This, and it applies not just to HN but all distractions. I have periods where I cycle through various distractions. Sometimes I don't visit HN for a few weeks,

This, and it applies not just to HN but all distractions. I have periods where I cycle through various distractions. Sometimes I don't visit HN for a few weeks, but I instead visit a reddit community that I discovered. Then I drop reddit for a few weeks and replace it with Twitter. Then I replace Twitter with playing a game instead. It's not because any of these are particularly interesting or useful, it's because I want to escape from whatever else I'm supposed be doing, which most of the time is boring work.