[HN Gopher] Show HN: Improve cognitive focus in 1 minute
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: Improve cognitive focus in 1 minute
Staring at something for 30-90 seconds has been proven to improve &
boost mental focus on subsequent tasks (from Andrew Huberman -
https://youtu.be/CrtR12PBKb0?t=3367 ). So I made something simple
you can look at (and simultaneously meditate) for 1 minute to
improve focus for your next task :) Let me know if it works for you
Author : junetic
Score : 441 points
Date : 2024-02-07 13:03 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (oneminutefocus.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (oneminutefocus.com)
| ctack wrote:
| I like it, but it overflows on my iPhone SE screen.
| junetic wrote:
| Thanks. I will check it. Let me know if it helps you with
| mental focus after (It actually does for me).
| chrisweekly wrote:
| iPhone 13pro also slightly overflows left and right side when
| circle expands to its max size
| zerojames wrote:
| This reminds me of the old Headspace meditation app circle that
| was used to help steady breathing before beginning a session. I
| like it!
| junetic wrote:
| Haha yea. Thanks!
| ninkendo wrote:
| The mindfulness app that ships with Vision Pro has a similar 3D
| sphere thing made of what look like flower pedals, it's
| definitely a nice aid to the meditation.
| giantg2 wrote:
| And now you've meta sidetracked me with your Show HN post.
| junetic wrote:
| Sorry :D Back to your task!
| giantg2 wrote:
| Now I'm back again to view your reply. I'll get nothing done
| now (which isn't much different than before this).
| junetic wrote:
| huberman talking about visual focus + brain effects -
| https://youtu.be/CrtR12PBKb0?t=3367
| leetrout wrote:
| Related, on the meditation side, "Sit" was posted on here the
| other day
|
| https://sit.sonnet.io/
| slingnow wrote:
| If Huberman mentioned it in a podcast, it must be true and
| groundbreaking way to hack your brain to a better life!
|
| I can't wait to stare at this thing !!!!
| junetic wrote:
| Haha. Well have you tried meditation?
| ssijak wrote:
| only after breaking a fast with a cold plunge and sauna
| afterward
| generalenvelope wrote:
| if you didn't time your caffeine intake this morning it's
| all a wash /s
| generalenvelope wrote:
| Huberman's pretty good at taking research he doesn't have the
| expertise to assess out of context and turning it into some
| protocol that everyone needs to do.
|
| The vast majority of things he talks about, if beneficial at
| all, are at the margins and people stand to gain far more from
| doing things like exercising and eating vegetables more.
|
| Edit: Alan Flanagan has spoken on the Huberman paradox in
| detail: - https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLPU7BMiIN/ -
| https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Bgc3uGu0uoI
| cassianoleal wrote:
| Who's Alan Flanagan and why should I listen to his opinion on
| Huberman?
|
| From what I can tell, Huberman is a neuroscience Ph.D.
| whereas Flanagan is one in nutritional science is that right?
| If so, by credentials alone, Huberman seems like a better
| reference in matters of the nervous system.
|
| Note that I have no horse in this race, I'm really just
| curious!
| generalenvelope wrote:
| Alan has an MSc and PhD in nutrition and runs Alinea
| nutrition.
|
| I can't speak on Huberman's assessment of research in the
| neuroscience space, where he has expertise. Alan has done
| some breakdowns of Huberman's broad claims related to
| nutrition, and how they're generally hyperbolic and lacking
| sufficient evidence (ie they're not based on studies that
| show outcomes in actual humans in a controlled fashion).
| The folks at Barbell Medicine have spoken to some of his
| generic health/fitness claims as well, to similar effect.
|
| I think Huberman uses his platform and title to paint
| overly broad strokes about all kinds of things outside of
| his expertise. Some of this could be attributed to a
| platform like twitter that prioritizes small amounts of
| text, but overall I think it's disingenuous especially as
| someone claiming to be an expert. I think if he were more
| interested in helping people he would focus less on
| money/fame/views and take a more nuanced approach, instead
| of (mis)leading people to change based on extremely limited
| evidence. The problem is he wouldn't be able to churn out
| so much content if he did so.
