[HN Gopher] We live in an age of distractions, dealing with cons...
___________________________________________________________________
We live in an age of distractions, dealing with constant mental
stimulus
Author : iamsanteri
Score : 371 points
Date : 2021-02-20 19:49 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.lostbookofsales.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.lostbookofsales.com)
| BannedQuick wrote:
| You get what you where trained to beg for.
| cutler wrote:
| And then there's Javascript.
| kthxb wrote:
| This reads a lot like the author just read Newport's "Deep Work".
| I highly recommend it if you liked this article.
| iamsanteri wrote:
| I haven't read the book, but now I definitely will. Thank you
| for the tip!
| ArcMex wrote:
| Unpopular opinion but I've embraced it. I'm OK with doing
| everything in small chunks anyway. So yeah, in between three
| pages of a novel, I'll check my notifications. When my pomodoro
| counter hits during a coding session, I'll stand take a walk and
| stretch. Five minutes later, I'll check my phone. Then return to
| my desk. While relaxing and watching Netflix, when an episode
| finishes, I'll stop watching, close Netflix, check my phone. If
| it's bed time, bed. If it's something else, do it for a small
| amount of time with notable progress. Small chunks, always. A
| hacker news post or a Reddit meme. Never hours of /g/. But my
| phone is my companion, not my enemy.
| lrossi wrote:
| Sorry to say this, but HN is a problem as well.
|
| I'm looking for that 1% of the posts that interest me, and when I
| find them it's fantastic, since it's info I would not be able to
| find anywhere else. But going through the other 99% is a waste of
| time.
|
| These two combined have a harmful effect on me. I don't know if
| there's a name for it, but it's the same as the one causing
| addiction in gambling/bets/games. Gathering energy/motivation to
| do something productive instead takes effort.
|
| Just a few days ago I was thinking of adding a dns block for it.
| But that 1% of the links is sweet...
| mc10 wrote:
| > I'm looking for that 1% of the posts that interest me, and
| when I find them it's fantastic, since it's info I would not be
| able to find anywhere else. But going through the other 99% is
| a waste of time.
|
| Would this really help with HN addiction? I imagine it might
| exacerbate it since everything you see is so much more engaging
| (by definition), and probably count(posts that interest you)
| >>> count(posts that you've read).
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| This has helped me cut down on the time I read HN:
| https://hckrnews.com/
| latexr wrote:
| > Just a few days ago I was thinking of adding a dns block for
| it.
|
| In your profile you'll find _noprocrast_ , _maxvisit_ , and
| _minaway_ , which you can use to limit your time on the site.
|
| > But that 1% of the links is sweet
|
| You can use RSS feeds to be notified of stories with over N
| points[1] (or another rule), lessening the desire to look at
| everything.
|
| [1]: https://hnrss.github.io/#activity-parameters
| alsetmusic wrote:
| > You can use RSS feeds to be notified of stories with over N
| points[1] (or another rule), lessening the desire to look at
| everything.
|
| Thank you for this tip! HN is one of the only websites I
| don't consume via RSS. I had no idea I could customize
| parameters and do this.
|
| Unfortunately, I'll still be loading the site to find the
| rare links that are of high interest to but that get a low
| number of hits. But this will definitely help me optimize my
| interaction with the site. Again, thank you.
| lrossi wrote:
| I had no idea about this. Thanks, I will try it out.
| aserafini wrote:
| The name for this is 'variable reward', and yes it is the root
| of gambling addiction as well.
| haasted wrote:
| An alternative is to stop visiting the site and sign up for
| Hacker Newsletter instead: https://hackernewsletter.com/
| atleta wrote:
| I keep remembering that episode from The Outer Limits (the 90s
| series). I think the title was "The stream". It was set in the
| future, where everybody had an implant that they could use to
| access 'the stream' to get access to all the world's knowledge
| and information. (I.e. the internet, but back then even dialup
| internet was an uncommon thing for most people to have.)
|
| The story was that there was a single guy who could not have the
| implant and he was, of course, and outcast. And then there was a
| virus that started to spread through the stream and people
| started to show strange symptoms. Well, maybe not that strange:
| they started to consume more and more information. First the
| infected just started to look up and quote seemingly irrelevant
| pieces of information. You know, like the things you'd see on
| Quora (or during a random trip to Wikipedia) and then they would
| spend more and more time fetching more knowledge and have more
| and more information hunger.
|
| I'd say it's not unlike what we see around ourselves the past few
| years.
| RGamma wrote:
| The fallout of a decade of senseless pushing, growing and
| disrupting in the attention economy.
|
| We'll get the smartphone zombie outbreak under control, but not
| before it becomes worse. And if not.. not sure we'll even care or
| notice anymore.
| thewarrior wrote:
| Glad I found this useful post while refreshing HN for some mental
| stimulus.
|
| A book I found silly when I read it was Future shock. It said
| that change and information would be so rapid in the future that
| people would be in permanent state of shock. Seemed like a
| ridiculous notion at the time but not anymore.
|
| 22 year old me read about the Jewish tradition of Sabbath day and
| found it so silly. A day where you're not supposed to use any
| technology or do any productive work ? How silly !
|
| I totally get it now. They were onto something. We've now
| reinvented it as "digital detox" and "dopamine fasting".
|
| Got my hit by writing this comment now off to the the next post I
| go.
| bquest2 wrote:
| I fed your addiction by giving you an upvote. I hope you enjoy
| that number next to your username, representing Karma go up.
| You should try to get the high score.
| Nasrudith wrote:
| I think future shock is something for the non-young period. If
| you are young you don't have a set of norms embedded and are
| adapting to the new. Phenomenally messed up things like
| domestic violence can be assumed normal because that is their
| baseline. This is because of a lack of a strong baseline
| trained in to have dissonance towards.
| Ralo wrote:
| Every time I see a post like this, I like to remind myself of a
| quote from Blaise Pascal in the 1600s,
|
| "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit
| quietly in a room alone,"
|
| This has been an internal battles for most, for much longer than
| smartphones have been around.
| ruslan wrote:
| Go in to team sports (ice hockey, soccer, volleyball) reguarly,
| this will get your mind well disconnected for sufficient amount
| of time to recuperate.
| soheil wrote:
| I bought the iPhone 12 mini so it forces me to use it less due to
| its small screen size, it's been working pretty well so far.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| I wonder if we see a rise in ADHD in kids nowadays because it is
| an increasingly useful adaptation to our environment.
|
| "Hyperfocus is the experience of deep and intense concentration
| in some people with ADHD. ADHD is not necessarily a deficit of
| attention, but rather a problem with regulating one's attention
| span to desired tasks."
|
| I don't know, but "hyperfocus" on a hobby you love sounds exactly
| like what most people need nowadays to get off their phone and
| stop wasting their life staring on ads and ad-financed content.
| Also, I remember that most things we covered in school were
| completely irrelevant for the real world. So a difficulty to
| concentrate on school stuff may actually be better than doing the
| homework.
