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>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles. This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the ins

>I’ve reduced my information consumption to free up brain cycles. This is so important and not discussed very often. It's so easy to get caught up with the insane amount of information distractions. It is pivotal to narrow down your focus and attention on the really important things (deep work). Eliminate and minimize the pointless information hysteria. I've worked with people who claim they 'work 12-16 hour days'. Yet, watching them work, they spend most of the day reading news articles and on Twitter. It is easy to get caught up in all of this, and it gives an illusion that one is "working" as it is very stimulating to your brain. The only answer I've found to remaining positive about the world and staying productive has been to ignore >90% of the information out there. Very little news. No social media. I even ignore most of the things people say, unless I know that they are knowledgeable on the topic. But I guess this is what HN is for... One of the only places for decent information.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ups474773 6y ago
The last paragraph is a conclusion I've arrived at independently as well. However, I'd argue that HN should be filtered as well.
throwawayinfo 6y ago
I'm trying to build something which tackles this problem. The idea would be delegating the decision of what you consume to an algorithm (that you can control), and you'll be delivered a subset of news/content daily. Basically a giant filter through which you consume the firehouse of FB/reddit. Although it works for me, I've no idea how practical this is on a wider scale. Would you use something like that?
- herval 6y ago
  Isn't that pretty much what all platforms these platforms do these days, with algorithmic feeds? What level of control do you plan to add on top of it? And more importantly - how do you plan to monetize a model that's pretty much dependent on dopamine hits, without making it _more_ addictive/a time-waste?
  - throwawayinfo 6y ago
    Well, I've been building algorithms which explain _why_ something was surfaced, not just being a black box. Everything is controllable from data sources, ranking/filtering weights and a feedback mechanism to tweak this. As for monetisation, I've thought about this a lot - and I don't think the time wasting is needed to create a good product. Google Search certainly isn't fueled by dopamine hits, and from an ads standpoint, our users are saying exactly what they want to see every morning.
    - KajMagnus 6y ago
      Feature request: When I find an article that the algorithm did Not suggest — but I like the article. Then, it'd be nice to know how I could tweak the algorithm and its config values, so it would find such articles, thereafter. And to dry-run the algorithm to verify that now it does indeed find that article. (You don't have a website yet?)
      - throwawayinfo 6y ago
        Thanks for the suggestion. A Chrome Extension was my solution for this. I have an MVP and real userbase which I spent time growing. Now I have a platform to experiment with the grander idea here. That being said, I'm not willing to link to this yet because it's tied to my public persona and not yet my full time job.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    Some platforms like Facebook and Twitter do, but HN and Reddit are (outwardly) based on votes, so you're seeing what the community thinks is important, not what you yourself do. Mind you, there's a lot of people (myself included) who want to keep up to date on what others find interesting at the moment.
    - herval 6y ago
      Reddit is arguably the original “algorithmic feed” - votes + the decaying algorithm make it way more “addictive” than if it was just a chronological series of posts, ordered by number of votes. The popular/news sections of Reddit are also more heavily based on non-vote signals, like FB.
- tolbish 6y ago
  You are describing an RSS feed.
- foolinaround 6y ago
  I am looking forward to more details on this. I also think that allowing the user to track the changes made to this algorithm along with some metrics ( like how much time user spent on topics, time wasted etc) would provide a helpful feedback loop.
altdatathrow 6y ago
> One of the only places for decent information. HN is hit or miss. If you believe everything said here you’d reach the conclusion that only today in 2020 can we finally build websites all thanks to microservices, kubernetes, react and rust.
- sgillen 6y ago
  tbf you would also believe all this micro service, kubernetes, react, w/e is just another fad that will fade away and that “real engineers” know better. I see both opinions here.
  - m-ee 6y ago
    Maybe both are true and we’re close but still not quite at the glorious day when we’ll be able to build websites
jozzy-james 6y ago
sometimes a person seemingly doing unrelated things is still 'working'. i know at least for myself, i run through various scenarios of the outcome rather than staring at the code before i make my decision to implement. edit: and i'll typically run through those scenarios while doing seemingly unrelated stuff, like shitposting on reddit or sitting in a blacked out room.
- carlmr 6y ago
  In a similar vein I often like to try out a few avenues, because thinking about them won't get me any further, i need to interact with them to build meaningful scenarios. Of course if you try three ways to get the right way, you've "wasted" time on trying to two wrong things. E.g. when selecting a library it's often hard to find the one case that breaks, just from reading documentation, instead playing around with the library can get you there faster.
