4 ms·

I'm finally in a place where the only website I religiously check is HN. Because of it's nature, for me, it never takes up more than a few minutes every couple

I'm finally in a place where the only website I religiously check is HN. Because of it's nature, for me, it never takes up more than a few minutes every couple of hours. It took hard work to get there. I use Nextdns to block domains of websites and apps when I realize I spend too much time on them. Could I just allowlist domains, sure, and sometimes I do that when I need to look at something on Reddit for instance. But it's easy to just not cheat. I stopped checking news sites at all and it's been an absolute blessing. Very little that's in the news actually matters to me or my family. Even the publicly funded media is full of clickbait and sensationalism, just not worth it. I use local public radio to stay somewhat informed about things I should know, legislation for example that's relevant to us. Radio works because it's a limited resource so at least in my case, the signal to noise ratio is acceptable there, at least every now and then. I've been doing that for a little while now and I feel much happier. I use my phone much less frequently and for less time now. I love it.

guggalugalug 4y ago
Amen. One easy step anyone can take towards this direction of intentful filtering is to refrain from pulling the phone out of the pocket when standing in line. Just stand there. Look around. Watch other people. Think. Listen. The world exposed via your pocket device will not miss you. And after a while, you will learn to not miss it.
- 4ggr0 4y ago
  This really is a feature I seem to lack. Standing in a line without at least listening to music makes me really uncomfortable. I don't know where to look, what to do etc.
  - guggalugalug 4y ago
    It is tough. I feel you. Your hands suddenly, are very large; where do they go, or what do they do? But turn the music off. Take a breath. No one is talking about you, nor do you even exist; except as another human body cohabiting, briefly, space with others. Your identity consists of your instantiation in space; you can relax, allow your body-vessel to idle, and crunch through non-present problems. Or just relish the ambient hum. Maybe someone else who is unplugged has made fleeting eye contact, and asked you about the weather.
    - 4ggr0 4y ago
      Haha, exactly :D And the required "Oh no that person looked at me, did I do something weird?"
systemvoltage 4y ago
I feel completely the opposite. HN has become quite an echo-chamber. Diverse views are not celebrated and encouraged. I usually and deliberately poke popular opinions to get a good discussion out of it and it has been disappointing.
- bingon 4y ago
  What topics in particular do you find are insufficently diverse of opinions here? Let's discuss them here and now.
- barbazoo 4y ago
  I get it. I wasn't really advocating for spending more time on HN. For me it's just the one piece of "social media" that I can consume responsibly. Most things go way over my head anyway so I don't get drawn into lengthy discussions. Other things are just interesting little bits of information that usually don't devolve into a rabbit hole of any kind. Occasionally I do get lost in a thread but that's an ok price to pay for me. It works for me because I'm not the kind of person smart enough to waste too much time on HN :)
- skeeter2020 4y ago
  >> I usually and deliberately poke popular opinions to get a good discussion out of it and it has been disappointing. Perhaps it's apparent on some level to your audience that you're doing this to raise some sort response, not because you have a strong affinity for a particular position? The last thing I want to do is gorge on the junkfood emotion of false outrage.
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    We can use above comment as an example. I disagree with GP, my experience has been totally opposite lately on HN. That's genuine and not trying to evoke rage or what-have-you. Sometimes, I poke to see what the opposing views are. X is all the rage right now. So, if there is a thread about it, I'll ask or point to all the ways you can shoot yourself in the foot with X.
- 4y ago
mannymanman 4y ago