|
| In short, ignoring what society considers normal and instead
| being super focused on your own things ... sounds more healthy to
| me than the average "normal" person.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > I wonder if we see a rise in ADHD in kids nowadays because it
| is an increasingly useful adaptation to our environment.
|
| We like to think of focus and attention span as innate
| abilities encoded by our genes, but the truth is that genetics
| are only a part of the story. Focus and attention are learned
| skills that can be trained and developed over time.
|
| Likewise, focus and attention can be diminished over time
| through constant cycles of rewarding ones' self with quick
| distractions. If instead of studying on a difficult topic, a
| person scrolls Twitter for an endless stream of quick context
| shifts and semi-rewarding posts, they're training their brain
| to associate Twitter with reward and studying with pain. It
| takes conscious effort to suppress the desire for short-term
| reward and focus on long-term reward that comes at a cost of
| additional up front work.
|
| The rise in ADHD diagnoses is partially due to ever-expanding
| criteria for ADHD. Decades ago, ADHD diagnoses were mostly
| limited to severe cases that were refractory to therapy
| interventions. These days, drug companies push ADHD quizzes on
| the internet that make common everyday struggles feel like
| ADHD. Take a look at Takeda Pharmaceutical's Adult ADHD site:
| https://www.adhdadulthood.com/adhd-test With testimonials such
| as "I had to write everything down to maintain organization and
| memory" you'd think that non-ADHD people never had to write
| anything down to stay organized.
|
| > I don't know, but "hyperfocus" on a hobby you love sounds
| exactly like what most people need nowadays to get off their
| phone and stop wasting their life staring on ads and ad-
| financed content.
|
| The idea of "hyperfocus" is that the person loses focus on the
| wrong things. For example, if someone "hyperfocuses" on video
| games instead of doing their homework. It's a failure of time
| management and prioritization rather than a special ability to
| accomplish things.
|
| The idea of hyperfocus as a symptom of ADHD is a new
| phenomenon, and it's more prominent in pop culture than actual
| ADHD research. Just look at the only 6 hits for hyperfocus AND
| adhd in pubmed:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%22hyperfocus%22+AND+%...
| 5 of the 6 papers are from the last 4 years and most aren't
| from top quality journals. Before that, hyperfocus was only
| listed as an adverse effect of taking too high of a dose of an
| ADHD medication.
|
| > So a difficulty to concentrate on school stuff may actually
| be better than doing the homework.
|
| It's a mistake to think that children's schoolwork is only
| about learning how to do fractions or write cursive or just the
| core material. The kids are learning how to learn, learning how
| to focus, learning how to manage their time, learning how to
| follow through on tasks, and many other very valuable learned
| skills in the process.
|
| On HN we like to talk about the hypothetical genius child who
| would be studying engineering in their spare time if they
| didn't have to do a couple hours of homework at night, but in
| reality the vast majority of children are not worse off by
| doing schoolwork. It's training and learning how to function in
| the world. It's not perfect, but kids definitely do learn life
| skills from it.
|
| > In short, ignoring what society considers normal and instead
| being super focused on your own things ... sounds more healthy
| to me than the average "normal" person.
|
| The reality is that most people aren't forced to choose between
| being "normal" and being successful in their area of expertise.
| It has never been easier for someone to access information
| about their chosen topic online, but you only need to look at
| the traffic stats of major social media sites to see what
| people are actually choosing to do with their free time. It's
| also important to accept that good ideas don't always stand out
| on their own. Knowing how the world works and how to be
| "normal" is a critically important skill for working with
| others, getting your ideas out there, communicating, and so on.
|
| Obviously I'd never discourage anyone from pursuing study in
| their chosen field, but in my experience the people who didn't
| grow up in environments with strong structure, frameworks, and
| feedback loops from their educators and parents is often ill-
| equipped to follow their academic desires when they arrive at
| college or the business world.
|
| There are always exceptions, of course. However it's more
| common to hear kids complain that their early academic years
| were "not challenging enough" rather than too difficult,
| leaving them ill-prepared for reality when they finally
| encounter something challenging enough that they can't coast
| through it.
| sedeki wrote:
| > Obviously I'd never discourage anyone from pursuing study
| in their chosen field, but in my experience the people who
| didn't grow up in environments with strong structure,
| frameworks, and feedback loops from their educators and
| parents is often ill-equipped to follow their academic
| desires when they arrive at college or the business world.
|
| Eloquently summarizes my situation precisely.
| [deleted]
| EvilEy3 wrote:
| What makes you think this is a useful adaptation and not an
| exploit of our system?
| tluyben2 wrote:
| I wonder what the officially diagnosed number for adhd is and
| it it is rising over the decades; literally all my kids of my
| friends and acquaintances 'have adhd'. Most are not diagnosed
| by a medical professional but self diagnosed. A lot of people I
| talk with (people over 35-40) have self diagnosed themselves as
| having adhd to explain their issues in life.
|
| Did the actual number increase? Did the definition broaden? Why
| does it seem like a plague now?
| [deleted]
| toto444 wrote:
| Also I have literally never met anyone in my life telling me
| 'I have ADHD'. However on the internet it seems that everyone
| has it. My pet theory is that it is a very American thing,
| not that people feel more free to talk about it on the
| internet.
| imesh wrote:
| I don't even know how you would notice if you had ADD while
| working construction or some other manual labour job. While
| performing office work makes everyone feel like they have ADD
| if they aren't performing as they expect themselves too.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| It is interesting how manufactured distraction-free sessions like
| yoga, meditation, paid retreats, have emerged to fill the demand
| for idle time. We're forgetting how to unplug unless it's a
| product or service that we can buy.
|
| The distraction issue is the number one issue holding back most
| of the young people in the mentorship group I'm part of. They're
| so glued to their phones to check minute-by-minute updates about
| COVID death tolls, how big their stimulus checks are going to be,
| the value of their crypto portfolio, GameStop, and every other
| popular topic under the sun that they don't have any attention
| left for their own lives.
|
| Bitcoin is especially distracting right now, as they're all
| nervously watching the real-time changes of their $1000
| portfolios to see if they need to be sad about losing money
| because it's crashing or sad about not investing more money
| because it's going up.
|
| These are all smart students. I always wonder how much more they
| could accomplish if they'd simply pick four hours each day to
| turn off their phones. That's a tough sell, though.
| zzzeek wrote:
| > It is interesting how manufactured distraction-free sessions
| like yoga, meditation, paid retreats, have emerged to fill the
| demand for idle time. We're forgetting how to unplug unless
| it's a product or service that we can buy.
|
| I meditate every day and it's cost me nothing, uses nothing,
| does not require going anywhere, literally brushing my teeth is
| more of a commercial activity than meditation is.
|
| Meditation is exactly what your students could use most
| effectively to learn to manage distracted minds, so given you
| are in a position of mentorship it's kind of sad you seem to
| think the basic act of sitting and doing exactly nothing but
| observing how it feels is some kind of corporate fad that
| should be avoided.
