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A few months ago I spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica - a lot of hiking, beaching, surfing, etc. About halfway through I stopped at an internet cafe to transfer some p

A few months ago I spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica - a lot of hiking, beaching, surfing, etc. About halfway through I stopped at an internet cafe to transfer some pictures from my camera to a USB stick. While this was happening, I opened firefox... then drew a blank. I could not think of anything to type in the address bar. I could have gone to some regular sites... reddit, globeandmail, news.yc, facebook but they all seemed so foreign, weird and terribly disconnected from real life. I had absolutely no desire to see memes on reddit, news on the globe or what others were up to on facebook. An important lesson that one can draw from time away (whether it be aaron's month or my 2 weeks) is that you can't let tech/web overwhelm your life. People have a wide range of interests (whether you've discovered that or not) and devoting so much time to 1 thing seems like the easy way out. This is also why I refuse to believe that online socializing can come even remotely close to the real thing.

skolor 17y ago
Ever since I was young, my mother and/or Grandparents would take me on a vacation every Summer, where I was completely disconnected from everything going on in the world at wide. I may sneak a few minutes on a borrowed computer every now and then, but it was never anything significant for the 2+ weeks we would be gone. Looking back, even though I would hated being disconnected for so long, they were the best thing for me. Even now, when I get that week or two of vacation I tend to completely disconnect. I've reached a point now where I am connected to the internet, my hands on a keyboard/mouse at least 10 hours a day, for 90% of the year. And now, I look forward to those weeks off more than I ever did as a kid (and especially as a teenager. I hated being disconnected like that when I was in high school, absolutely despised it). A week hiking in the Rockies, of even just a week bouncing around my extended family's couches, has become something I look forward to months before the actual trip occurs. I'll never permanently disconnect, and I wouldn't want to, but taking those yearly breaks makes all the difference.
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  I recently returned from a little over a week at a cottage with no phone, let alone internet. It was by no means low-tech - we mastered the art of the the frozen margarita, one guest's mp3 player played a seemingly endless collection of grime and baile funk through the cottage stereo, and we had at least two laptops on hand (no wifi) - but the cottage wasn't connected to any information/communication networks. It was absolute bliss. The common assumption about time is that it passes quickly when you're having fun and drags when you're bored or frustrated. In this case, time passed slowly in a happy drift of relaxation. It was uncanny: we would spend what felt like several hours jamming with available instruments (two guitars and a flute), only to discover that it was still mid-afternoon - with plenty of time for a leisurely swim off the dock - rather than deep into dinner time. Over a period of a few days, I read a 900 page book and still managed to find time for dog walks, in-depth conversation, a long bike ride into town, a trip to a local farm, and so on. What happened when I got back for a second week of day trips around our house is interesting: I just couldn't muster up any enthusiasm for my usual online haunts. Why read reddit when I could dig into the next book? Why update my Twitter profile when I would take a stroll down by the waterfront? Why bother catching up on over 300 emails when my son was eager to hear the next chapter of The Hobbit? It was a few nagging responsibilities that got me back into the online swing, and as I reconnected, time seemed to speed up again to the usual blur of disconnected images and themes to which I was clearly accustomed before going away. I'm back to doing my usual activities, but like Aaron, I find it all feels strangely hollow - even this comment. If I don't take some kind of tangible lifestyle decision out of this experience and the slow epiphany that ran through it, I fear it will have been for nothing.