|
| I have no reason to doubt any of his academic
| qualifications. But I have a lot of appreciation for the
| breadth and depth of knowledge required to speak
| confidently about the latest evidence in a field. This
| becomes a problem when the field is outside of one's
| expertise. Alan goes into this in detail on his instagram
| post.
|
| I realize the post is based on something Huberman said
| within his expertise. But I think the context is important
| to understand, as it makes me wary of listening to him in
| general.
| slingnow wrote:
| I have a nearly identical take, and every time I try to
| explain to someone that there are much simpler and higher
| impact changes they could make to their life, they can't seem
| to comprehend it.
|
| It's always met with something that sounds like: buT tHe
| handsome NEuroSciENtiSt sAid !!!
| plaidfuji wrote:
| I am SO COGNITIVELY FOCUSED on reading this comment section.
| fnordsensei wrote:
| Speaking of Huberman, I've had great use of the physiological
| sigh[1] for dealing with stress.
|
| 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0OBgihk2f8
| junetic wrote:
| cool. so exhale longer than inhaling and repeat multiple times.
| I think this works. thanks for sharing
| theGnuMe wrote:
| yeah basically it is how you breathe after sobbing intensely.
| fnordsensei wrote:
| It's more of a double-take on the inhale. 1) Inhale 2)
| Microscopic pause 3) Inhale some more 4) Exhale longer than
| inhaling.
|
| From what I've noticed, more than two inhales is fine, it
| still works. It just shouldn't be an uncomfortable amount of
| air in the lungs.
|
| I've also noticed that my dog does this when he's about to go
| to sleep.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Didn't know it has a name, but I frequently do that when I'm
| not calm enough to sleep.
| theGnuMe wrote:
| I do that, box breathing or even start a simple breathing
| meditation. Makes me yawn almost instantly.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Short in, slow out when I'm almost sleepy enough, guided
| 4-7-8-0 (4 seconds breathing in, hold for 7, breathe out
| for 8) when I need to sleep but am simply not tired enough,
| and guided box breathing for stress.
| pksebben wrote:
| I recognize the irony of posting this in a thread about
| maintaining attention, but I could not sit through all that
| salesey preamble to get to whatever the sigh is supposed to be.
|
| Culture gripe; I wish more creators got to the meat first, and
| added the long drawn out explanations later. I know why they
| don't (views == $$), but for real. I don't need your life
| story, just tell me how many onions I need to buy for the
| recipe.
| kqr wrote:
| But if it was done that way, wouldn't the placebo effect be
| weaker?
| emsixteen wrote:
| Thumbnail for that video is literally "Eliminate stress in
| seconds", but is an 11 minute video.
| phist_mcgee wrote:
| A big upvote for this too.
|
| Incredibly skeptical that it could work, but repeating it 5-10
| times in a row significantly calms me and fills me with a warm
| relaxed feeling for at least 10-15 minutes.
| sippeangelo wrote:
| This does not work if you have ADHD and you notice how you can
| see your own reflection in the darkness of the dot and oh look I
| forgot to shave this morning... wait where did the dot go??
| junetic wrote:
| :/
| ben_ wrote:
| True, but this isn't really something the page author can
| address
| as1mov wrote:
| I read your comment before going to the site. After starting
| the session, within a few seconds my mind drifted off into
| noticing how I couldn't see my reflection since my laptops
| screen is matte and why I prefer matte screens over a glossy
| one...and I've lost track of the dot too :/
| hnbad wrote:
| I first got distracted by the "dot" starting to change size,
| then noticed my reflection while thinking about how the
| animation was probably supposed to represent breathing and
| ... yeah, I gave up when I started thinking about Black
| Mirror because I was thinking about how this problem could
| have been avoided and black is more reflective than white.
| rickydroll wrote:
| and the dot changes are not smooth but jump when the browser
| gets lost on other tasks.
| dahart wrote:
| Are you sure it doesn't work with repeated or sustained effort?
| Maybe it's too short, surely one single 60-second sample isn't
| enough to know, right? I was just googling a little, while
| there isn't a ton of research, there seems to be growing
| clinical evidence that mindfulness & meditation practices do
| help people with ADHD. I don't know that the 1 minute dot
| counts as mindfulness practice, but I'm also not aware of
| reasons to count it out.
|
| https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adhd-mindfulness-meditation-y...
