5 ms·

Tell HN: I blocked HN, etc. during work today. It was a whole new world. Try it

33 points by falsestprophet 17y ago

indiejade 17y ago
Interesting. It is similar to the "noprocrast" feature on YCN, but applicable to a variety of sites. Nice work!
callmeed 17y ago
No
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
basugasubaku 17y ago
I tried this last week but found myself browsing in a VM so finally decided to just not fight it. So if you do want to try this, make sure you block all possible ways you can access the sites (various browsers, various VMs). Kind of a pain.
- brown9-2 17y ago
  This story is astonishing. You were successful at preventing yourself from browsing from your main machine, but fired up a a virtual machine to circumvent yourself?
  - basugasubaku 17y ago
    I always am running the VM anyway (Linux guest on Windows host); it's not like I started it just to browse. Just saying if you feel the need to block yourself programmatically you probably need to do so on all routes by which you can reasonably access the sites, e.g., various browsers and various VMs.
- joebasirico 17y ago
  Perhaps you could ask your IT Admin to block the domain at the firewall level? I feel at some point there must be a balance. I view HN as a way for me to "sharpen the saw" as they say. This is precisely why I've stopped going to those "other" social bookmarking sites. Too much distraction, not enough substance.
  - bkovitz 17y ago
    Anonymous proxy servers. Where there's a will, there's a way.
matthew-wegner 17y ago
Is it that hard to spend fewer hours at work and more, guilt-free time doing your own thing later? We run regular M-Thu 10:00-3:30 production hours. The trade-off, of course, is that people agree to save Twitter/RSS/browsing for their own time at home. We get a lot done.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  M-Th 10:0-3:30? Sure, I won't open a social website. M-F 8:30-5:00? Different story
  - matthew-wegner 17y ago
    That's 10:00am to 3:30pm (just making sure you didn't think it was 10pm-3am).
    - sparky 17y ago
      I think his point is that not everybody can set their own hours that way.
ruddzw 17y ago
Do people really have such little self-control that they need to block a particular internet site via a tool like this? Just don't type news.ycombinator.com or click your bookmark for it. Simple as that.
- Estragon 17y ago
  There's usually some emotional reaction associated with such behavior. Characterizing it as a broad failure of self-control oversimplifies it.
  - ruddzw 17y ago
    My bad. I hadn't considered that for some, it was an emotional experience. My relationship with HN is purely informational: I go here daily to find some interesting technical stuff and read interesting discussion. But the names behind the submissions and comments are purely words. There have been internet communities that I've been a part of that I have been emotionally bonded to. You get to know some people well and suddenly it's more a social experience than intellectual. That's a completely different story, and you'd need more than self-control to stop going there if it was becoming a time-suck.
- falsestprophet 17y ago
  I don't think this is a question of self-control. I noticed (only after I installed this plug-in) that sometimes when I got frustrated with a problem I would type in news.ycombinator.com by habit. Breaking that habit definitely helped my cause.
  - aswanson 17y ago
    Exactly, almost like you need the endorphin so you rush to the easiest source of satisfaction. Probably similar to a smoking or eating habit, you just need an easy win so you click on the site. Same here.
- bkovitz 17y ago
  "Just don't reach for the popcorn." It doesn't work that way.
xenophanes 17y ago
Why did you block them instead of just not visit them?
- bkovitz 17y ago
  You have asked a truly profound question. I don't know the answer, but it's got something to do with how brains work. This might be relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_function
harpastum 17y ago
A great app for OS X that will block all connections to a specific server for a specific length of time (not just in firefox) is Self Control: http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/ http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/
webwright 17y ago
Chris Sacca (awesome guy and investor in a few YC companies, including ours) said to us something like, "People have these moments of strength where they can say something like, 'block me from this site so I can focus' and they have moments of weakness where they break down and try to go to that site." RescueTime will have this feature pretty soon where you can voluntarily block or limit distracting stuff on a voluntary basis IN ANY BROWSER. https://www.rescuetime.com/blocked/url/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/blocked/url/http://news.ycombinat... There's an example block page that you'd see if you blocked Hacker News (we have a few custom ones in the works).
- fallentimes 17y ago
  I love that picture: http://danhau.posterous.com/our-fearless-investor-paul-gra http://danhau.posterous.com/our-fearless-investor-paul-gra
- asciilifeform 17y ago
  RescueTime has turned to the Dark Side: http://www.hackerne.ws/item?id=610570 http://www.hackerne.ws/item?id=610570
derwiki 17y ago
A year ago, I tried the same thing, and I agreed with what you're saying. Then I got rid of it. Then I started using Instapaper to browse and read things later. Then I stopped doing that. Then I got a job that I didn't hate. I don't accidentally waste too much time on HN anymore :)
tjic 17y ago
Agreed; I block sites from myself, and my increase in productivity (and morale) is amazing. I use this plugin instead: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145 You can turn on password protection, so that you can't turn off the plugin.
tdavis 17y ago
I found the only time this was remotely rewarding was when I noticed I hadn't checked HN for an entire day because I was just too wrapped up in work. Plus, I have way too many browsers installed for a Firefox addon to ever stop me. I don't even use Firefox as my primary browser.
Keyframe 17y ago
I can't do it. I just can't.
yread 17y ago
hmm browser plugin is ok. But I have like 6 browsers installed and sometimes I REALLY want to see it :) I use hosts file, but I haven't put HN there just yet. Just most of the news site (so I can only access the really crappy ones with boring articles). Hosts file works for virtual machine as well since I used a bridged connection :)
chanux 17y ago
I used HNs built in productivity features (No procrast, min away) during exam days it was quite good.
jamesbritt 17y ago
One useful side-effect of a time-tracking tool such as JotBot (note: I'm the developer) is that it routinely prompts me for input on what I'm doing. Now, that sort of thing can be annoying to some (as opposed to some passive activity tracker), but the upside is that it makes me aware of when I'm dicking around at the time I'm doing it, rather than at the end of the day when it's too late to correct it. I've tried blocking tools; hated them. I'd rather be allowed to make these decisions, but with a nudge that reminds me when maybe I'm getting too distracted.
clistctrl 17y ago
my hosts file is riddled with all the sites i visit on a regular basis.. in fact just today I had enabled everything (except my personal email) it's interesting because i found myself checking my email once every 10 seconds for lack of any other site to go to. Sometimes its really hard to get motivated to work on a project you hate.
sankara 17y ago
Most sites that I read are through RSS feeds in a desktop client (Newsgator). My RSS client typically remains shut during the work day (except for those occasional really boring moments). That way I don't miss anything neither do I "waste" time. I make it a habit to catch up in the night or before starting to work. An empty RSS feed would make sure I don't get distracted and let me feel contented as well.