tyrex2017 6y ago
agree with everything but havent gotten to know people who work 12+ hours but spend a lot on news sites i have worked these hours in the past, plus my colleagues, and when there is so much pressure the least we wanted to do, and the least we did, was spending time on news sites because we were constantly tired and would rather choose to spend half an hour more on sleep
koolba 6y ago
The most productive and successful individuals I know oscillate between multi day 16+ hour sessions of hyper productivity and multi day sessions of total procrastination. It’s never chugging along at a consistent marathon pace. It’s always a series of sprints.
- foxhop 6y ago
  This is me but I'm totally procrastinating on code so I can hang in my garden as the sun goes down learning about myself through other instances with different circumstances in this thread. I need a break from the physical work to try to get my head space back to thinking about computers. My sprint is not now, my sprint starts later. The sprint toward my spirit starts now. Reading this comment, reflecting this thought. And another is below. Upvote the comments that you can relate to and see what bubbles up
- richard_g 6y ago
  I've found the same. When you have things to done you get them done. When you don't, you can sit around browsing the internet all day. It tends to be when things pile up that you are most effective at getting through them!
  - taneq 6y ago
    Ah, that old dilemma: Do I work best under pressure, or do I work only under pressure?
- loktarogar 6y ago
  Yep. Over the last two years i've been fortunate enough to have a lot of time on my hands. In that time i've built 3 and a half successful products. 6 days of (thinking mostly, some research) about what to do. 1 day of actually doing it. It's so easy to spend that one day completely and productively - I already know what i'm supposed to do, I just have to sit down and do it. The 6 days (not always 6 - maybe more, maybe less) let me come up with and throw out stupid ideas before i've coded them. By the time I come to build something it's a carefully considered thing that'll actually be useful most of the time. It's not just feature ideas either, it's code design, data design, anything that might be complicated enough that I used to spend multiple days experimenting. It doesn't always work out, but when it doesn't, i've thought it through enough that I have a head start on coming up with a better design.
jl2718 6y ago
Even the best information has the same effect (maybe worse). If you’re reading this, you may have a problem (I do).
- double0jimb0 6y ago
  Possibly you have cause and effect backwards. What if the act of ‘thinking’ that you have a problem leads to the heightened distractibility?
  - afarrell 6y ago
    Maybe... but as an ADHDer, my experience is that the bigger problem is thinking "I have this problem" but hearing from others "you're overthinking things" or "you don't need that, just get started" and consequently: 1. Never becoming confident enough in the problem to start solving it. 2. Never getting the rubber-duck collaborator to help you even imagine how you would solve it.
Phil-bitplex 6y ago
I agree - I have to consciously choose what I want to feed my brain. It's so easy to choose things that don't align with my goals, whether that be family, personal or business goals. Do I find the non-stop inexplicable US politics fascinating? Yes. Is it helpful to my business? Nope. Every week i have to revisit my goals, decide whats important, and remind myself that I don't need to learn everything, be all things to all people. It's okay to choose and to say 'no' to distractions, information sources and people.
hinkley 6y ago
The tough thing is figuring out what's the right stuff to filter out. We all have had conversations with coworkers about some manager who just doesn't 'get it' and is out of touch. One way or another they are filtering out a bit of reality that it turns out is very important to us, or someone in the chain of command is filtering it out before they ever hear about it. I wonder if the right solution is to 'audit' the information. Spend most of the time in your information bubble, with brief excursions in alternating 'directions' just to make sure that you aren't overfitting. Regular sanity checks where you turn on the firehose for a moment to see what comes out.
bvivek77 6y ago
Very true!
ilaksh 6y ago
I think technically you have to ignore more than 99.99999% of the information that's out there. Because I mean, realize how big Twitter is. Its much larger than the Twitter that you are generally aware of. The popular stuff for your language and interests is a tiny fraction of the total number of tweets. Likewise, every subculture has thousands if not millions of web pages or whatever. Every city, state, country has their own news. Depending on what you are interested in, there may be decades or even centuries of interesting things to study or play with just in that area. For example, if you are into C64, there are thousands and thousands of games, applications, demos, magazines, etc. You could literally spend 20 years exploring it if you were motivated. That is just one subculture. If you are interested in world history then there could be thousands of years of documents and artifacts to study. Or maybe to understand some ancient literature you need to become fluent in written Latin. You could easily spend five years learning Latin to a high level. I just feel that if you were to really give all of the interesting stuff that's out there a chance, it is many many lifetimes worth of information. Which is to say that the number of potential distractions is actually effectively infinite.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ups474773 6y ago

