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i'm at a loss here as to why people bother installing these kinds of apps (the focus time apps overall i mean) to prevent them from doing something? if i have t

i'm at a loss here as to why people bother installing these kinds of apps (the focus time apps overall i mean) to prevent them from doing something? if i have this on, can't i just simply kill the process through the task manager and be done with it? genuine question here... bearing that in mind, i'm curious to understand what was the rationale from YC to have them into the W18 batch from a business/revenue standpoint?

DanHulton 9y ago
Oftentimes, having just one step in the way of something is enough to break the habit. Like, move the cookies off the counter and into the cupboard above the fridge even works. This is just another application of that.
- vtange 9y ago
  But then why not just make the shortcut to the game inconvenient to access (hide it in a folder in a folder in a folder) or just plain uninstall the game (adds the extra step of reinstalling to play).
  - undersuit 9y ago
    1) Windows Search puts all my applications just a few keystrokes away, regardless of shortcuts. 2) It's not about abstaining from the game, its about playing a healthy amount. Reinstalling the game daily isn't going to teach you not to play all night, it's going teach you to not uninstall the game every night after your session.
    - laurentb 9y ago
      and killing a process in the task manager is easy enough for anyone who games enough to see this as a problem... I can edit my hosts file to point facebook.com to 127.0.0.1 in general, but it's even more trivial to get rid of it when i do want to check facebook (not that i crave it that much anyway)....
  - padobson 9y ago
    This comment is a milder version of this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- laurentb 9y ago
  this works well in the real world and even more so when parents do it to teach restraints to children, but anyone who has been in this position of wanting to reduce/prevent/limit their usage of a specific software (like focus apps) is usually (and i mean in most cases) savvy enough with their use of a computer to get rid of it in the first instance... I think most would agree there, and so it only leaves the ones that do not know how to do it in the first place. I can believe there are a few for whom this is valuable and useful. but not enough of them that i can warrant a paid for service.
mtgex 9y ago
I created a Chrome plugin to block all Hacker News comments and just provide a list of the links because I found myself wasting too much time reading Hacker News comments but I still wanted to be up to date on the actual news part. All it did was make me waste more time because I got into the unconscious habit of opening Hacker News in incognito mode to avoid the plugin. I'm not a huge gamer really, but I've also found it difficult to turn off games once I get involved. I've spent many many hours / early mornings playing Hearthstone, which is engineered to be addictive. I eventually cut free by destroying my collection in game and locking myself out by resetting my credentials to a random email and password. The cost of starting completely from scratch has kept me from returning. Some people have willpower. Some people need to consciously avoid things that they find unhealthy for themselves.
- laurentb 9y ago
  If you have willpower to tone down your usage, you don't need something like focus apps. And if you need to avoid things unhealthy for yourself, then a mere barrier will not cut it.
  - mtgex 9y ago
    I think there may be varying degrees of willpower such that a barrier can help and avoidance is itself a barrier.
matchbok 9y ago
Agreed. Waste of money. Ridiculous.
chatmasta 9y ago
It depends on the app. I use SelfControl.app for Mac, which blocks a list of websites for a duration of time. It resolves the IP addresses of all blocked domains, then generates a set of ipfw rules and applies them to all interfaces. You can disable the block, but it’s a huge PITA especially if you just want to disable one site. It’s a minimum five minute effort to unblock a site; for me that’s plenty sufficient motivation to get back to work.

DanHulton 9y ago

Oftentimes, having just one step in the way of something is enough to break the habit. Like, move the cookies off the counter and into the cupboard above the fridge even works. This is just another application of that.

vtange 9y ago
But then why not just make the shortcut to the game inconvenient to access (hide it in a folder in a folder in a folder) or just plain uninstall the game (adds the extra step of reinstalling to play).
- undersuit 9y ago
  1) Windows Search puts all my applications just a few keystrokes away, regardless of shortcuts. 2) It's not about abstaining from the game, its about playing a healthy amount. Reinstalling the game daily isn't going to teach you not to play all night, it's going teach you to not uninstall the game every night after your session.
  - laurentb 9y ago
    and killing a process in the task manager is easy enough for anyone who games enough to see this as a problem... I can edit my hosts file to point facebook.com to 127.0.0.1 in general, but it's even more trivial to get rid of it when i do want to check facebook (not that i crave it that much anyway)....
- padobson 9y ago
  This comment is a milder version of this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
laurentb 9y ago
this works well in the real world and even more so when parents do it to teach restraints to children, but anyone who has been in this position of wanting to reduce/prevent/limit their usage of a specific software (like focus apps) is usually (and i mean in most cases) savvy enough with their use of a computer to get rid of it in the first instance... I think most would agree there, and so it only leaves the ones that do not know how to do it in the first place. I can believe there are a few for whom this is valuable and useful. but not enough of them that i can warrant a paid for service.

mtgex 9y ago

I created a Chrome plugin to block all Hacker News comments and just provide a list of the links because I found myself wasting too much time reading Hacker News comments but I still wanted to be up to date on the actual news part. All it did was make me waste more time because I got into the unconscious habit of opening Hacker News in incognito mode to avoid the plugin. I'm not a huge gamer really, but I've also found it difficult to turn off games once I get involved. I've spent many many hours / early mornings playing Hearthstone, which is engineered to be addictive. I eventually cut free by destroying my collection in game and locking myself out by resetting my credentials to a random email and password. The cost of starting completely from scratch has kept me from returning. Some people have willpower. Some people need to consciously avoid things that they find unhealthy for themselves.

laurentb 9y ago
If you have willpower to tone down your usage, you don't need something like focus apps. And if you need to avoid things unhealthy for yourself, then a mere barrier will not cut it.
- mtgex 9y ago
  I think there may be varying degrees of willpower such that a barrier can help and avoidance is itself a barrier.

matchbok 9y ago

Agreed. Waste of money. Ridiculous.

chatmasta 9y ago

It depends on the app. I use SelfControl.app for Mac, which blocks a list of websites for a duration of time. It resolves the IP addresses of all blocked domains, then generates a set of ipfw rules and applies them to all interfaces. You can disable the block, but it’s a huge PITA especially if you just want to disable one site. It’s a minimum five minute effort to unblock a site; for me that’s plenty sufficient motivation to get back to work.