Looking forward to the day when it's easy for me to not cheat! Until then, I also find blocking websites on your hosts file (on Mac) a good solution https://masonsklut.com/how-to-block-websites-on-your-mac-using-terminal/ https://masonsklut.com/how-to-block-websites-on-your-mac-usi...
Firmwarrior 4y ago
Damn man, I was just thinking about how annoying it is that I can't find anything fun to do on my phone. I just check HackerNews and painstakingly slowly type comments in on here at 20 WPM. I can get a tiny glance at the world news through news.google, but that site gets worse every time I load it up. I tried paying for Apple News, but it was all low-quality clickbait. What were some of the things you had to wean yourself off? I can occasionally find an OK game to play for a little while, but the quality is really awful on phone games. Very frustrating considering my phone is probably 4x as powerful as a Nintendo Switch. I love to read books, but can't find enough good ones to keep it up. I'm not a big TV guy and especially hate YouTube.
- kioleanu 4y ago
  Regarding books, most of the books I read recently came from Reddit on /r/suggestmeabook - I am lazy, I just search for “page turner” on the sub, but I also like browsing and seeing people asking for subjects I wouldn’t have thought of.
- gretch 4y ago
  For games, I recommend small puzzle games. Microsoft freecell/solitaire. Match 3 games. There's some good ones, but you want the ones that really lean into being a mobile game and is not just a poor version of a full game (e.g. diablo immortal)
- shigawire 4y ago
  You could run emulators on your phone if you want better games.
- Jarwain 4y ago
  Most of the stories I read these days aren't technically books but web serials. It can be tricky sifting good stuff from meh, but royalroad's reviews are much better than Amazon's, and Topwebfiction is a pretty good ranking board (as long as the serial is still being updated. Although Worm's been finished for almost a decade now, and as of right now it's #10 on the weekly leaderboard)
- dumpsterdiver 4y ago
waynesonfire 4y ago
I'm trying to get off of hackernews during the day. I'm thinking about just having some other reading material by my side, like an academic paper or a book to work through when I need to take a break. We'll see how it goes. I just don't need to be checking hackernews as often as I do.
jahsome 4y ago
I killed off Facebook and Twitter years ago, but opted out of the news for the most part when the pandemic kicked off. I don't really intend to go back. I skim enough to get a grasp of what's going on about once or twice a day (a la reading the evening paper of yore) but tend to stick to aggregated/curated sources and investigate personal curiosity rather than succumbing to salaciousness and surface-deep echo chambered "news" content about some dumb tweet from some misguided soul. I am a lighter man, but part of me began to wonder what the cost was: will society pass me by? The longer I have spent operating in this fashion, the less I care. I find I have so much more empathy, especially for my kids & wife. It has truly given me a fresh outlook, and allowed me to focus on spending my time in ways I actually value.
Watchwatcher 4y ago
After realizing that HN can be a rather challenging place (highlighted in the shocking moderation of the Queen E death announcement thread), I actually took a substantial break from HN. And it made me quite a bit happier. I recommend you make your own HN with RSS. It is substantially better that way. You won't be at the mercy of one moderators personal belief system and your 'main page' will hopefully better reflect your interests.
- robin_reala 4y ago
  Dang’s explanation of the moderation of that thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32773299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32773299
  - deleted 4y ago
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  - Watchwatcher 4y ago
    I appear to have been rate limited for my comment. Looks like maybe not much has changed since that day.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  > recommend you make your own HN with RSS How? Please…
  - Watchwatcher 4y ago
    You need a reader. There are many. Then you just add the website feeds that you follow to it. You can even add HN, specific subreddits, and YouTube channels!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