The last paragraph is a conclusion I've arrived at independently as well. However, I'd argue that HN should be filtered as well.

throwawayinfo 6y ago

I'm trying to build something which tackles this problem. The idea would be delegating the decision of what you consume to an algorithm (that you can control), and you'll be delivered a subset of news/content daily. Basically a giant filter through which you consume the firehouse of FB/reddit. Although it works for me, I've no idea how practical this is on a wider scale. Would you use something like that?

herval 6y ago
Isn't that pretty much what all platforms these platforms do these days, with algorithmic feeds? What level of control do you plan to add on top of it? And more importantly - how do you plan to monetize a model that's pretty much dependent on dopamine hits, without making it _more_ addictive/a time-waste?
- throwawayinfo 6y ago
  Well, I've been building algorithms which explain _why_ something was surfaced, not just being a black box. Everything is controllable from data sources, ranking/filtering weights and a feedback mechanism to tweak this. As for monetisation, I've thought about this a lot - and I don't think the time wasting is needed to create a good product. Google Search certainly isn't fueled by dopamine hits, and from an ads standpoint, our users are saying exactly what they want to see every morning.
  - KajMagnus 6y ago
    Feature request: When I find an article that the algorithm did Not suggest — but I like the article. Then, it'd be nice to know how I could tweak the algorithm and its config values, so it would find such articles, thereafter. And to dry-run the algorithm to verify that now it does indeed find that article. (You don't have a website yet?)
    - throwawayinfo 6y ago
      Thanks for the suggestion. A Chrome Extension was my solution for this. I have an MVP and real userbase which I spent time growing. Now I have a platform to experiment with the grander idea here. That being said, I'm not willing to link to this yet because it's tied to my public persona and not yet my full time job.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Some platforms like Facebook and Twitter do, but HN and Reddit are (outwardly) based on votes, so you're seeing what the community thinks is important, not what you yourself do. Mind you, there's a lot of people (myself included) who want to keep up to date on what others find interesting at the moment.
  - herval 6y ago
    Reddit is arguably the original “algorithmic feed” - votes + the decaying algorithm make it way more “addictive” than if it was just a chronological series of posts, ordered by number of votes. The popular/news sections of Reddit are also more heavily based on non-vote signals, like FB.
tolbish 6y ago
You are describing an RSS feed.
foolinaround 6y ago
I am looking forward to more details on this. I also think that allowing the user to track the changes made to this algorithm along with some metrics ( like how much time user spent on topics, time wasted etc) would provide a helpful feedback loop.

altdatathrow 6y ago

> One of the only places for decent information. HN is hit or miss. If you believe everything said here you’d reach the conclusion that only today in 2020 can we finally build websites all thanks to microservices, kubernetes, react and rust.

sgillen 6y ago
tbf you would also believe all this micro service, kubernetes, react, w/e is just another fad that will fade away and that “real engineers” know better. I see both opinions here.
- m-ee 6y ago
  Maybe both are true and we’re close but still not quite at the glorious day when we’ll be able to build websites

jozzy-james 6y ago

sometimes a person seemingly doing unrelated things is still 'working'. i know at least for myself, i run through various scenarios of the outcome rather than staring at the code before i make my decision to implement. edit: and i'll typically run through those scenarios while doing seemingly unrelated stuff, like shitposting on reddit or sitting in a blacked out room.

carlmr 6y ago
In a similar vein I often like to try out a few avenues, because thinking about them won't get me any further, i need to interact with them to build meaningful scenarios. Of course if you try three ways to get the right way, you've "wasted" time on trying to two wrong things. E.g. when selecting a library it's often hard to find the one case that breaks, just from reading documentation, instead playing around with the library can get you there faster.

