4 ms·

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 f

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.

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.