The problem seems to be that they are out-earned by the sites that feed into our narcissistic and negative impulses - social media, addictive games, "recommendation engines" on shopping sites and such.

throwawayjava 9y ago
>> Where are the startups trying to keep you addicted to the internet in a way that improves your life? > consider the gamifying elements of Khan Academy, Duolingo and other e-learning sites for example It's worth noting that I've heard a lot of criticism of e.g. Khan Academy from certain components of the mathematics education community. Concretely, they feel that the material there is designed to increase engagement and provide a sense of accomplishment ASAP, and that the learning processes that fit those goals are detrimental to development certain mathematical skill sets. I.e. you might learn how to compute derivatives really well, but at the expense of really understanding limits or the fundamental theorem. Mind you, mathematics educators have always been an internally divisive bunch, so take from it what you will.

njarboe 9y ago

Ban ads, marketing, and public relations would be a start. Seems unlikely.

swlkr 9y ago

Recently I've been getting into cryptocurrencies (too little, too late, right?) and it's actually improving my life by making me money. It feels like the more I learn about them and the more I gamble, the better my life is at least while the value keeps climbing. I get close to zero value out of HN/Instagram/Twitter, but I may be using them wrong.