tyrex2017 6y ago

agree with everything but havent gotten to know people who work 12+ hours but spend a lot on news sites i have worked these hours in the past, plus my colleagues, and when there is so much pressure the least we wanted to do, and the least we did, was spending time on news sites because we were constantly tired and would rather choose to spend half an hour more on sleep

koolba 6y ago

The most productive and successful individuals I know oscillate between multi day 16+ hour sessions of hyper productivity and multi day sessions of total procrastination. It’s never chugging along at a consistent marathon pace. It’s always a series of sprints.

foxhop 6y ago
This is me but I'm totally procrastinating on code so I can hang in my garden as the sun goes down learning about myself through other instances with different circumstances in this thread. I need a break from the physical work to try to get my head space back to thinking about computers. My sprint is not now, my sprint starts later. The sprint toward my spirit starts now. Reading this comment, reflecting this thought. And another is below. Upvote the comments that you can relate to and see what bubbles up
richard_g 6y ago
I've found the same. When you have things to done you get them done. When you don't, you can sit around browsing the internet all day. It tends to be when things pile up that you are most effective at getting through them!
- taneq 6y ago
  Ah, that old dilemma: Do I work best under pressure, or do I work only under pressure?
loktarogar 6y ago
Yep. Over the last two years i've been fortunate enough to have a lot of time on my hands. In that time i've built 3 and a half successful products. 6 days of (thinking mostly, some research) about what to do. 1 day of actually doing it. It's so easy to spend that one day completely and productively - I already know what i'm supposed to do, I just have to sit down and do it. The 6 days (not always 6 - maybe more, maybe less) let me come up with and throw out stupid ideas before i've coded them. By the time I come to build something it's a carefully considered thing that'll actually be useful most of the time. It's not just feature ideas either, it's code design, data design, anything that might be complicated enough that I used to spend multiple days experimenting. It doesn't always work out, but when it doesn't, i've thought it through enough that I have a head start on coming up with a better design.

jl2718 6y ago

Even the best information has the same effect (maybe worse). If you’re reading this, you may have a problem (I do).

double0jimb0 6y ago
Possibly you have cause and effect backwards. What if the act of ‘thinking’ that you have a problem leads to the heightened distractibility?
- afarrell 6y ago
  Maybe... but as an ADHDer, my experience is that the bigger problem is thinking "I have this problem" but hearing from others "you're overthinking things" or "you don't need that, just get started" and consequently: 1. Never becoming confident enough in the problem to start solving it. 2. Never getting the rubber-duck collaborator to help you even imagine how you would solve it.

Phil-bitplex 6y ago

I agree - I have to consciously choose what I want to feed my brain. It's so easy to choose things that don't align with my goals, whether that be family, personal or business goals. Do I find the non-stop inexplicable US politics fascinating? Yes. Is it helpful to my business? Nope. Every week i have to revisit my goals, decide whats important, and remind myself that I don't need to learn everything, be all things to all people. It's okay to choose and to say 'no' to distractions, information sources and people.

hinkley 6y ago

The tough thing is figuring out what's the right stuff to filter out. We all have had conversations with coworkers about some manager who just doesn't 'get it' and is out of touch. One way or another they are filtering out a bit of reality that it turns out is very important to us, or someone in the chain of command is filtering it out before they ever hear about it. I wonder if the right solution is to 'audit' the information. Spend most of the time in your information bubble, with brief excursions in alternating 'directions' just to make sure that you aren't overfitting. Regular sanity checks where you turn on the firehose for a moment to see what comes out.

bvivek77 6y ago

Very true!

ilaksh 6y ago

I think technically you have to ignore more than 99.99999% of the information that's out there. Because I mean, realize how big Twitter is. Its much larger than the Twitter that you are generally aware of. The popular stuff for your language and interests is a tiny fraction of the total number of tweets. Likewise, every subculture has thousands if not millions of web pages or whatever. Every city, state, country has their own news. Depending on what you are interested in, there may be decades or even centuries of interesting things to study or play with just in that area. For example, if you are into C64, there are thousands and thousands of games, applications, demos, magazines, etc. You could literally spend 20 years exploring it if you were motivated. That is just one subculture. If you are interested in world history then there could be thousands of years of documents and artifacts to study. Or maybe to understand some ancient literature you need to become fluent in written Latin. You could easily spend five years learning Latin to a high level. I just feel that if you were to really give all of the interesting stuff that's out there a chance, it is many many lifetimes worth of information. Which is to say that the number of potential distractions is actually effectively infinite.