| hybridtupel wrote:
| I think what was meant here are the countless (monetarized)
| apps and courses which gamify the meditation experience of
| course. You are totally right that the original intention of
| meditation is quite the opposite. No app, gadget or anything
| else required.
|
| Edit: Grammar
| tayo42 wrote:
| > countless (monetarized) apps and courses which gamify the
| meditation experience
|
| What do these apps do? Ive been giving meditation a shot
| recently. (Because i have similar thoughts about my
| distractions) So im aware of them, ive been mediating just
| by setting the timer on my phone and finding some quiet
| time and then well mediate. Mediate as i understand it is
| just sitting still and being present and aware of your mind
| wandering then bringing it back to being present.
|
| What am I missing?
| pencildog wrote:
| The main advantage of an app is guided meditation. If you
| only want to sit quietly, or you're already trained in
| meditation, or you've read some books on practice, then
| the apps may not provide an advantage to you.
| thombee wrote:
| It's kinda like having a meditation teacher, but in an
| app. Totally not necessary, but I like it :D
| abnercoimbre wrote:
| Agreed, but I would need to vouch for the Waking Up app for
| my own meditation. It was training wheels before venturing
| off on my own -- don't think anything is wrong with that!
| mandelbrotwurst wrote:
| I am personally finding myself getting caught in exactly these
| kinds of traps much more often since COVID showed up and all of
| the opportunity for in person social interaction dried up.
|
| Stillness has become difficult and while the digital
| interactions haven been an imperfect substitute, they're better
| than nothing and it's even more challenging to engage in good
| digital habits when you're leaning on these networks for such
| basic needs.
|
| It's been a challenge.
| heroHACK17 wrote:
| > It is interesting how manufactured distraction-free sessions
| like yoga, meditation, paid retreats, have emerged to fill the
| demand for idle time. We're forgetting how to unplug unless
| it's a product or service that we can buy.
|
| I never thought of it this way, very interesting. But it's not
| surprising. There's obviously a demand for these types of
| products.
| hauget wrote:
| This, and undiagnosed and untreated ADHD. By the way, for
| anyone struggling with ADD, check out a book called" by Johhn
| Ratey the way. It's GREAT. He also wrote Spark, which I think
| everyone should read.
| [deleted]
| rexpop wrote:
| > a book called" by Johhn Ratey
|
| I think you may have accidentally omitted some words.
| EvilEy3 wrote:
| One of the symptoms of ADHD, btw, lol.
| shortandsweet wrote:
| Curious about your mentoring program. How does it work? I
| always feel that who am I to really provide advice?
|
| I was recently asked to attend a virtual mentoring session and
| I didn't due to scheduling conflicts but I had no idea what to
| say had I attended. I was going to kick it off if they had any
| questions about anything and then move into my career over the
| years. I didn't want to share too much because I feel it would
| be bragging.
| cher88 wrote:
| Not the OP, but my advice is to tailor your advice / sharing
| of experiences to what your mentee(s) need. Always start by
| listening before sharing your experiences, and for each
| experience, distill the key learning so you can help your
| mentee see how they can apply it to their situation.
| sp332 wrote:
| You could start smaller. Set aside 15 minutes to think about
| life. Once they see the benefits, selling them on longer
| stretches might be easier.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > It is interesting how manufactured distraction-free sessions
| like yoga, meditation, paid retreats, have emerged to fill the
| demand for idle time. We're forgetting how to unplug unless
| it's a product or service that we can buy.
|
| This is the most interesting part to me, people managed to
| monetize these things. After vacations, entertainment, now they
| monetize idleness, I really don't know what to think of it. The
| funny thing is that they're really two sides of the same coin,
| they both compete for your time and money
| dominotw wrote:
| > We're forgetting how to unplug unless it's a product or
| service that we can buy.
|
| For me I never want to unplug because it brings me all the
| stress from things I have going on (and not going on) in life.
| This continuous online state has allowed me to putoff major
| life decisions.
| warent wrote:
| > Bitcoin is especially distracting right now, as they're all
| nervously watching the real-time changes of their $1000
| portfolios to see if they need to be sad about losing money
| because it's crashing or sad about not investing more money
| because it's going up.
|
| Great way to articulate this! This very experience is relatable
| although in my case with normal stocks, and something very
| interesting happened.
|
| I sold some stocks for a modest profit, checked a few days
| later, and read that if I had just held a little longer then my
| profit would have been like double. It was very frustrating,
| and there was that negative emotional reaction. Then I realized
| I'd somehow misread the numbers, and in fact I would have had
| my initial investment _cut in half_. My frustration melted into
| relief and happiness. But more than that, it shocked me into
| realizing something very important: in the moment, my emotions
| seemed real, but were actually completely disconnected from
| reality. Further, the sense of "control" I thought I had was
| revealed to be a complete illusion.
|
| After that, these "bets" (gambles) have completely stopped
| affecting me, and I haven't experienced FOMO since.
|
| Hope more people have the same liberating realization!
| agumonkey wrote:
| Trading is a soulless activity but the psychological, social
| and superstitious aspect of it are quite interesting. It taps
| deep into the fear/hope/chaos part of our brains.
|
| Everybody is angry to see $crypto reaching 300% but when it
| dips back half, nobody wants it anymore, until it grows
| again. Trading flips our natural reflexes upside down.
|
| The guru/superstition aspect is also something rare.. the
| actual knowledge of traders is really thin, but it can sound
| sophisticated if not advanced for the average crowd. Paired
| with the fact that all that is said comes with a "work 70% of
| the time" there's always enough room to justify errors and
| failures and still look like a guru to your crowd of
| wannabee-rich.
|
| That said it's also a good tool to learn about calculated
| risk, adventurous and also balance (many start glue to their
| screens but with time you know how to not overspend your time
| like this).
| antoniuschan99 wrote:
| It's also compounded because our Peer groups are doing it too
| so there's that additional FOMO.
|
| I get the same feelings as you do (we all do). I read that if
| the price goes up, we get an elated feeling but it's minor.
| But when we lose money, that negative feeling is twice as
| strong.
| aaaxyz wrote:
| There's also the fact that the more often you look at your
| portfolio, the less likely you are to see it go up
| (assuming typical returns and volatility). Something like
| ~51% if you look at it every hour vs ~70% if you look every
| month. Taleb uses that example in Fooled by Randomness.
| rubicon33 wrote:
| People seem to have a strange way of 'investing'. For me,
| it falls into 2 categories:
|
| 1) Long term investements which I almost never look at.
| Regular scheduled deposits going into an index fund.