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4694553/
|
| https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adhd-meditation#get-c...
| yungporko wrote:
| nothing to do with ADHD. meditation takes practice, whether you
| have ADHD or not.
| dymk wrote:
| Of course it takes practice regardless of if you have ADHD or
| not, but ability to focus on something absolutely has
| something to do with ADHD.
| yungporko wrote:
| right, so just like pretty much every other aspect of life
| you can still do it with ADHD, it's just a bit more
| difficult than it is for the average person. hardly seems
| worth pointing out when it applies to virtually everything.
| dymk wrote:
| Responding "nothing to do with ADHD" to someone
| complaining that their ADHD is making it harder to
| concentrate is simply incorrect.
| lloeki wrote:
| I agree... the first (few) time(s) I did this kind of thing I
| could not for the life of me keep my mind on track, instead it
| was jitteringly jumping to this or that visual detail, this or
| that sound, or whatever spark of thought popped up.
|
| Every single time I could not help but hallucinate gigantic
| infrastructure from the tiniest speck of dust, and I further
| digressed into blaming my stupid self for being unable to
| perform such a simple task.
|
| It felt hopeless.
|
| I felt hopeless.
|
| But I kept at it, a day at a time. A moment at a time. I
| accepted that failure is part of the process. I let go of
| blame. Oh, here's a thought, oh well, I lost focus; well so be
| it, let the thought float, a soap bubble drifting wherever it
| fancies, I could _physically_ feel it wandering around my head
| while I went back towards the goal, if only for just a little
| bit, if only for just a little while.
|
| And then, one day, the magic happened. The stray thought
| vanished, the bubble faded away. I did notice the thought
| popping up as usual, I did take note of its presence, but I did
| not notice its later absence. I was _there_ , in the moment,
| but I did not notice _being there_ in the moment. I only
| noticed that _retrospectively_.
|
| I had let go.
|
| I had let go on my mind, but also, and perhaps more critically
| I had let go of the illness. I am not ill. I am different. This
| is who I am. This is me. There are others like me.
|
| It does not work at first with ADHD, but long term it _does_
| work, and it 's a fantastic tool for one to manage ADHD without
| medication. It's training, like so many other things, one can't
| reasonably expect to be good at it overnight. And with
| continued training it gets easier.
|
| Mind you it's not a silver bullet, but now I have one more tool
| up my sleeve in that endless struggle.
| noisli wrote:
| You can try this https://breathe.noisli.com
| TheLonelyClown wrote:
| Very nice :)
|
| Feedback: mostly I need to do this at work currently, which means
| I am going to retreat to a quiet place and grab my phone.
|
| Phone Screens going to sleep and the thing being interrupted by
| tapping anywhere on the screen are not compatible. Not sure if
| other people face this issue, but for me tapping anywhere on the
| screen in order to not make the phone go to sleep should not
| interrupt or restart this meditation. A small X in a corner would
| be better.
|
| Nit: The scrolling on your site is horrible broken on mobile.
| Keeps rubber banding and bouncing around.
| junetic wrote:
| Ack. Just applied a fix on the scroll. Not sure what to do with
| when mobile phone goes to sleep. Will look into it
| dtran wrote:
| Awesome project! Reminds me of donothingfor2minutes.com from
| Calm, but with a different end goal of focus instead of calm.
|
| Regarding mobile phones going to sleep, Wake lock [1] might
| help, unless you can reduce to 59s since I believe 1m is the
| threshold (make sure to request within the context of the
| user hitting "start"). Unfortunately on older mobile browsers
| [2], the best workaround I found was using this NoSleep
| library[3].
|
| Source: ran into this same issue when building
| https://www.phonefreehour.com
|
| [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WakeLock
|
| [2] https://caniuse.com/wake-lock
|
| [3] https://github.com/richtr/NoSleep.js
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Recite your baseline.
|
| > And blood-black nothingness began to spin... a system of cells
| interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked
| within one stem... and dreadfully distinct against the dark, a
| tall white fountain played.
| crawancon wrote:
| Neat idea and implementation!
|
| I'm a bit jaded from the internet so I couldn't relax. I was
| waiting for something to jump out or a big eyeball or something.
