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So the top comment/advice on HN about how to avoid information overload is to collect a list of information to remind you to stop addictively collecting informa

So the top comment/advice on HN about how to avoid information overload is to collect a list of information to remind you to stop addictively collecting information. Sounds about right.

goldfeld 4y ago
I know it's weird but here has been my ANALOG solution to HN information consumption and even to tab overload (a chronic incurable autoimmune disease I acquired when just leaving my teens, during college life, which may have impeded my growth). I write much, sci-fi and always draft some articles (but never publish), so that keeping up with HN is a sort of reference material building activity, other than it I don't go on twitter, IG, reddit, slack, mastodon or whatever IRC channel, so I try to make the most of my constrained addiction, but it's always tough work to clean up a browser tab accumulation, as the Feynman quote quips, it's costly, you have to pay attention: The method involves a paper notebook, which I use whenever I can in lieu of a PC for drafting, taking notes, planning etc. On a two-page spread I start sth like an index by arbitrary useful topics of my current researches. Each line is a one or two word topic, after the word I simply list the HN IDs separated by comma. It's nice to save individual comment threads or whole posts using the same interface. When useful I write a little two word note on top of the number. In this fashion I close dozens or hundreds of tabs and postpone/defer reading the interesting conversations to when I will take action upon it e.g. by writing a short story or poetry or articles. I also use the GTD golden 2-min rule: if I can read and/or take action on a useful discussion or link posted in a few minutes, I do it on the spot and close the HN post forever. Done.
- whywhywouldyou 4y ago
  This sounds like a reasonable approach, with an explanation on how you personally execute it. The top comment is just a statement, and a very odd one at that, given the context of the original question.
  - mousetree 4y ago
    There’s no need to be dismissive. If these quotes help OP then that’s great. They seem to be helpful to a lot of others here too.
- lobocinza 4y ago
  I do something but on the computer. I issue `j w` on the terminal, which means journal write, to create a new time coded entry and open it on an editor where I copy the URL and any immediate thought I have in my mind. Most people will just bookmark and forget which I also do often. Anyway, we replaced a tab overload problem with a notes/bookmarks overload.
  - goldfeld 4y ago
    I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard.
    - lobocinza 4y ago
      > I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. I do look at mine extensively. Though I invested a significant amount of time organizing them. Having a way of quickly searching notes and previewing their contents does help. I use fzfx, which is basically opinionated shell functions on top of fzf to do the search. In the future I want to autosync the public notes to my site and implement an improved search system there. > Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard. C-C + C-V isn't a huge hassle at least for me. I have a bind on Neovim to format the link in Markdown format so I don't have to type []() and carefully paste the link in the right place but honestly I always forget to use and lately I'm just pasting the raw link and not caring about formatting. I think formatting should be done automatically in the background. In the future I may adapt or write a formatter for those niche cases. It can be triggered by a save or pre-commit hook (everything is in a repo inside a single monorepo). Might even hook up a LLM to it. Developing my own Notion lol.
      - goldfeld 4y ago
        Yes, fzf is amazing, back when I used and customized my linux box a lot finding out about it was a breakthrough in experience and speed of usage. My dotfiles suffered so much bitrot after over five years of not using them (it's on GH goldfeld/dotfiles the mess of both nvim and emacs init files) that I still think of cleaning them up and using one of those editors again, someday.. I guess. Ironically today my only interaction with the world of tech is as a user (not API coding, just end user) of AI[1]. By the way you seem to be a portuguese-speaking fellow (I assume also by the username's gender) and so am I. [1] as a matter of fact today I "launched" (on a barren desert let's say) a substack newsletter to feature code reviews by the chatG man (and soon feature open source AI projects too), and at first I'm having it review the old Vim plugins I once authored, including vim-seek on next issue, if you want to be my first subscriber, lol: https://generativereview.substack.com/p/the-generative-review-1 https://generativereview.substack.com/p/the-generative-revie...
rollcat 4y ago
I think there's a parallel to what someone (can't find the link) called "human vs elven" technology. "Human" technology focuses on adapting the natural world to one's needs, the ultimate result being the whole natural world removed / replaced by said technology. "Elven" technology focuses on adapting oneself, to remove the need to rely on, or change the natural world. The ultimate end being the complete removal of oneself from the natural world (while continuing to exist, of course). However that process still requires you to take "human" steps to ensure survival and progress.