  - skolor 17y ago
    Its rather interesting, but while I agree with the first half, about the trip itself, but when it comes down to it, I live to be online. While there are several things I do online that are superfluous, and tend to slip away after each of my breaks (last year, I stopped doing for-money blogging, the year before I dropped quite most of the games I played) and don't come back. While there are plenty of things that are fine to slip away, the constant flow of information, that fount of knowledge that the internet is, I really depend on that. The break from it is nice, to get my bearings again, but its just that: a break. Its not a way I would want to live my life, and not one I can see myself ever choosing.
    - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
      Agreed. I don't think it would be practical or even beneficial for me to turn off. However, I think I need to get better at somehow reducing my exposure to the sheer, full-spectrum flow of stuff - particularly the trivialities - that consumes so much of my time and leaves the rest of my time feeling cramped and rushed.
nostrademons 17y ago
"An important lesson that one can draw from time away (whether it be aaron's month or my 2 weeks) is that you can't let tech/web overwhelm your life. People have a wide range of interests (whether you've discovered that or not) and devoting so much time to 1 thing seems like the easy way out." I really disagree with that, if applied to all people. I've always been completely obsessive about whatever it was I was interested in. Whether it was planes at age 6-7, ships at 8-9, cars somewhere in there, WW2 naval history at 9-10, computers at 10, Star Trek at 11, Gemstone 3 at 12-13, Magic: The Gathering at 14, MUDs & computers at 14-16, guitar from 16-18, physics at 18, Java at 19, Harry Potter fanfiction from 20-22, programming language design from 23-25, my startup from 25-27, and now Google's internals at 28. When I was little, my parents would worry about my one-track mind and rather obsessive interests. They had the same concern you do: people have a wide range of interests, and they were worried that I'd shut myself into being a narrow person. But by the time I graduated college, they realized that even though I had a totally one-track mind, that track changed every couple years, and so I'd had a dozen or so different interests. All pursued with a lot more passion than the person who just picks 2-3 hobbies and sticks with them for life. I think the real evil is continuous partial attention. Whatever you're doing - whether it's socializing, relationships, reading, hacking, research, etc. - give it your full attention. I try to check news.YC/Reddit/various social networks once a day, before I go into work. Then once I'm there, I concentrate on what I'm doing. Similarly, I try to read a book or hack a program when I get home, something that'll draw all my attention. I don't always succeed, but when I do it feels much more fulfilling than wasting 2-3 hours online refreshing news.YC.
- llimllib 17y ago
  > I think the real evil is continuous partial attention. Yeah. Agreed, it's my main enemy ATM. I may have to admit defeat and block reddit/news.yc/twitter/facebook on all my computers.
  - x37llnoise 17y ago
    fail? ;-)
caffeine 17y ago
There's a picture of me as a young child (4 years old) playing with the first Macintosh. From then until now (19 years later), I've been completely plugged in, basically all day every day. So ... this post was amazing for me. It's like there's a whole world out there. It completely slapped me in the face. I realized I moved into this apartment a year ago and every single wall is stark white - there's not a picture or poster in the whole place, because I never look at the walls. I leave the lights off so I can focus on the computer screen better. So I'm gonna do it, in September (I have a vacation then). A "31 day trial" of unplug (Though I will keep the fax, because it's so quaint and hilariously inefficient - and apparently my local Pizza Hut takes fax orders!). But I just have this one question: what, exactly, do "offline" people actually do all day long?
- Andys 17y ago
  Write, read, walk, explore.. sometimes with other people, if you can believe that!