|
| the white and black contrast was nice... though it started to
| mess with my eyes as I stared. maybe awkward for light/strobe
| sensitive folks?
| Doe-_ wrote:
| Fun!
|
| I wonder if this lets you measure the average attention span of
| visitors? I'd be curious to see the impact on the average of the
| various platforms where this is shared.
| afandian wrote:
| I recommend https://breathly.app/
|
| It's open source, runs on iOS and Android and has aboslutely no
| clutter.
| 65 wrote:
| Thank you! I watched a podcast episode with Rick Rubin and
| Andrew Huberman and they did a breathing exercise at the
| beginning with an app like this. Rick Rubin never mentioned the
| name of the app and when I tried to search the app store for
| something like this it was all freemium junk.
|
| I got so annoyed I was about to make my own damn app, but now I
| don't have to.
| zagrebian wrote:
| Maybe it would be better if the circle didn't have such a high
| contrast. I don't want a black circle burnt into my eyes after
| I'm done with this exercise.
| junetic wrote:
| good feedback! thanks
| troyvit wrote:
| I enjoyed trying to tell if the circle had a 3d aspect to or
| not, and also trying to tell if it was completely black or
| actually dark dark gray. I'm not sure if I'm cognitively more
| focused but I'm going to try it again when I need that focus.
| hn8305823 wrote:
| I had a slightly different reaction: I was very distracted by
| the visual artifacts (brain processing, not the actual image),
| especially around the edge of the circle.
| noir_lord wrote:
| I was as well - everytime I see one of these they also pause
| too briefly at the change over from inhale/exhale and back.
|
| It's disconcerting because its not how I naturally breathe.
| lloeki wrote:
| maybe this one works better?
|
| https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/
| jonhohle wrote:
| Yes! In my periphery it looked like a polygon but when I
| focused on the edges it seemed like a properly antialiased
| circle.
| glfharris wrote:
| Interesting, I saw the same!
| sen wrote:
| Yeah I saw the same. A rounded-corner polygon.
| msluyter wrote:
| Indeed. I kept wondering if the circle was actually getting
| lighter as it got smaller or if that was just how I was
| perceiving it due to the afterimage and whatnot.
| david422 wrote:
| It does change color ... right?
| 93po wrote:
| This is a very HN exchange
|
| task: stare at circle
|
| HN, staring at the circle: they could use CSS for this
| instead of JS
| stevage wrote:
| I use the browser extension Dark Reader and I found it a
| soothing low contrast.
| wruza wrote:
| I believe everyone who wants dark mode actually wants Dark
| Reader instead. Also, half of the "dark mode"-enabled sites
| are more toxic to my eyes than their bright versions. Dark
| Reader allows to set the desired brightness, contrast,
| grayscale, etc.
|
| It's one of extensions that makes you instantly regret you
| didn't install it earlier.
| catchnear4321 wrote:
| as a side project - neat
|
| as a focus tool or means of understanding the self - anyone that
| hasn't tried to just sit or lay quietly, for the sake of doing
| so, ought to. it isn't hard, it isn't easy, it just isn't
| something modern society really seems to encourage, let alone
| understand. you might find you feel different once you are done
| than from when you began. that might be a good thing.
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| My mind: initial resistance, I don't really wanna do it. Whatever
| I started it. Okay, focus on the circle. Wow this feels like it's
| taking a while. Oh I wonder how other people would react to being
| presented this. Some people would probably expect it to be some
| sort of scare jump prank. Back to focusing on the circle. What
| was the page called again? _eyes go to URL bar_ Oh right, one
| minute focus. This is distracting I 'll just start counting. 1,
| 2, [...], 42. Oh it finished.
| manmal wrote:
| Meditation in a nutshell.
| Zelphyr wrote:
| Agreed. The powerful part is, "Back to focusing on the
| circle."
| namaria wrote:
| And it's a bit like weight lifting. I started with just the
| bar. In several weeks I was lifting my body weight. You
| start with just one minute. Pretty soon it's effortless to
| calm your mind for several whenever you want.
| bluecheese452 wrote:
| That is an extraordinary rate of progression!
| jalk wrote:
| Except I rarely think of goatsee when meditating
| once_inc wrote:
| There's a countdown in light grey at the bottom.
