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Distracting yourself from distractions by building an overly complex system to help you do that, and writing an article about it, is certainly a very HN-ish thi
by userbinator 1y ago
Distracting yourself from distractions by building an overly complex system to help you do that, and writing an article about it, is certainly a very HN-ish thing to do.
- gerdesj 1y agoIt is possible that OP has made some parts of the story up or at least sexed it up a bit to jibe with the HN mindset (whatever that is). I found the article refreshingly short and to the point whilst being jolly amusing and informative. The bloke is German so English is a second language - very good skills. That's a skilled technical writer, that is. Bookmarked. More please!
- remuskaos 1y agoThank you, I really appreciate this! Alas, none of it is made up - honestly. My wife and I kept finding ourselves in the garden on a beautiful day scrolling reddit and instagram for up to an hour, on several occasions. We kind of know we're wasting our time, and we kind of want to, too. It's kind of a constant struggle of uber-me against animal-me and I really hope this moderation tool works how I image it. After I read Neils post I've completed the entire setup - including blog post - in maybe three hours. So if this keeps me from doom scrolling for an hour at least three times, I've gained some time back.
- gerdesj 1y agoYou really are a very good technical communicator. Me and the wiff (not a spelling mistake! - very silly joke) find ourselves doing a similar thing and we are probably rather older than you (50-60). The world is changing very quickly and who knows what is "right"? I love your approach and that your missus obviously supports your mild madness. You clearly have a great relationship. Keep an eye on what is really important and don't "sweat the small stuff" as our US mates say.
- cainxinth 1y agoWe want technological solutions to problems created by technology, and structured approaches to recovering from over-structuring our lives.
- AdieuToLogic 1y agoThere is a word for those who believe they cannot live without something, go to whatever means necessary in order to obtain it, even knowing it is harmful, only to find what was once thought an escape is now a prison.
- remuskaos 1y agoWe prefer the term 'addict', thank you very much.
- xattt 1y agoIs there a difference between addiction and compulsion?
- AdieuToLogic 1y ago> We prefer the term 'addict', thank you very much. It would appear my innuendo was appropriately stated then.
- BrenBarn 1y agoMore flour more water. More water more flour.
- fud101 1y agoMore sugar, more salt.
- arcanemachiner 1y agoTed Kaczynski would be proud.
- 1y ago
- nsgi 1y agoSometimes this is the distraction you need - building something just for the sake of it can be oddly grounding
- elric 1y agoModern problems require modern solutions. But on a more serious note, distraction and focus are difficult topics. When I'm highly motivated, I'm utterly indistractible. When I have to do boring toil, absolutely anything & everything can distract me.
- frereubu 1y agoI have recently discovered that hardcore punk (like the album Feel The Darkness by Poison Idea) played at high volume in some headphones really helps me when I have to do those kinds of tasks. My hunch is that is translates my ennui into cathartic anger that I have to do this studpid f__king task, which generates motivation to show it who's boss and I plough through it. YMMV obviously - relies on you enjoying hardcore punk!
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoI call it giving the boredom monkey something to do. As long as he's in the corner enthusiastically banging his little drum I can get stuff done.
- drvhali 1y agoHyperfocus is a defining trait of some types of ADHD and Autism spectrum. But, don’t discount addiction in-general. Social media, internet use, and gaming are some of the things that can provide quick dopamine hits, which is the problem being addressed here. Adding a button to turn it off for a short-time is like heating just a tiny spoon of heroin and injecting it. No AA sponsor should ever say, “Yeah, it’s ok to dip your tongue in that whiskey.” That’s nonsense.
- anal_reactor 1y agoWhy aren't you motivated then? Is it because you're aware that most of your work is utterly pointless?
- sigbottle 1y agoFor me, the issue is, I always know that once I actually get into it it will be fine, but getting started even for that day is a toil. For all my progress up there both intellectually and as a person, I'm still someone who will just sit in bed for 1 hour before work and watch brainrot instead of getting up and getting ready for work. Or sit in bed reading reddit for a few hours on a weekend before making myself breakfast. Once I get into it, it's fine, but the thought of spending ~30-45 minutes getting up and properly starting the day is enough to make me procrastinate hours away :(
- dirkc 1y agoDistracting yourself by reading and commenting about someone distracting themselves from distractions by building an overly complex system is the ultimate HN thing to do ;P
- _Algernon_ 1y agoIf you identify a problem behavior then putting extrinsic constraints to manage that behavior seems like a reasonable thing to do. This comment reads like disparaging an ex-smoker for not still walking around with cigarettes in their pocket.
- conductr 1y agoI read the article as if it was written by a smoker, that wanted to quit so badly, he engineered a complex machine that would only dispense him a cigarette on a defined and spaced out schedule. Thereby, not quitting at all.
- illiac786 1y agoMuch simpler is using nextDNS as ad filter. But, even AdGuard isn’t that complex, I think it’s a one time distraction with some maintenance, compared to endless ads eating away at your brain, hours after hours. Worth it I say =)
- smileysteve 1y agoEspecially when nextdns has a free tier.
- s3p 1y agoI love it though!! These kinds of projects are fun to do and attack a real life use case for the creator. I bet he and his girlfriend get good use out of it. If my roommate wasn't so insistent on unfettered access to internet, I'd try to do similar DNS filtering for our apartment.