5 ms·
A tiny thing, and I'm probably alone here, but one thing that absolutely wreaks havoc on my concentration is the simple act of 2FA for every little thing. Say
by tpoacher 5y ago
A tiny thing, and I'm probably alone here, but one thing that absolutely wreaks havoc on my concentration is the simple act of 2FA for every little thing.
Say I need to check an email relating to the code I'm working on. By the time I
- open firefox
- go to outlook
- open keepass (because yes I care about security and delete cookies)
- fill in my keepass master password
- find the relevant entry from keepass
- fill in my password via keepass
- wait to be greeted by the authenticator message
- grab my phone
- use my pin to unlock phone
- go to the authenticator app
- use my pin to unlock the authenticator app
- accept the authentication token for my email
- confirm authentication via my phone's pin
- search for the email
I no longer even remember what I'm coding anymore, let alone what I needed that email for.
This is particularly true if, like me, 2FA pisses you off, and your focus is replaced by rage.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- darepublic 5y agoYes I basically prevent my computer from sleeping to minimize these 2fa interactions
- phonon 5y agoUse a yubikey plugged into your computer instead?
- tpoacher 5y agoIsn't that something my organisation needs to support before I can use it? (I don't think it does).
- Shared404 5y agoIt seems like the solution for this specific instance is to not use web mail. Is there a reason you're locked into outlook?
- tpoacher 5y agoIt's what is provided / supported by the organisation. I tried accessing through local email clients but couldn't get 2FA to work with them - I may be wrong, but as far as I understand it's outlook specific. I use linux at home, so I haven't bothered installing outlook via wine (nor do I want to, tbh)
- throwaway38917 5y agoEven when you're not authenticating with something, you need to keep your phone within distraction range at all times in case you need to. And by the time you unlock the phone (thereby seeing your notifications) and open the app drawer you're one tap away from social media, which your brain is probably already thinking about from the familiar ritual.
- tpoacher 5y agoYes, exactly. The reverse applies too; having to keep your phone close makes you more likely to be interrupted/distracted by those notifications in the first place, even outside of a 2FA interaction context. It's like the modern worker experience is designed to destroy focus.