| bzmrgonz wrote:
| From Huberman's notes, I think we are suppose to match the
| expansion of the dot with an inhaling motion. The mechanics,
| iirc, is to increase oxygen to the brain by deliberate long
| inhales.
| lukas099 wrote:
| I hate timed controlled breathing exercises like that. The
| circle doesn't know the current oxygen needs of my body.
| airstrike wrote:
| IMHO the whole point is your body also doesn't really know
| how fast it needs to breathe. Often when we're stressed
| we're taking fast, shallow breaths even if there's no real
| lion in the vicinity. By telling your body to breathe at X
| speed, you break the stress cycle
|
| YMMV
| lukas099 wrote:
| My mileage does indeed vary. I always feel either oxygen-
| deprived or high on hyperventilation after.
|
| Telling myself to breathe _slower_ is fine. Just not at
| some predefined interval (or worse, whatever interval the
| yoga instructor feels like I should be breathing at)
| gglitch wrote:
| Thank you. Yes. I do too. I had asthma pretty bad as a
| child, and rate-limiting my air intake, or really in any
| way trying to ensure that my breathing is meeting some
| spec, is super stressful for me.
| compumike wrote:
| The stream-of-thought reminded me of this depiction of
| meditation: https://www.sippan.se/_images/meditation.jpg :)
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| Perfect! Your experience is the exact experience hoped for.
|
| Many people give up on learning to meditation because they
| cannot clear their mind for X minutes straight. Their mind runs
| away, and they must bring it back to focus. They see this as
| failure.
|
| Yet, this is exactly what is expected. How else to learn the
| invaluable skill of refocusing after distraction. If staring at
| a circle was so stimulating you never got distracted, then you
| would have no chance to build your focus muscles.
|
| Note: this comment is mostly about the first steps into
| meditation. I learned this idea from Shinzo Young.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > Many people give up on learning to meditation because they
| cannot clear their mind for X minutes straight. Their mind
| runs away, and they must bring it back to focus. They see
| this as failure.
|
| Yes, this is a real block for lots of people. When I was
| teaching my children to meditate, I tried to head this off a
| bit by telling them "you'll probably find that your headvoice
| will keep chattering away at first. Let it. Don't really
| fight it. Just acknowledge without judgment, clear your mind
| again, and keep meditating. Your mind will grow quieter on
| its own as you practice more."
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| I'll share my ship trick.
|
| This is for those of you that live by the bay. Needs a
| clear day but no Otis Redding song necessary.
|
| Where I live it takes about a 20-30 mins for a ship that
| left the harbour to disappear over the horizon. As it
| leaves I can see all the details, the name of the ship, the
| containers or people. Lots to think about and observe. I
| don't take my eyes off it. Gradually it turns into a
| smaller and smaller square, and eventually a dot. All that
| it is, all the people and cargo and funnels become an ever
| smaller world. Somehow that grabs and keeps my focus.
|
| Actually started to do it as an exercise for vision from
| too much screen time. Apparently it helps to focus on a
| distant object and I think... maybe... hmm... maybe it
| helps. But anyway, after a half hour of watching a dot
| vanish over the horizon, it leaves you with a _good_
| feeling. Like I used to get from astronomy before moving to
| the city. YMMV.
| kccqzy wrote:
| If I let my head voice chatter away, I never get the
| opportunity to clear my mind. The entire meditation session
| would simply become a sort of internal monologue, jumping
| from idea to idea.
| JohnFen wrote:
| What I meant by that is more "don't fight it", as in
| "don't let it dismay you, bring you stress, and don't
| judge the fact that it happens." That it happens is not a
| failure at all. It's normal. Just acknowledge and
| recenter.
|
| When people first start meditating, they often find it
| very difficult to get a "quiet moment" and think that's a
| sign that they're doing something wrong or something
| isn't working. Neither of those things are true, and
| while you might get just a few seconds of "quiet" at
| first, as you practice more, that time will expand.
|
| The basic point is that it's part of the normal
| progression (of anything, really). When you're doing
| anything new, you're going to suck at it at first and
| improve as you keep doing it. It's counterproductive to
| feel bad about the stage where you aren't good at it, and
| giving those judgemental feelings power can cause an
| unwarranted discouraging force.