indiejade 17y ago

Interesting. It is similar to the "noprocrast" feature on YCN, but applicable to a variety of sites. Nice work!

callmeed 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

basugasubaku 17y ago

I tried this last week but found myself browsing in a VM so finally decided to just not fight it. So if you do want to try this, make sure you block all possible ways you can access the sites (various browsers, various VMs). Kind of a pain.

brown9-2 17y ago
This story is astonishing. You were successful at preventing yourself from browsing from your main machine, but fired up a a virtual machine to circumvent yourself?
- basugasubaku 17y ago
  I always am running the VM anyway (Linux guest on Windows host); it's not like I started it just to browse. Just saying if you feel the need to block yourself programmatically you probably need to do so on all routes by which you can reasonably access the sites, e.g., various browsers and various VMs.
joebasirico 17y ago
Perhaps you could ask your IT Admin to block the domain at the firewall level? I feel at some point there must be a balance. I view HN as a way for me to "sharpen the saw" as they say. This is precisely why I've stopped going to those "other" social bookmarking sites. Too much distraction, not enough substance.
- bkovitz 17y ago
  Anonymous proxy servers. Where there's a will, there's a way.

matthew-wegner 17y ago

Is it that hard to spend fewer hours at work and more, guilt-free time doing your own thing later? We run regular M-Thu 10:00-3:30 production hours. The trade-off, of course, is that people agree to save Twitter/RSS/browsing for their own time at home. We get a lot done.

Psyonic 17y ago
M-Th 10:0-3:30? Sure, I won't open a social website. M-F 8:30-5:00? Different story
- matthew-wegner 17y ago
  That's 10:00am to 3:30pm (just making sure you didn't think it was 10pm-3am).
  - sparky 17y ago
    I think his point is that not everybody can set their own hours that way.

ruddzw 17y ago

Do people really have such little self-control that they need to block a particular internet site via a tool like this? Just don't type news.ycombinator.com or click your bookmark for it. Simple as that.