skolor 17y ago

Ever since I was young, my mother and/or Grandparents would take me on a vacation every Summer, where I was completely disconnected from everything going on in the world at wide. I may sneak a few minutes on a borrowed computer every now and then, but it was never anything significant for the 2+ weeks we would be gone. Looking back, even though I would hated being disconnected for so long, they were the best thing for me. Even now, when I get that week or two of vacation I tend to completely disconnect. I've reached a point now where I am connected to the internet, my hands on a keyboard/mouse at least 10 hours a day, for 90% of the year. And now, I look forward to those weeks off more than I ever did as a kid (and especially as a teenager. I hated being disconnected like that when I was in high school, absolutely despised it). A week hiking in the Rockies, of even just a week bouncing around my extended family's couches, has become something I look forward to months before the actual trip occurs. I'll never permanently disconnect, and I wouldn't want to, but taking those yearly breaks makes all the difference.

RyanMcGreal 17y ago
I recently returned from a little over a week at a cottage with no phone, let alone internet. It was by no means low-tech - we mastered the art of the the frozen margarita, one guest's mp3 player played a seemingly endless collection of grime and baile funk through the cottage stereo, and we had at least two laptops on hand (no wifi) - but the cottage wasn't connected to any information/communication networks. It was absolute bliss. The common assumption about time is that it passes quickly when you're having fun and drags when you're bored or frustrated. In this case, time passed slowly in a happy drift of relaxation. It was uncanny: we would spend what felt like several hours jamming with available instruments (two guitars and a flute), only to discover that it was still mid-afternoon - with plenty of time for a leisurely swim off the dock - rather than deep into dinner time. Over a period of a few days, I read a 900 page book and still managed to find time for dog walks, in-depth conversation, a long bike ride into town, a trip to a local farm, and so on. What happened when I got back for a second week of day trips around our house is interesting: I just couldn't muster up any enthusiasm for my usual online haunts. Why read reddit when I could dig into the next book? Why update my Twitter profile when I would take a stroll down by the waterfront? Why bother catching up on over 300 emails when my son was eager to hear the next chapter of The Hobbit? It was a few nagging responsibilities that got me back into the online swing, and as I reconnected, time seemed to speed up again to the usual blur of disconnected images and themes to which I was clearly accustomed before going away. I'm back to doing my usual activities, but like Aaron, I find it all feels strangely hollow - even this comment. If I don't take some kind of tangible lifestyle decision out of this experience and the slow epiphany that ran through it, I fear it will have been for nothing.
- skolor 17y ago
  Its rather interesting, but while I agree with the first half, about the trip itself, but when it comes down to it, I live to be online. While there are several things I do online that are superfluous, and tend to slip away after each of my breaks (last year, I stopped doing for-money blogging, the year before I dropped quite most of the games I played) and don't come back. While there are plenty of things that are fine to slip away, the constant flow of information, that fount of knowledge that the internet is, I really depend on that. The break from it is nice, to get my bearings again, but its just that: a break. Its not a way I would want to live my life, and not one I can see myself ever choosing.
  - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
    Agreed. I don't think it would be practical or even beneficial for me to turn off. However, I think I need to get better at somehow reducing my exposure to the sheer, full-spectrum flow of stuff - particularly the trivialities - that consumes so much of my time and leaves the rest of my time feeling cramped and rushed.

nostrademons 17y ago

"An important lesson that one can draw from time away (whether it be aaron's month or my 2 weeks) is that you can't let tech/web overwhelm your life. People have a wide range of interests (whether you've discovered that or not) and devoting so much time to 1 thing seems like the easy way out." I really disagree with that, if applied to all people. I've always been completely obsessive about whatever it was I was interested in. Whether it was planes at age 6-7, ships at 8-9, cars somewhere in there, WW2 naval history at 9-10, computers at 10, Star Trek at 11, Gemstone 3 at 12-13, Magic: The Gathering at 14, MUDs & computers at 14-16, guitar from 16-18, physics at 18, Java at 19, Harry Potter fanfiction from 20-22, programming language design from 23-25, my startup from 25-27, and now Google's internals at 28. When I was little, my parents would worry about my one-track mind and rather obsessive interests. They had the same concern you do: people have a wide range of interests, and they were worried that I'd shut myself into being a narrow person. But by the time I graduated college, they realized that even though I had a totally one-track mind, that track changed every couple years, and so I'd had a dozen or so different interests. All pursued with a lot more passion than the person who just picks 2-3 hobbies and sticks with them for life. I think the real evil is continuous partial attention. Whatever you're doing - whether it's socializing, relationships, reading, hacking, research, etc. - give it your full attention. I try to check news.YC/Reddit/various social networks once a day, before I go into work. Then once I'm there, I concentrate on what I'm doing. Similarly, I try to read a book or hack a program when I get home, something that'll draw all my attention. I don't always succeed, but when I do it feels much more fulfilling than wasting 2-3 hours online refreshing news.YC.

llimllib 17y ago
> I think the real evil is continuous partial attention. Yeah. Agreed, it's my main enemy ATM. I may have to admit defeat and block reddit/news.yc/twitter/facebook on all my computers.
- x37llnoise 17y ago
  fail? ;-)

caffeine 17y ago

There's a picture of me as a young child (4 years old) playing with the first Macintosh. From then until now (19 years later), I've been completely plugged in, basically all day every day. So ... this post was amazing for me. It's like there's a whole world out there. It completely slapped me in the face. I realized I moved into this apartment a year ago and every single wall is stark white - there's not a picture or poster in the whole place, because I never look at the walls. I leave the lights off so I can focus on the computer screen better. So I'm gonna do it, in September (I have a vacation then). A "31 day trial" of unplug (Though I will keep the fax, because it's so quaint and hilariously inefficient - and apparently my local Pizza Hut takes fax orders!). But I just have this one question: what, exactly, do "offline" people actually do all day long?

Andys 17y ago
Write, read, walk, explore.. sometimes with other people, if you can believe that!