| bayindirh wrote:
| > Many people give up on learning to meditation because they
| cannot clear their mind for X minutes straight. Their mind
| runs away, and they must bring it back to focus. They see
| this as failure.
|
| This is what we say to our students. It'll run away. Just
| bring it back. It's OK.
|
| The tool is great, BTW. Congrats. My only small gripe is the
| pulsation is too fast (for me). My relaxed breathe is 5
| seconds inhale, 5 seconds exhale.
| theonething wrote:
| > pulsation is too fast (for me)
|
| Was it my imagination or did the rate change? It seemed to
| slow down a bit at the end.
|
| If it doesn't, that might be a good feature; a progressive
| slowdown and perhaps a config to change overall rate.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Yes, the rate slows down, but I start with 5/5 directly.
| I think it's a result of meditating for a long time.
| jimmydddd wrote:
| Are we supposed to syncing breathing with the pulsing? Or
| are we just assuming that based on similar apps for
| breathing?
| bayindirh wrote:
| I think the pulsation is there to help regulate the
| breathing. Many people take fast and shallow breaths,
| esp. when they are stressed out.
|
| Because evening out the speed and taking deeper breaths
| help calming down with a couple of mechanisms.
| datameta wrote:
| It seems to me it starts off a bit too fast. But I like
| the rate at which it slows.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Some people give up because their brains simply don't work
| that way.
|
| I decided to start going to a therapist for some issues I've
| encountered over the years. He took my background information
| and immediately dove into an entire diatribe about
| meditation. Without addressing a single thing I actually
| said. The thing is, I've attempted meditation over the years.
| Not only had I already read all of his recommended source
| material AND watched the videos he recommended, but I knew
| other sources that I rattled off to him as well, including
| entire books on controlled breathing. I spent 2 years with it
| and never got anywhere.
|
| It does not work for me and I'm not putting myself through it
| again. I've got three or four separate trains of thought
| going on at all times. It's impossible to put a cork in all
| of them, it isn't helpful, and it's about as useful as prayer
| is to an atheist.
|
| Asking someone who has been abused as a child to instead
| stare into the abyss is a cop-out. Meditation as a solution
| to depression and anxiety doesn't bring me calm. It makes me
| angry.
| oldandboring wrote:
| Yes, this. There's almost an inverse "no true Scotsman"
| element to the way mindfulness and meditation are taught
| and spoken about. No such thing as failure, no such thing
| as doing it correctly, doing it at all is better than not
| doing it. All based on the unproven premise that it's a
| positive thing for everyone and/or that everyone will be
| able to get stronger at it with practice. Seemingly no
| consideration to divergent neurotypes, psychological
| trauma, physical limitations, or deep cultural differences.
|
| It reminds me of: years ago I came across a book profiling
| the journey of a young western Jewish man seeking a path in
| Zen Buddhism, studying under gurus with other seekers in
| monasteries. As he progressed through his meditative
| practice he couldn't avoid feeling unsettled by the sense
| that none of it was "working" for him no matter how deeply
| he understood and how much he practiced. The gurus all just
| kept trying to help him improve his practice. Until he came
| to the most enlightened and compassionate guru who
| basically let him off the hook, saying, in essence, that
| this stuff will never stick to him and that he's just meant
| to practice Judaism.
| MyNameIs_Hacker wrote:
| For those who think this is a cop out; it is known that
| for most people the ability to learn new languages
| changes around puberty. The ability to learn, recognize
| and pronounce phonemes changes when kids are very young.
| Babies brains are flexible and can be shaped in many
| ways. Adults, not so much.
|
| It is not impossible for all to learn this type of
| 'skill'. It is more difficult for many, and impossible
| for some.
| robocat wrote:
| My personal belief is that we retain the ability to learn
| new languages. The issue is that modern schooling has
| trained us to try and learn in counter-productive ways.
|
| I believe we can learn languages by (1) concentrating on
| mimicking and (2) learning by speaking with others and
| being continuously _corrected_ by others.
|
| The problem is that is requires a tremendous amount of
| work for learner and teacher.
|
| Think how a baby or child learns and do as much of that
| as possible.