|
| 2) Bets. Fun little side gambles which I always do for one
| purpose - aquiring something in the real world. Example: I
| want a new M1 macbook, but rather than drop $1k, I gamble
| $3k bitcoin. If it makes enough profit for the macbook, I
| sell immediately, and buy. If it drops, I just hang onto it
| until it goes up. But ultimately, this category of
| investment is never anything other than a bet, which I am
| OK losing. And, it's always a means to and end. I have a
| product in mind, and I justify gambling some money (which
| is fun) as a means to acquiring said product.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| > which I am OK losing.
|
| This is the most important concept of investing. You
| should never place an amount you wouldn't be ok losing.
| If losing every cent of an investment could cause
| financial ruin, you're investing too much.
| ajfjrbfbf wrote:
| I would agree with you if you replaced every "investing"
| word with "speculating" or "gambling". Otherwise what
| else am I suppose to do with my money but invest it?
| Leave it in the bank so they can profit off of it? There
| are entire categories of equity with variable degrees of
| risk, and a lot of them won't make me "lose every cent"
| in any situation but the end of the world.
| prox wrote:
| I had an economics teacher who very interesting and he
| taught us exactly this. He also actually owned a shop, so
| every economic theory he could explain with a real world
| example.
| whobar wrote:
| You are erroneously conflating investing with gambling.
| Astute investing in index funds is essentially risk-free
| if your retirement is far enough away. As you get closer
| to retirement, you should start moving from funds to
| bonds (or cash if you want to be extra safe), so you are
| protected in the case of a crash.
|
| I am not OK with losing the money I have invested, but it
| is so unlikely that I do not need to worry about it.
|
| A situation where the global stock market crashes, and
| never recovers, is basically an apocalypse. That is not
| worth planning for.
| djrobstep wrote:
| But there is a risk in not taking risk too. If you had
| taken this advice over the last ten years (my grandmother
| did, for instance) you'd have missed the greatest decade
| in stocks and property for many years, and are much
| poorer because of it.
| i5heu wrote:
| You can not not invest ,,money". If you let the ,,money"
| exists in Fiat money form your money is invested in this
| exact fiat money.
|
| This is all a big gamble with different risks. But
| generally: if you have "money" you have a risk to lose
| it.
|
| I use here ""Money"" as a synonym for buying power, or
| value that can be exchanged. So it is not like Money
| because it dose not describe the meta value and is part
| of the big gamble ;)
| suketk wrote:
| Yes! I had this same realization recently, which led me to
| write about it because it was so striking. It's scary how
| quickly we can becomes engrossed in our perception as opposed
| to reality. https://suketk.com/thought-space-vs-reality
| hikarudo wrote:
| Your story reminds me of the Indian allegory of the man who
| mistakes a rope for a snake.
| ta988 wrote:
| Mind sharing that one?
| dilawar wrote:
| I think he meant this one. Grerk also had something
| similar but can't locate the reference.
|
| https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com//mobile/vie
| w/1...
| hikarudo wrote:
| I like how this story is told in Buddhist contexts:
|
| http://www.1netcentral.com/articles/the-snake-rope-
| essential...
| agumonkey wrote:
| Very nice, do you know where to read about maya ? (fun
| fact Alias Maya was one of my favorite software ever, yet
| it's the first time I get interested in the philosophical
| concept behind the name thanks to you)
| godmode2019 wrote:
| If you set a small algo to buy $50 every day when you see
| down days you feel happy because you get a discount.
|
| Your time horizon is set at 10 years so any gains or loss is
| just a paper loss.
|
| If you need to check just do it once per day to get a idea if
| the market. But not in the morning because if your port is
| big enough it might affect your day. Try for lunch time to
| not affect your sleep.
|
| Good luck!
| p0d wrote:
| I sold my $1000 in bitcoin as it was proving a distraction. I
| was constantly checking it's value. I also came to the
| conclusion I don't believe in bitcoin. I was just hoping to
| make money which doesn't resonate with my values. I am good
| for money. I am thinking of turning my attention to micro
| loans to get my mind off the topic of myself.
|
| It took a long walk to break the bitcoin distraction and
| start to see sense. I think we should be wise about the
| technology we let into our heads. Especially when that
| technology is tied to money. I have 6 bank/share apps on my
| phone I check frequently. This may be my next area to tackle.
| spookthesunset wrote:
| Stuff like that is exactly why I just invest in boring
| market-wife index funds.
| Viliam1234 wrote:
| > I sold my $1000 in bitcoin as it was proving a
| distraction. I was constantly checking it's value.
|
| One more reason to HODL. Buy some bitcoins, forget that
| they exist, check the situation 10 years later... either
| bitcoin doesn't exist anymore (more likely), or you are a
| millionaire (less likely, but the chances are better than
| in lottery).
|
| My colleagues are watching bitcoin prices all the time...
| most of them don't even own any! I bought some, and they
| were like "hey, did you notice the price went up, are you
| happy?" or "hey, did you notice the price went down, are
| you sad?" every day. I told them "guys, please do not talk
| to me about bitcoins; I am going to check their price in
| 2030, and until then, I don't care".
|
| I have an approximate idea of where the bitcoin is now,
| because seeing the headlines on HN, it is hard to avoid the
| information. But I don't know what happened yesterday, or
| during the last week. I could check the current price in 5
| seconds... but I won't, because emotionally I just don't
| care. Instead I will submit this comment, and then try to
| forget that bitcoin exists.
|
| (And this is not specific to bitcoins; I would do exactly
| the same thing with gold or stock market. Unless active
| trading is my job, which it is not, I do not need the daily
| numbers.)
|
| I wonder why this is so emotionally easy for me, and many
| other people seemingly can't do it. It's not like I don't
| need money. I don't even feel particularly stoic. It is
| suspiciously similar to learned helplessness. Maybe I just
| focus my attention elsewhere... like writing comments on
| HN.
| hedberg10 wrote:
| Notice how your mood changed by just thinking differently.
| This can be done with anything. Its not the event(e) that
| makes us feel, its the callback(us).
| agumonkey wrote:
| Yeah one can go full panic attack over the wrong
| interpretation. This alleged reality vanishes as fast as it
| came, although the potential mistakes it triggered can last
| long.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I posted something recently here about a similar epiphany. We
| really do get to decide what we believe to be true, and we
| even get to decide how we respond to the truth. We can change
| how we feel about things over time. None of this is static.
|
| What sent me down that rabbit hole in a big way was stoic
| philosophy. I'm not 100% on board with it, but when it comes
| to this it has literally changed my life. I now take an
| active role in how I perceive things and how I react to those
| perceptions, and I actually enjoy that exercise a lot.
|
| So you lost some money. Can you still eat? Pay rent? Still
| have a job? Then it's not a problem at all, is it?
|
| Not long ago I would have gotten worked up too, and maybe I
| still would. Who knows. But there really isn't any need for
| it.
| raister wrote:
| Me too. I understand what you mean. I'll leave here a
| classic Stoic passage:
|
| After being told (of his exile), "Your case is being tried
| in the Senate," Agrippinus responded:
|
| "Good luck betide! But it is the fifth hour now" (he was in
| the habit of taking his exercise and then a cold bath at
| that hour); "let us be off and take our exercise."