Estragon 17y ago
There's usually some emotional reaction associated with such behavior. Characterizing it as a broad failure of self-control oversimplifies it.
- ruddzw 17y ago
  My bad. I hadn't considered that for some, it was an emotional experience. My relationship with HN is purely informational: I go here daily to find some interesting technical stuff and read interesting discussion. But the names behind the submissions and comments are purely words. There have been internet communities that I've been a part of that I have been emotionally bonded to. You get to know some people well and suddenly it's more a social experience than intellectual. That's a completely different story, and you'd need more than self-control to stop going there if it was becoming a time-suck.
falsestprophet 17y ago
I don't think this is a question of self-control. I noticed (only after I installed this plug-in) that sometimes when I got frustrated with a problem I would type in news.ycombinator.com by habit. Breaking that habit definitely helped my cause.
- aswanson 17y ago
  Exactly, almost like you need the endorphin so you rush to the easiest source of satisfaction. Probably similar to a smoking or eating habit, you just need an easy win so you click on the site. Same here.
bkovitz 17y ago
"Just don't reach for the popcorn." It doesn't work that way.

xenophanes 17y ago

Why did you block them instead of just not visit them?

bkovitz 17y ago
You have asked a truly profound question. I don't know the answer, but it's got something to do with how brains work. This might be relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_function

harpastum 17y ago

A great app for OS X that will block all connections to a specific server for a specific length of time (not just in firefox) is Self Control: http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/ http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/

webwright 17y ago

Chris Sacca (awesome guy and investor in a few YC companies, including ours) said to us something like, "People have these moments of strength where they can say something like, 'block me from this site so I can focus' and they have moments of weakness where they break down and try to go to that site." RescueTime will have this feature pretty soon where you can voluntarily block or limit distracting stuff on a voluntary basis IN ANY BROWSER. https://www.rescuetime.com/blocked/url/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/blocked/url/http://news.ycombinat... There's an example block page that you'd see if you blocked Hacker News (we have a few custom ones in the works).

fallentimes 17y ago
I love that picture: http://danhau.posterous.com/our-fearless-investor-paul-gra http://danhau.posterous.com/our-fearless-investor-paul-gra
asciilifeform 17y ago
RescueTime has turned to the Dark Side: http://www.hackerne.ws/item?id=610570 http://www.hackerne.ws/item?id=610570

derwiki 17y ago

A year ago, I tried the same thing, and I agreed with what you're saying. Then I got rid of it. Then I started using Instapaper to browse and read things later. Then I stopped doing that. Then I got a job that I didn't hate. I don't accidentally waste too much time on HN anymore :)

tjic 17y ago

Agreed; I block sites from myself, and my increase in productivity (and morale) is amazing. I use this plugin instead: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145 You can turn on password protection, so that you can't turn off the plugin.

tdavis 17y ago

I found the only time this was remotely rewarding was when I noticed I hadn't checked HN for an entire day because I was just too wrapped up in work. Plus, I have way too many browsers installed for a Firefox addon to ever stop me. I don't even use Firefox as my primary browser.

Keyframe 17y ago

I can't do it. I just can't.

yread 17y ago

hmm browser plugin is ok. But I have like 6 browsers installed and sometimes I REALLY want to see it :) I use hosts file, but I haven't put HN there just yet. Just most of the news site (so I can only access the really crappy ones with boring articles). Hosts file works for virtual machine as well since I used a bridged connection :)

chanux 17y ago

I used HNs built in productivity features (No procrast, min away) during exam days it was quite good.

jamesbritt 17y ago

One useful side-effect of a time-tracking tool such as JotBot (note: I'm the developer) is that it routinely prompts me for input on what I'm doing. Now, that sort of thing can be annoying to some (as opposed to some passive activity tracker), but the upside is that it makes me aware of when I'm dicking around at the time I'm doing it, rather than at the end of the day when it's too late to correct it. I've tried blocking tools; hated them. I'd rather be allowed to make these decisions, but with a nudge that reminds me when maybe I'm getting too distracted.

clistctrl 17y ago

my hosts file is riddled with all the sites i visit on a regular basis.. in fact just today I had enabled everything (except my personal email) it's interesting because i found myself checking my email once every 10 seconds for lack of any other site to go to. Sometimes its really hard to get motivated to work on a project you hate.

sankara 17y ago

Most sites that I read are through RSS feeds in a desktop client (Newsgator). My RSS client typically remains shut during the work day (except for those occasional really boring moments). That way I don't miss anything neither do I "waste" time. I make it a habit to catch up in the night or before starting to work. An empty RSS feed would make sure I don't get distracted and let me feel contented as well.