4 ms·

Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate

18 points by robsun 5y ago

I don't use any social media. After reading "Mindf*ck" I decided to quit all of them. Surprisingly if you cut off all facebooks, instagrams and reddits, it turns out the Internet is quite boring place. What are your favourite sites where you procrastinate? Sites without political trolls are preferred.

spamalot159 5y ago
As a kid I killed all my time with random flash games. Even though flash is gone you can still access virtually every good flash game with flashpoint - https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/ https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/
maxbaines 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/ but guess you know that.
ElectricMind 5y ago
//reading "Mindf*ck"// Could you tell more. Maybe gist of the book. Thanks
- robsun 5y ago
  Sure. Here is a link to GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck The story tells story of Cambridge Analytica. Author describes how it all started, how they gathered data and influenced people. Also he describes how it affected politics. It is very well written and feels like really good political-fiction. Unfortunately his descriptions match how last two political campaigns run in my country. Same approaches were used to get people votes. I rarely used my social media accounts but after reading this piece I decided it is the right time to leave all of them.
codingdave 5y ago
Wikipedia. You can go down some fun rabbit-holes there, and when a topic intrigues you, search engines will take you even farther.
- pknerd 5y ago
  How to find interesting wiki links? I am interested in science and philosophy.
  - jmiskovic 5y ago
    Wikipedia Portals were built for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy
matt_s 5y ago
If your goal is procrastination, lean into it and open up Netflix and watch something. Or Youtube.
mikewarot 5y ago
Newspapers.com is fascinating if you get the full membership for 6 months, you'll never run out of things to read. It is amazing how everyone's address was part of the story until about 1970. The stories of people who lived in our house before us would bring you to tears, along with joy. If you're into genealogy, it is a good resource to tie threads together with. Turns out my grandparents were the first ones married in a new church, back in the day, for example.
600frogs 5y ago
Agreed with matt_s - if you're looking to be distracted, just accept that and do something genuinely entertaining e.g. video games, YouTube, rather than finding some other forum with half-baked opinions to idly browse. And yes, I'm being hypocritical by posting here, but I count HN as part of my keeping-up-to-date-with-tech diet, which makes me feel a bit better about myself.
cpach 5y ago
Hacker News :-p The Economist. (I prefer to read it on paper though.) Metafilter is also quite good. Or subscribe to one or more newspapers.
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  > The Economist I wish they’d bring out a monthly edition. I too like the paper based format but I just can’t keep up with weekly editions. I have subscribed and then cancelled a couple of subscriptions with them over the years as I’d just end up with a stack of unread issues each time.
  - cpach 5y ago
    It’s a very dense publication indeed. I have also canceled my subscription. These days I just go to the newsstand from time to time and get an issue when I feel like it.
emmap21 5y ago
Immersed in the physical world. However, it is not the best option now. You might want to write or play some thing new. Language, Music, Art, Math, etc. This used to work for me though I look very un-fancy on the internet.
BlameKaneda 5y ago
Depends on what you're into. Articles: - This site - https://sadlunchbreak.com/ https://sadlunchbreak.com/ Quizzes: - Sporcle: https://www.sporcle.com/ https://www.sporcle.com/ - Geoguessr: https://www.geoguessr.com/ https://www.geoguessr.com/ (1 quiz per day if you're on the free tier) Wikis and rabbit holes: - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - TVTropes: https://tvtropes.org/ https://tvtropes.org/ YouTube: - Search "documentary, long" in the searchbar and see what turns up. The "long" part will find videos that are longer than 20 minutes.
- radicalriddler 5y ago
  Wow Geoguessr limits to 1 go for free these days. Google really killed off that game by increasing their prices.
markus_zhang 5y ago
CRPG Addict
crazypython 5y ago
https://vnav.io https://vnav.io
tldrthelaw 5y ago
HistoricAerials.com -- look up satellite photos of your area, or any area of interest, as far back as the 30s.
hackermailman 5y ago
This guy is a bush pilot in PG, he records all his flights and provides simulator data to try it yourself. https://youtube.com/channel/UCt0m3zjCj_oC6d-kUkk6zmw https://youtube.com/channel/UCt0m3zjCj_oC6d-kUkk6zmw Sort of learning video game procrastination I guess trying not to crash on those crazy runways in your spare time he even does intl flights somehow in that ac
anongoesprivate 5y ago
https://devrant.com/feed/top/all https://devrant.com/feed/top/all
Srisha 5y ago
Youtube, github, 4chan

18 points by robsun 5y ago

spamalot159 5y ago

As a kid I killed all my time with random flash games. Even though flash is gone you can still access virtually every good flash game with flashpoint - https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/ https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/

maxbaines 5y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/ but guess you know that.