|
| After he had finished his exercise someone came and told
| him, "You have been condemned."
|
| "To exile," says he, "or to death?"
|
| To exile.
|
| "What about my property?"
|
| It has not been confiscated.
|
| "Well then, let us go to Aricia and take our lunch there."
| keiferski wrote:
| The blank page is unpopular these days. People have lost the
| ability to be creative, as in "create from scratch." Everything
| must be appified and scheduled, offered with multiple
| preplanned choices and not with anything open-ended. This is
| easy to see with an example like kids toys or Legos: most of
| their new (and lucrative, I imagine) products are branded
| franchise ones, which is a far cry from the freeform building
| blocks of just a few decades ago.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > Everything must be appified and scheduled
|
| You see it very often on HN with all the articles about
| tweaking your productivity, scheduling everything, writing
| what you're doing every 15 minutes in a logbook as to not
| lose a single second of your life to "unproductivity", &c.
|
| We're applying machine concepts to human life as if all that
| mattered was how much "things" you can produce and how much
| other things it allows you to consume
| benhurmarcel wrote:
| I enjoy to read/watch about productivity apps and new tech,
| but it seems to me that all this "optimization" doesn't
| have any strong effect on output. It's not negative, you
| can do it if that brings you joy, but don't expect it to
| increase your output.
|
| One of my last year's most productive days, I was stuck in
| a small hotel room on a business trip for a entire day,
| with a 13-inch laptop on shit wifi. In just a few hours I
| wrote one of the most useful document for my job in the
| last couple of years. I guess I had nothing else to do, and
| had no distractions.
|
| Both at my office and home, I have all kinds of ergonomic
| setup, great connection, comfortable drinks, whatever. And
| I work ok there most of the time, but I got more focused
| and productive stuck in a hotel on a small laptop and a
| wooden chair...
|
| Recently this video [1] got my the same impression. A dozen
| content producers in the "productivity" niche show their
| workplace. Obviously there are some high-tech desks full of
| expensive latest tech, but also some simple laptops and a
| wooden chair. In the end it doesn't matter, they're all
| producing good output regardless of their productivity
| setup.
|
| So it looks more like a hobby than an actual link to being
| productive. It's really not about the apps or setup.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs7TCNDQy1E
| teach420 wrote:
| > they're all nervously watching the real-time changes of their
| $1000 portfolios to see if they need to be sad about losing
| money because it's crashing or sad about not investing more
| money because it's going up.
|
| I'd say those students are learning a lot.
|
| A few could make a profit or loss that is life-changing to them
| (this might also be a surprisingly small amount of money), and
| they are also presumably learning how to assess their risk
| profile in reality (as user warent describes in their comment)
| and be less likely to squander a much larger portfolio later.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| In this case, these are mostly software engineering students.
| They stand to gain more from their first signing bonus or
| even first paycheck than what they'd see from 10Xing most of
| their investments.
|
| From a mentor perspective, it's exhausting to hear students
| complain that they don't have any time to study or schedule
| interviews, then watch them spend 4 hours talking in the
| group Slack about their Dogecoin speculation theories.
| baxtr wrote:
| _> I always wonder how much more they could accomplish if
| they'd simply pick four hours each day to turn off their
| phones._
|
| I think most of them sincerely wouldn't know what to do in
| those 4 hours. Working on their laptops? I guess I wonder: How
| can people "accomplish things" nowadays without being on a
| device?
| vaylian wrote:
| I think the question should rather be: How can people
| accomplish things today by using devices that are connected
| to the internet?
|
| Having internet access increases the potential for
| distraction by a lot. Some websites are specifically designed
| to be addictive. The easiest way to deal with this is to
| block them on your device during certain times of the day.
| Balgair wrote:
| One (hopelessly futile) tactic may be focusing on the ROI of
| various reading material. Internet comments take ~5 minutes to
| write, 30s to read (6x ROI). Blog posts are ~4 hours to write,
| 10m to read (24x). Magazine articles are ~3 months to write,
| 30m to read (960x). Books are ~5 years to write, 8h to read
| (1300x). Obviously, reading books is one of the best sources of
| reading. But it also works with video and audio material.
| Movies are better than YT vlogs which are better than
| ticktocks. Albums are better than singles which are better than
| soundcloud covers. I know that teenagers are _never_ going to
| listen to this advice (I sure wouldn 't have), but there is
| that fleeting chance!
|
| (Also, the ROI stuff is a rough guide, read/view/listen to
| whatever you'd like, I'm not your dad!)
| burade wrote:
| It's called being young. They're emotional and inexperienced.
|
| 50 years ago this used to be normal. Now for some reason
| everybody expects perfection out of everybody at all times.
|
| Insanity.
| EvilEy3 wrote:
| 50 years ago it was different. You could work some grocery
| job and still be okay. Nowadays working minimum wage means
| being left behind and poverty. Given how competitive world
| has become it's only natural that it came to that.
|
| 50 years ago you would compete with your surroundings, now
| you compete with the whole city, country or even world in
| some cases. And this applies to everything: work,
| relationships, sex life, etc.
| imesh wrote:
| Very good point. I'm 30, check reddit/instagram/FB more than
| I ever did in college, yet I'm more more disciplined during
| my work and study than I was in college.
| dreamer7 wrote:
| Seems like there's an app opportunity here! Free time as a
| service. "Choose how many hours in a day you would like to be
| free and we will automatically block your calendar, cancel
| meeting invites, setup an email auto-responder and disable
| access to the internet" /s
| hetspookjee wrote:
| It's good that you explicitly made the /s. Otherwise you
| surely would've fallen victim of Poe's law.
| agumonkey wrote:
| It might be a shallow conclusion but the level of absurdity of
| 2000s life is getting to me. Everything good that was free is
| now ~offered as paid services to compensate for all the subtle
| toxicity of the average mainstream life.
|
| I just came back from a very free (for now) walk in the woods.
| callamdelaney wrote:
| There is a lot of talk about investments / trading on this
| thread so I thought I'd drop some of my thoughts and
| experiences here.
|
| 1) You can be right and still lose significant amounts of
| money. I've lost many thousands myself on something that I was
| eventually right about, timing is key - and it doesn't do to
| dwell on any decision - whether because you lost or could have
| made more. Sure, if I'd just invested my pocket money in
| bitcoin when I first mined it in 2012 I'd be retired already -
| but I didn't - shit happens.
|
| 2) If you are attaching emotion to your positions you're doing
| it wrong. This is a huge point, not one I've personally
| mastered - which is why I don't play with stocks anymore.
|
| 3) The whole cycle of emotions surrounding markets is explained
| brilliantly by George Soros in 'The Alchemy of Finance'. This
| is an excellent read. It's interesting and illuminating that
| Soros was a student of Philosophy and not strictly mathematics
| or business.