|
| Initially absolutely avoid all reading, and totally avoid
| learning any rules.
|
| Improve your general ability of mimicking skills e.g. by
| copying singers and songs, by copying famous people in
| the foreign language, mimicking accents or people in your
| own mother tongue.
|
| People with English as their mother tongue have some
| advantages - we actually recognise a huge variety of
| vowel sounds because various English accents contain them
| - we also have familiarity with a variety of grammatical
| constructs. We also know pronunciation and writing are
| completely disjoint: anyone coming from a language where
| you say what you read has a big disadvantage.
|
| Much of my belief comes from talking with people that
| have English as their second language, and looking for
| their successes and failures. Some people learn English
| well and it's interesting to look for why them? Some
| mistakes are common to particular groups and it's
| interesting to look for the root cause.
|
| I have applied some of the above to teach myself
| conversational Spanish. To test my beliefs I'm definitely
| keen to move onto something more difficult ( I'm middle
| aged): the block is that I will need to dedicate many
| months of effort living in another country.
| anonymous344 wrote:
| actually, meditation can bring the buried emotions to
| surface. perhaps you have buried your anger and it tries to
| surface. maybe do Osho's dynamic meditation. Not alone, it
| needs a group. I did all kinds of stuff and read books,
| years and years. And after I invested to group sessions it
| got 100% more efficient
| infp_arborist wrote:
| I really appreciate George Haas as a meditation teacher. He
| specializes in those of us who are "f*cked up the most"
| (i.e. attachment disturbances)
| jdelman wrote:
| Who is Shinzo Young? I just did a Google search for that name
| and this comment was the first thing to show up.
| thx4allthefish wrote:
| I believe it is Shinzen Young
| bordercases wrote:
| Breathing slowly is a way to short circuit the mind.
| RHSman2 wrote:
| Basically how I felt in my ADHD assessments. 'You won't get me.
| I know what you are testing for. Hold the line. Hold. Oh,
| that's why a sort is an expensive database function! Ooops'
| rwoerz wrote:
| My mind: (1) Open that page for about 3 seconds, (2) go back to
| HN, (3) skim through the comments, (4) realizing the irony, (5)
| commenting on that
| altairTF wrote:
| Damn, i did the exact same...
| jimmydddd wrote:
| Ha. I was bracing for a jump scare also.
| nerdponx wrote:
| One of the biggest obstacles to any kind of mind-body practice
| is the sense that you NEED TO DO SOMETHING ELSE RIGHT NOW. It's
| a mental habit a lot of us build up over a life full of being
| busy with various tasks and concerns.
|
| The way I get through it is to remind myself that the only
| reason to avoid doing anything is fear of death, and I know for
| sure that sitting here for 1 minute will not kill me, therefore
| I have no reason not to force myself to just do it.
| 93po wrote:
| I save comments from time to time that seem sort of obvious
| but still resonate with me, and this is one such comment.
| Thanks! :)
| jeffgreco wrote:
| I was a young internet user at the turn of the century so kept
| waiting for a jump scare -_-
| DLion wrote:
| Ahaha same, I thought about it for a few seconds
| gigglesupstairs wrote:
| The first time I encountered such a jump scare was someone
| presenting their animation done in Macromedia Director. Not
| kidding, it was really traumatic in nature at the time. And I
| just didn't get the fun others supposedly felt for this kind of
| "fun".
| globular-toast wrote:
| Indeed, my PTSD prevents me from doing this without inspecting
| the source code.
| throw310822 wrote:
| The first time I used a meditation app I could not stop
| laughing hysterically at the thought that the guy soothingly
| giving directions from the app might suddenly go BAAAAUAAARGH!
| just for the fun of it.
| amflare wrote:
| I can never trust a meditation app for exactly this reason. I
| know there are too many trolls out there. This also reminds
| me of this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLZJxjCOplc
| y-curious wrote:
| YEP! Came to the comments to see if I am just paranoid.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| It would be great if you had a link or source for the claims on
| the page before you start.
| dinkleberg wrote:
| Instead of spending a minute reading their sources, you could
| just try it out and see if it works for you.