guggalugalug 4y ago

Amen. One easy step anyone can take towards this direction of intentful filtering is to refrain from pulling the phone out of the pocket when standing in line. Just stand there. Look around. Watch other people. Think. Listen. The world exposed via your pocket device will not miss you. And after a while, you will learn to not miss it.

4ggr0 4y ago
This really is a feature I seem to lack. Standing in a line without at least listening to music makes me really uncomfortable. I don't know where to look, what to do etc.
- guggalugalug 4y ago
  It is tough. I feel you. Your hands suddenly, are very large; where do they go, or what do they do? But turn the music off. Take a breath. No one is talking about you, nor do you even exist; except as another human body cohabiting, briefly, space with others. Your identity consists of your instantiation in space; you can relax, allow your body-vessel to idle, and crunch through non-present problems. Or just relish the ambient hum. Maybe someone else who is unplugged has made fleeting eye contact, and asked you about the weather.
  - 4ggr0 4y ago
    Haha, exactly :D And the required "Oh no that person looked at me, did I do something weird?"

systemvoltage 4y ago

I feel completely the opposite. HN has become quite an echo-chamber. Diverse views are not celebrated and encouraged. I usually and deliberately poke popular opinions to get a good discussion out of it and it has been disappointing.

bingon 4y ago
What topics in particular do you find are insufficently diverse of opinions here? Let's discuss them here and now.
barbazoo 4y ago
I get it. I wasn't really advocating for spending more time on HN. For me it's just the one piece of "social media" that I can consume responsibly. Most things go way over my head anyway so I don't get drawn into lengthy discussions. Other things are just interesting little bits of information that usually don't devolve into a rabbit hole of any kind. Occasionally I do get lost in a thread but that's an ok price to pay for me. It works for me because I'm not the kind of person smart enough to waste too much time on HN :)
skeeter2020 4y ago
>> I usually and deliberately poke popular opinions to get a good discussion out of it and it has been disappointing. Perhaps it's apparent on some level to your audience that you're doing this to raise some sort response, not because you have a strong affinity for a particular position? The last thing I want to do is gorge on the junkfood emotion of false outrage.
- systemvoltage 4y ago
  We can use above comment as an example. I disagree with GP, my experience has been totally opposite lately on HN. That's genuine and not trying to evoke rage or what-have-you. Sometimes, I poke to see what the opposing views are. X is all the rage right now. So, if there is a thread about it, I'll ask or point to all the ways you can shoot yourself in the foot with X.
4y ago

mannymanman 4y ago

Looking forward to the day when it's easy for me to not cheat! Until then, I also find blocking websites on your hosts file (on Mac) a good solution https://masonsklut.com/how-to-block-websites-on-your-mac-using-terminal/ https://masonsklut.com/how-to-block-websites-on-your-mac-usi...

Firmwarrior 4y ago

Damn man, I was just thinking about how annoying it is that I can't find anything fun to do on my phone. I just check HackerNews and painstakingly slowly type comments in on here at 20 WPM. I can get a tiny glance at the world news through news.google, but that site gets worse every time I load it up. I tried paying for Apple News, but it was all low-quality clickbait. What were some of the things you had to wean yourself off? I can occasionally find an OK game to play for a little while, but the quality is really awful on phone games. Very frustrating considering my phone is probably 4x as powerful as a Nintendo Switch. I love to read books, but can't find enough good ones to keep it up. I'm not a big TV guy and especially hate YouTube.

kioleanu 4y ago
Regarding books, most of the books I read recently came from Reddit on /r/suggestmeabook - I am lazy, I just search for “page turner” on the sub, but I also like browsing and seeing people asking for subjects I wouldn’t have thought of.
gretch 4y ago
For games, I recommend small puzzle games. Microsoft freecell/solitaire. Match 3 games. There's some good ones, but you want the ones that really lean into being a mobile game and is not just a poor version of a full game (e.g. diablo immortal)
shigawire 4y ago
You could run emulators on your phone if you want better games.
Jarwain 4y ago
Most of the stories I read these days aren't technically books but web serials. It can be tricky sifting good stuff from meh, but royalroad's reviews are much better than Amazon's, and Topwebfiction is a pretty good ranking board (as long as the serial is still being updated. Although Worm's been finished for almost a decade now, and as of right now it's #10 on the weekly leaderboard)
dumpsterdiver 4y ago

waynesonfire 4y ago

I'm trying to get off of hackernews during the day. I'm thinking about just having some other reading material by my side, like an academic paper or a book to work through when I need to take a break. We'll see how it goes. I just don't need to be checking hackernews as often as I do.

jahsome 4y ago

I killed off Facebook and Twitter years ago, but opted out of the news for the most part when the pandemic kicked off. I don't really intend to go back. I skim enough to get a grasp of what's going on about once or twice a day (a la reading the evening paper of yore) but tend to stick to aggregated/curated sources and investigate personal curiosity rather than succumbing to salaciousness and surface-deep echo chambered "news" content about some dumb tweet from some misguided soul. I am a lighter man, but part of me began to wonder what the cost was: will society pass me by? The longer I have spent operating in this fashion, the less I care. I find I have so much more empathy, especially for my kids & wife. It has truly given me a fresh outlook, and allowed me to focus on spending my time in ways I actually value.

Watchwatcher 4y ago

After realizing that HN can be a rather challenging place (highlighted in the shocking moderation of the Queen E death announcement thread), I actually took a substantial break from HN. And it made me quite a bit happier. I recommend you make your own HN with RSS. It is substantially better that way. You won't be at the mercy of one moderators personal belief system and your 'main page' will hopefully better reflect your interests.

robin_reala 4y ago
Dang’s explanation of the moderation of that thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32773299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32773299
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
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- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Watchwatcher 4y ago
  I appear to have been rate limited for my comment. Looks like maybe not much has changed since that day.
TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
> recommend you make your own HN with RSS How? Please…
- Watchwatcher 4y ago
  You need a reader. There are many. Then you just add the website feeds that you follow to it. You can even add HN, specific subreddits, and YouTube channels!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]