|
| In my own experience there are two layers to markets - what
| actually is and what people think is or will be; usually the
| latter is much more powerful in terms of short term positions.
| One of Soros's points is that the two interact and influence
| the other eventually.
| rubicon33 wrote:
| I am going to make a counter point, albeit one that I don't
| like:
|
| Advising kids to lean away from modern life and push back on
| the progress of distracting technologies will actually be a
| more anti-social move than not.
|
| What I mean is that to exist and live in the modern world
| increasingly requires adept skills at managing bespoke
| technological platforms. To be a social being in the 21st
| century is largely about navigating these platforms and being
| 'plugged in'. Disconnect, and you'll miss out on the flow of
| humanity.
|
| I mention I don't like this because frankly, I miss the idea of
| small towns with supportive communities that had inherent
| dependencies on each other. The baker, the butcher, the doctor,
| the pastor, etc, everyone had a feeling of purpose and a
| connectivity to their community. Of course this ideological
| view of society is long gone so there's just no sense trying to
| push back. Accept that today's child is a highly connected,
| distracted, techno-proficient being and let that be that.
| imbnwa wrote:
| I wager the sexual success of most young men does not hinge
| on their social media read/write frequency.
| ramphastidae wrote:
| I wouldn't be sure -- being off social media is seen as a
| red flag these days among young people, esp on dating
| sites, where linking your Instagram / Snapchat in your
| profile is considered par for the course. This is obviously
| satire but there is truth to it too:
| https://youtu.be/GEWnXmDfVZg
| jpster wrote:
| You haven't been paying attention. Look into "thirst
| traps".
| EvilEy3 wrote:
| And what's there?
| [deleted]
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >To be a social being in the 21st century is largely about
| navigating these platforms
|
| No, you aren't navigating the platforms, the platforms are
| configuring you so to speak as to work as just another
| input/output or relay, which is obvious in the language
| you're using here: 'connectivy'. (that's how we talk about
| switches and routers). As Baudrillard pointed out in his
| piece 'The Ecstasy of Communication', being a sort of input
| at some terminal and endless exchange of meaningless symbols
| isn't socialisation, it's the opposite. It's the destruction
| of the social through mass communication. It's like some sort
| of morbid dance that has no actual meaning at all, people
| mechanically switching tinder results back and forth to
| optimise an algorithm that makes that process easier in an
| endless feedback loop.
| DSingularity wrote:
| What if, hypothetically speaking, we knew that this is a
| sickness on the species-scale? Would you still say accept --
| and thus - succumb to it? I am not unconvinced that we have
| let these platforms go too far with our kids and minds; to
| the point where they have become cancers in our societies.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > Of course this ideological view of society is long gone so
| there's just no sense trying to push back
|
| It's only gone in ultra dense cities, as soon as we leave our
| techno bubbles the old world comes back real fast.
|
| > Accept that today's child is a highly connected,
| distracted, techno-proficient being and let that be that.
|
| I don't think you have to be that fatalist to be honest. When
| I see two years old kids already holding phones in their
| stroller, while the mom/dad is pushing the stroller with one
| hand and looking at the phone they hold in their other hand I
| feel like we went too far.
|
| You can teach kid to use tech as a tool to navigate the
| world, but the vast majority of gadgets and services are pure
| distraction that are designed to trigger addiction mechanisms
| and milk your attention/time/money. I'd rather teach my kids
| how to become a master of google maps or how to use an app
| that let you navigate the night sky and its stars/galaxies
| than put them on fortnite and tiktok, I don't think these
| things exist on the same plane. I don't think people fully
| grasp how important the first decade of a child's brain
| formation is.
|
| Self reported loneliness and teenager suicides have never
| been so high so I kinda cringe when I hear people saying
| restricting kids access to internet/tech will make them more
| disconnected and anti-social. A very large part of internet
| interactions are shallow and fabricated, they can't replace
| real world relationships in any way, shape or form.
|
| I agree in some capacity that cutting out all these things
| would be very hard and probably damaging in some way, but
| embracing them completely without any restrictions is, imho,
| much worse
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > Advising kids to lean away from modern life and push back
| on the progress of distracting technologies will actually be
| a more anti-social move than not.
|
| It's not about telling kids to unplug completely.
|
| It's about balance.
|
| There are so many endless digital distractions available
| today that people need to know how and where to draw the line
| on their consumption. Or they don't recognize that the short-
| term value they derive from scrolling Twitter or making a
| $100 gain on their Robinhood app comes at the expense of
| setting back their desired career goals, or personal fitness
| goals, or even their social goals.
|
| It's exhausting to listen to mentees complain that they don't
| have enough time in the day to work out, or read a book they
| want to read, or cook the healthy meals they want to eat, but
| then they go on to discuss things like Bitcoin and Dogecoin
| for 4 hours straight in Slack or recruit their friends into
| another Twitter argument.
|
| > Accept that today's child is a highly connected,
| distracted, techno-proficient being and let that be that.
|
| Part of our role as mentors and/or parents is to guide young
| people in healthier directions.
|
| There's nothing wrong with being connected and techno-
| proficient, and there's nothing wrong with having some fun on
| Twitter or Tik Tok. However, that doesn't mean we should go
| full laissez-faire and tell young people there's nothing
| wrong with being distracted all day every day.
|
| There are a lot of parallels to diet: There's nothing wrong
| with eating donuts or cookies or bacon in moderation.
| However, if you overindulge in sweets, eat 3000 calories a
| day, and never moderate your intake of anything you're going
| to accumulate major health problems over the course of your
| life.
| burntoutfire wrote:
| > It's exhausting to listen to mentees complain that they
| don't have enough time in the day to work out, or read a
| book they want to read, or cook the healthy meals they want
| to eat, but then they go on to discuss things like Bitcoin
| and Dogecoin for 4 hours straight in Slack or recruit their
| friends into another Twitter argument.
|
| It's practically never about time, but rather about energy.
| People need some downtime from work and chores and
| "improving themselves", and BS arguments on Slack or
| Twitter is a way to unwind for some.
| coffeefirst wrote:
| The food analogy is really good.
|
| Like food, hyper-distraction affects different people
| differently, I've watched really bad habits affect real
| peoples lives in bad ways, and many people who grow up in a
| culture where that's normal may never break those habits.
|
| Also like food, I'm spending way more time in front of
| screens in order to cope with the pandemic. Is it okay? Eh,
| not really, but I think it's okay to accept the necessity
| of overindulgence given the circumstances.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| > it's okay to accept the necessity of overindulgence
| given the circumstances
|
| Yes and no. To be honest I am not very happy with all the
| articles/folks advocating that people should en masse
| self-medicate during covid with gaming/hours on internet.
| Its like unless you sit in front of computer/phone there
| is literally nothing to do at home, just slowly go crazy.
| I wish governments did recognize this since early
| pandemics and actually encouraged people to do individual
| sports outdoors, not effectively banning like in France.