So the top comment/advice on HN about how to avoid information overload is to collect a list of information to remind you to stop addictively collecting information. Sounds about right.

goldfeld 4y ago

I know it's weird but here has been my ANALOG solution to HN information consumption and even to tab overload (a chronic incurable autoimmune disease I acquired when just leaving my teens, during college life, which may have impeded my growth). I write much, sci-fi and always draft some articles (but never publish), so that keeping up with HN is a sort of reference material building activity, other than it I don't go on twitter, IG, reddit, slack, mastodon or whatever IRC channel, so I try to make the most of my constrained addiction, but it's always tough work to clean up a browser tab accumulation, as the Feynman quote quips, it's costly, you have to pay attention: The method involves a paper notebook, which I use whenever I can in lieu of a PC for drafting, taking notes, planning etc. On a two-page spread I start sth like an index by arbitrary useful topics of my current researches. Each line is a one or two word topic, after the word I simply list the HN IDs separated by comma. It's nice to save individual comment threads or whole posts using the same interface. When useful I write a little two word note on top of the number. In this fashion I close dozens or hundreds of tabs and postpone/defer reading the interesting conversations to when I will take action upon it e.g. by writing a short story or poetry or articles. I also use the GTD golden 2-min rule: if I can read and/or take action on a useful discussion or link posted in a few minutes, I do it on the spot and close the HN post forever. Done.

whywhywouldyou 4y ago
This sounds like a reasonable approach, with an explanation on how you personally execute it. The top comment is just a statement, and a very odd one at that, given the context of the original question.
- mousetree 4y ago
  There’s no need to be dismissive. If these quotes help OP then that’s great. They seem to be helpful to a lot of others here too.
lobocinza 4y ago
I do something but on the computer. I issue `j w` on the terminal, which means journal write, to create a new time coded entry and open it on an editor where I copy the URL and any immediate thought I have in my mind. Most people will just bookmark and forget which I also do often. Anyway, we replaced a tab overload problem with a notes/bookmarks overload.
- goldfeld 4y ago
  I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard.
  - lobocinza 4y ago
    > I used to swear by org-mode until I realized I’ll never look at nested folders and files again. I do look at mine extensively. Though I invested a significant amount of time organizing them. Having a way of quickly searching notes and previewing their contents does help. I use fzfx, which is basically opinionated shell functions on top of fzf to do the search. In the future I want to autosync the public notes to my site and implement an improved search system there. > Maybe you could automate pasting the url by copying it beforehand and having the new entry draw it from the clipboard. C-C + C-V isn't a huge hassle at least for me. I have a bind on Neovim to format the link in Markdown format so I don't have to type []() and carefully paste the link in the right place but honestly I always forget to use and lately I'm just pasting the raw link and not caring about formatting. I think formatting should be done automatically in the background. In the future I may adapt or write a formatter for those niche cases. It can be triggered by a save or pre-commit hook (everything is in a repo inside a single monorepo). Might even hook up a LLM to it. Developing my own Notion lol.
    - goldfeld 4y ago
      Yes, fzf is amazing, back when I used and customized my linux box a lot finding out about it was a breakthrough in experience and speed of usage. My dotfiles suffered so much bitrot after over five years of not using them (it's on GH goldfeld/dotfiles the mess of both nvim and emacs init files) that I still think of cleaning them up and using one of those editors again, someday.. I guess. Ironically today my only interaction with the world of tech is as a user (not API coding, just end user) of AI[1]. By the way you seem to be a portuguese-speaking fellow (I assume also by the username's gender) and so am I. [1] as a matter of fact today I "launched" (on a barren desert let's say) a substack newsletter to feature code reviews by the chatG man (and soon feature open source AI projects too), and at first I'm having it review the old Vim plugins I once authored, including vim-seek on next issue, if you want to be my first subscriber, lol: https://generativereview.substack.com/p/the-generative-review-1 https://generativereview.substack.com/p/the-generative-revie...

rollcat 4y ago

I think there's a parallel to what someone (can't find the link) called "human vs elven" technology. "Human" technology focuses on adapting the natural world to one's needs, the ultimate result being the whole natural world removed / replaced by said technology. "Elven" technology focuses on adapting oneself, to remove the need to rely on, or change the natural world. The ultimate end being the complete removal of oneself from the natural world (while continuing to exist, of course). However that process still requires you to take "human" steps to ensure survival and progress.