ElectricMind 5y ago

//reading "Mindf*ck"// Could you tell more. Maybe gist of the book. Thanks

robsun 5y ago
Sure. Here is a link to GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck The story tells story of Cambridge Analytica. Author describes how it all started, how they gathered data and influenced people. Also he describes how it affected politics. It is very well written and feels like really good political-fiction. Unfortunately his descriptions match how last two political campaigns run in my country. Same approaches were used to get people votes. I rarely used my social media accounts but after reading this piece I decided it is the right time to leave all of them.

codingdave 5y ago

Wikipedia. You can go down some fun rabbit-holes there, and when a topic intrigues you, search engines will take you even farther.

pknerd 5y ago
How to find interesting wiki links? I am interested in science and philosophy.
- jmiskovic 5y ago
  Wikipedia Portals were built for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Philosophy

matt_s 5y ago

If your goal is procrastination, lean into it and open up Netflix and watch something. Or Youtube.

mikewarot 5y ago

Newspapers.com is fascinating if you get the full membership for 6 months, you'll never run out of things to read. It is amazing how everyone's address was part of the story until about 1970. The stories of people who lived in our house before us would bring you to tears, along with joy. If you're into genealogy, it is a good resource to tie threads together with. Turns out my grandparents were the first ones married in a new church, back in the day, for example.

600frogs 5y ago

Agreed with matt_s - if you're looking to be distracted, just accept that and do something genuinely entertaining e.g. video games, YouTube, rather than finding some other forum with half-baked opinions to idly browse. And yes, I'm being hypocritical by posting here, but I count HN as part of my keeping-up-to-date-with-tech diet, which makes me feel a bit better about myself.

cpach 5y ago

Hacker News :-p The Economist. (I prefer to read it on paper though.) Metafilter is also quite good. Or subscribe to one or more newspapers.

tailspin2019 5y ago
> The Economist I wish they’d bring out a monthly edition. I too like the paper based format but I just can’t keep up with weekly editions. I have subscribed and then cancelled a couple of subscriptions with them over the years as I’d just end up with a stack of unread issues each time.
- cpach 5y ago
  It’s a very dense publication indeed. I have also canceled my subscription. These days I just go to the newsstand from time to time and get an issue when I feel like it.

emmap21 5y ago

Immersed in the physical world. However, it is not the best option now. You might want to write or play some thing new. Language, Music, Art, Math, etc. This used to work for me though I look very un-fancy on the internet.

BlameKaneda 5y ago

Depends on what you're into. Articles: - This site - https://sadlunchbreak.com/ https://sadlunchbreak.com/ Quizzes: - Sporcle: https://www.sporcle.com/ https://www.sporcle.com/ - Geoguessr: https://www.geoguessr.com/ https://www.geoguessr.com/ (1 quiz per day if you're on the free tier) Wikis and rabbit holes: - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - TVTropes: https://tvtropes.org/ https://tvtropes.org/ YouTube: - Search "documentary, long" in the searchbar and see what turns up. The "long" part will find videos that are longer than 20 minutes.

radicalriddler 5y ago
Wow Geoguessr limits to 1 go for free these days. Google really killed off that game by increasing their prices.

markus_zhang 5y ago

CRPG Addict

crazypython 5y ago

https://vnav.io https://vnav.io

tldrthelaw 5y ago

HistoricAerials.com -- look up satellite photos of your area, or any area of interest, as far back as the 30s.

hackermailman 5y ago

This guy is a bush pilot in PG, he records all his flights and provides simulator data to try it yourself. https://youtube.com/channel/UCt0m3zjCj_oC6d-kUkk6zmw https://youtube.com/channel/UCt0m3zjCj_oC6d-kUkk6zmw Sort of learning video game procrastination I guess trying not to crash on those crazy runways in your spare time he even does intl flights somehow in that ac

anongoesprivate 5y ago

https://devrant.com/feed/top/all https://devrant.com/feed/top/all

Srisha 5y ago

Youtube, github, 4chan