| That's much better way to keep one fit mentally, and as a
| bonus physically too which helps not only with covid.
|
| The reason for my opinion is this behavior creates
| patterns that will be _very_ hard to shed off for many
| people, once things go +-back to as they were (although I
| don 't think we ever get there 100%). Unfortunately,
| humans are creatures of habits and wired to create many
| dependencies, ie on substances, but also activities that
| produce dopamine rush.
|
| I hope I am wrong in this. Maybe it won't be as bad and
| the same people would end up with these 'addictions'
| regardless of covid, maybe a bit less pronounced.
| coffeefirst wrote:
| Yeah, I've thought about that, but at least for the
| people I know personally, they're all bored to death with
| these stopgap habits and the second it's safe to hang
| them up and go back to parties, music, and weddings, it's
| going to be a second roaring 20's.
|
| (But agreed on the "don't take a walk" style lockdowns.
| And I'm honestly surprised the backlash to them isn't
| stronger.)
| Loouu wrote:
| >Of course this ideological view of society is long gone so
| there's just no sense trying to push back.
|
| I mean, the amish and mormons exist, and their birth rate is
| quite healthy.
| [deleted]
| astrobe_ wrote:
| > will actually be a more anti-social move than not.
|
| Anti-social is the whole point. Because, precisely, society
| has been hijacked by consumerism.
|
| It's nothing new, it started with the industrial revolution.
| Now that (almost) everyone has a fridge, a TV, a car, a
| washing-machine, a computer, a phone, attention is being
| siphoned in order to generate revenue.
|
| > Of course this ideological view of society is long gone so
| there's just no sense trying to push back. Accept that
| today's child is a highly connected, distracted, techno-
| proficient being and let that be that.
|
| I think "attention economy" should be treated as a threat
| and, on the contrary, mercilessly fought against (with
| education, and not just kids). Because it damage people's
| mind just like the industry damaged the environment. Don't
| make the same mistake twice.
| [deleted]
| brightball wrote:
| This is honestly one of the reasons I stopped investing in my
| twenties. I cashed out everything and put it all towards paying
| down debt because I was absolutely obsessed with the stock
| market...but after doing the math the guaranteed returns on
| debt payment were a better focus than the up and down nature of
| the stock market.
|
| I invest now but I have to be conscious of obsession mitigation
| techniques otherwise I will constantly be watching fluctuations
| and wondering if I need to sell, buy something else, etc.
| Instead I buy big boring companies that pay a dividend...and
| never sell. Just watch for whatever looks like the best deal at
| the time when I have new money to invest.
| Tarsul wrote:
| I had/have the same problem. I now invest in companies that
| are big in sustainability. Saying to myself that even if the
| earnings fall flat, at least I can look in the mirror and
| live with it.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| I think it's more important than ever to clarify the
| difference between long-term investing and short-term
| speculation with young people.
|
| Many young people are entering the market with an expectation
| that cryptocurrency prices only go up and that they can
| outperform Wall Street by getting hot tips (DD) from meme-
| infused posts on Reddit.
|
| When it doesn't work out, they swear off "investing" when
| they never actually did anything beyond speculation and
| daytrading.
|
| I hope apps like Robinhood find a good way to encourage
| portfolio balance, dollar cost averaging, and risk management
| over time.
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| Exercise is shoes and a trip out the door away.
|
| It's really reflective of a (hopefully) near-endgame of
| marketing: turning over the last stones available. Well, I
| don't really believe that.
|
| Again, a failure of economics. EVERYTHING shouldn't be
| monetized, that is truly a path to dystopia, where you pay for
| the air you breathe.
| MikeTheGreat wrote:
| I love how, just 2 spots up from this post, is another post
| entitled "Debian Packages That Need Lovin' (debian.net)".
|
| I do hope the Debian packages get the help they need (and this is
| a great place to ask for such help) but it's hilarious for my
| mind to ping-pong between "Hey, maybe that's a new hobby (that I
| probably don't have time for)" and "Huh. There are a lot of
| distractions out there" :)
| mybrid wrote:
| What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the
| attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information
| creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that
| attention efficiently among the overabundance of information
| sources that might consume it. --Herbert Simon, economist
| frogpelt wrote:
| Check out out Nir Eyal's book "Indistractable"[1].
|
| It's about 5 hours long with plenty of useful tips for becoming
| indistractable.
|
| 1: https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/
| tluyben2 wrote:
| It seems though that people like this kind of thing, so it will
| get worse. Even in jobs that require focus like software
| development. Many people seem to like the bustle of constant
| chats in Slack instead of pre arranged meetings, face to face
| adhoc talks, open offices, living in a big city, notifications
| etc and then on a more technical level: setting up and
| configuring things that have nothing to do with the task at hand
| (which is writing code to answer to a business demand), spending
| strange amounts of time on 'automating their pipeline and
| processes' (which appears to be never finished and so is a
| perpetual distraction), checking out or even changing their
| stack/tools every week to adhere to the latest hype (which came
| from distractions like reddit and hn) etc etc.
|
| Not saying good or bad but not sure if people will ever like a
| life without these things even though they feel it is far from
| optimal, productivity wise.
| eingineer43 wrote:
| I love how you summarize the dilemma of a digital native. May I
| add some juicy polarization by referencing the quote "I don't
| know how to live, but I got a lot of toys" from the song 21st
| Century Digital Boy? Your article gives great reason to rethink.
| How to use the time we have been given in a meaningful way, to be
| labelled as a sentient being rather than a robot. It is
| definitely a daily test to one's choice: Rather to be a creator
| than consumer. Creating things is usually a sequential process,
| without a secret passage, lots of effort, making own
| (in-)abilities public and taking real risks - consumption can be
| found the exact opposite. So it's a path that needs decent
| courage. In the end it makes life brighter - and as you point
| out: it doesn't matter if you write about thoughts, read a book
| in length or build a trustful relationship with a person you
| love. It will be a lasting and enriching experience.
| UnpossibleJim wrote:
| I've been reading technical books for so long, hunting for
| information and with my shortened attention span, I now have
| difficulty reading for the sheer pleasure of it. I tried
| reading fiction not too long ago and found it laborious. It was
| the most disappointing feeling in the world to me.
| defterGoose wrote:
| This is interesting, and I kind of know what you're getting
| at. I've never been a super avid reader, but ive always
| enjoyed fiction and most sci-fi type stuff. As i get older i
| find myself gravitating towards more non-fiction. I recently
| read "Shadow Divers" which is the true story of some divers
| who discover an unknown U-Boat off the coast of New Jersey
| and spend years and several divers' lives in the pursuit of
| an identification. It was completely riveting which id rarely
| if ever experienced in a piece of non-fiction; felt like i
| remember the Harry Potter books feeling when i was a
| teenager. So maybe try expanding the scope of your search a
| little.
| rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
| It's definitely is a muscle that can atrophy, and can be
| rebuilt. It takes about 3 weeks of reading most days for me
| to re-learn how to do it. Even after that period, it still
| takes me 10 - 15 minutes to properly slip back into a novel,
| which feels like an eternity when we're so used to instant
| gratification, but it's not so long if your average reading
| session is the length of an average film.
| iamsanteri wrote:
| Yes! To your comment, if you could commit yourself to balancing
| and trying to produce an equivalent of just 1/10th of all the
| stuff you consume, I think you would end up being a major and
| great creator.
|
| And just like you said, although creating and publishing takes
| a decent amount of courage, it is very rewarding, especially
| when the main purpose to do it comes for the sake of your own
| observation, learning and joy.
| eingineer43 wrote:
| Which "funny book" are you reading?
| iamsanteri wrote:
| The book was "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore.
|
| Actually, even just by searching online you can find this
| small chapter from the book where he tells his "high tech
| parable", illustrating an (unfortunately) common story of a
| fast growing start-up that struggles to expand beyond its
| early adopter market into the critically important
| majority. I think you might consider it pretty funny too,
| although my humor might be dry here.... Even if it's a bit
| early to tell, the book seems like a nice read!
| [deleted]
| ppf wrote:
| I've spent the last year or so trying to control my smartphone
| usage, by removing apps and trying to set rules for myself like
| "your phone stays in the kitchen for most of the day". I recently
| took the plunge and got rid of it entirely, and it was truly
| surprising to realise how much of my time and attention it had
| still taken, despite my best efforts.
|
| If you think you're ready for that step, I highly recommend it.
| Just as mindless browsing, refreshing, and scrolling is self-
| perpetuating, so is the obverse. Once you start removing apps and
| accounts, and habits are broken, you will start asking yourself
| "Why am I on my (phone/computer/laptop)? What else could I be
| doing?"
| alexpetralia wrote:
| Similarly, everytime I decide to relegate my phone to another
| room, I am better off for it.
|
| The problem is that, one week or another, it eventually
| liberates itself and somehow makes its way back into my day-to-
| day.
|
| One day, I hope to solve this.
| elijaht wrote:
| I haven't gone as far as that, but have deleted anything on my
| phone that provides "infinite content". Twitter, the reddit app
| (still use logged out in browser so I get the ~20 top posts for
| a couple specific subreddits), things like that.
|
| I notice the same phenomena- I haven't restricted any behavior
| on my computer, but notice I am spending a lot less time on it
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| Will it even be possible for many people to give up smartphones
| in favour of a dumbphone any more?
|
| Thanks to COVID, you may have to own an Apple or Android
| smartphone to do certain things. Several countries have
| announced that their vaccination certificate will exist mainly
| in digital form, with one official app that generates limited-
| time QR codes. For instance, I can't find any information on
| what Israelis without a smartphone are supposed to do at
| restaurants etc., since the news is reporting that the QR code
| will be mandatory to enter such places.
|
| Nearly all people entering Poland must now quarantine, and
| after you hand over your details at the border, the police send
| you an SMS saying "Installing our quarantine app from the
| Google Play store or Apple's store is legally required".
|
| Then you already had the problem of some banks no longer
| offering code cards or SMS verification, and requiring you to
| use their app for 2FA for online banking.
| ppf wrote:
| Fortunately, I live in a country where I think there is less
| chance of such things happening. However - is mandated
| smartphone ownership the future we want? It goes without
| saying that almost all government over-reach is done "for
| your own good".
| esperent wrote:
| I've considered doing this, but it's not possible for two
| reasons: all my banking apps require using a smartphone. And
| second, I'm a web developer and need to test sites on a phone
| daily.
|
| There's also one killer app I don't want to stop using: maps
| (Google, Apple, Open Street Map, doesn't matter which).
|
| However, I have switched to NextDNS and locked out a large
| chunk of the internet on the phone. That helps.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| Maps are definitely the one thing that still keeps me owning
| a smartphone. The navigation is just super convenient.
|
| That said, before smartphones, I managed to find my way to
| where I needed to be, using paper maps and written
| directions. It's not _that_ hard.
| [deleted]
| acwan93 wrote:
| One way to combat this (if you're physically capable): long
| distance running without headphones.
|
| It forces you to focus on one thing alone: finish your route.
| I've found that my mind wanders, but the pain exerted by running
| for an hour or so inevitably brings you back.
| nicbou wrote:
| Bicycle and motorcycle travel works too. You can think about
| things, but you're mostly focused on staying in movement.
| pascalo wrote:
| Came on here to say it's exactly what I use cycling for. 5
| hours on the bike means 5 hours not looking at my phone or
| laptop. Just turn the legs over and let your mind wander or
| stare into the landscape (or deal with traffic, which sucks).
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| I spend a lot of every year bike touring, and on popular
| routes I have met other tourers and talked about this very
| issue, or observed their behavior. Apparently, a lot of
| cyclists still feel a compulsion to stop every X minutes so
| that they can take out their phones and look at their
| social media.
| nicbou wrote:
| Everyone travels their own way
| iamsanteri wrote:
| Hi Pascalo, I have exactly the same feeling when going on a
| bike tour. We just did a 5-day, 250km bike ride along the
| Danube river here in south-Germany and it was one of the
| most incredible experiences I've had. On the saddle I feel
| free and my mind is resting. High-five!!
| nicbou wrote:
| I've done the same route, with the same results! When you
| get to your stop, you're usually too tired to check your
| social media.
| iamsanteri wrote:
| Now how awesome is that, a fellow human riding the
| "donauradweg" here on Hacker News. Love it.
| dylkil wrote:
| isnt the pain of running long distance a distraction too
| though?
| ph2082 wrote:
| Man, I am reading this book Awakening Intelligence by Jiddu
| Krishnamurthy. It says same thing. Everything we do is trying
| to distract us from our true selves.
| redisman wrote:
| Sure, but on a scale from 0 to 10 - it's a 2. You can also
| walk or hike and then the only distraction is the scenery.
| jcynix wrote:
| Good points. And it reminds me that this is neither a new problem
| nor solved:
|
| _I find myself in these kinds of situations often, checking
| email or Twitter, or Facebook, with nothing to gain except the
| stress of a work-related message that I can't answer right now in
| any case._
|
| _It turns out that digital devices and software are finely tuned
| to train us to pay attention to them, no matter what else we
| should be doing. The mechanism, borne out by recent neuroscience
| studies, is something like this: [...]_
|
| Source: https://medium.com/@hughmcguire/why-can-t-we-read-
| anymore-50...
| dash2 wrote:
| I think by now, the post title is a cliche. That makes me wonder
| what I'll gain by reading another lament about how we're Stuck In
| The Shallows. That in turn makes me wonder if the post isn't an
| example of what it complains about.
| 50 wrote:
| We live in distraction because we give attention to _what does
| not matter_ which, if we let our hair down, is the external
| world. The imperative of dying to the external world is a process
| of rediscovery of _what does matter_.
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