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| I'm going to be honest to you, I'm not going to use this, but
| I am interested in if/how/why it works. That might be able to
| convince me, but I don't want to dick around with the placebo
| effect.
| boringg wrote:
| Made it to 45 seconds before looking at the clock - though i had
| the mouse over the circle so it was greyed and in the middle I
| needed to move it around because it was distracting.
|
| Cool site though. How long does the "mental boost" last for? I.e.
| 1 min of focus for x amount of boost?
| junetic wrote:
| Good question on how much boost. I'm not sure. Will try to dig
| up the original studies
| boringg wrote:
| Not trying to make work - more just a curiosity. :)
| kapep wrote:
| The abrupt reset snapped me out of my thoughts which felt kind of
| unpleasant to me. Unless it is an intentional part of the
| experience, I would probably use a smoother end animation.
| Something that gently prepares you to get back to work (even if
| it just for a few seconds) instead of kicking you straight back
| into the world with unfinished thoughts.
| Ryder123 wrote:
| Agreed. Maybe the circle can shrink to it's final size, and
| then have the word 'restart' appear.
| once_inc wrote:
| Expanding it to full page would work.
| junetic wrote:
| thanks for the feedback! Yea not intentional. Just made it
| smooth out at bit at the end
| seventytwo wrote:
| Huberman seems to be well-respected, but I just can't shake my
| feeling that he's constantly trying to sell me stuff.
| slingnow wrote:
| Don't shake that feeling. He has a whole line of supplements
| that he has endorsed, and you better believe there's money in
| what he's doing.
| joshmlewis wrote:
| He talks about supplements sometimes but I don't ever feel
| like he pushes them and usually says you can get them
| wherever but I suggest here. I don't agree with everything he
| says but it's clear he puts a ton of time and research into
| the episodes he does and I don't blame him for trying to make
| money. So many of his guest episodes contain invaluable
| knowledge and that's a fine trade off for me.
| kieckerjan wrote:
| Nice work! Does the trick for me.
|
| Tangentially, I would love to have something like this in which I
| can "program" my own breathwork routines (reps and sets including
| breath holds). Been trying various apps, but haven't yet found
| one that ticks all my boxes. (Tips welcome.)
| junetic wrote:
| I would also like to know! Breathwork is important and it'd be
| nice to follow some routines and also somehow track my breath
| during sessions or throughout the day
| ohyes wrote:
| I kept thinking "all hail hypnotoad" and waiting for a jumpscare.
| I did feel remarkably calmer towards the end.
| bzmrgonz wrote:
| I think the instructions need to be further clarified. We should
| match the expansion of the dot with our inhales?
| jaystraw wrote:
| in say the late 90's, i remember getting an email with a link to
| a webpage that explained, "your CRT can be used as a camera, and
| if you stay in position in front of your screen we'll take a
| picture of you and display it"
|
| i'm maybe 12, and thinking of all sorts of things as i sat
| proudly waiting for an image of me to come back.
|
| after 15 odd seconds, i was shown a picture of a laughing
| primate. who was neither me or human.
|
| staring at this circle, i thought i was gonna get pranked again
| mentos wrote:
| I fell for this one when I was 10. Was a fun mix of terror and
| amusement.
| FergusArgyll wrote:
| about 20 seconds in: Can I vape while focusing?
| rpastuszak wrote:
| Nice one! The first version of Sit. was just a dot to stare at:
| https://sit.sonnet.io
|
| (Felt like too much UI for me so I dropped it.)
| joloooo wrote:
| I enjoyed this version more. While less focus oriented it was
| more calming than the high-contrast dot. thanks for sharing!
| thinkingtoilet wrote:
| A small piece of feedback. I started to breath naturally with the
| pulse of the circle then found it to be a little too fast. I
| think slowing the pulse down would be nice. And to add to what
| others have said, I think the contrast of the colors could be
| more pleasant. Thanks for sharing!
| smallerfish wrote:
| Right, agreed - it seems fast. What breathing frequency are you
| aiming for, and is there any science to it?
|
| Also, you could think about extending to box breathing.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| I think it needs a pause at the end of each animation cycle.
| Like, I breathe in and then wait half a second before breathing
| back out. Same for the other way around.
| barbazoo wrote:
| Yes, what I felt too. Is there a secret query param by chance
| to control the baseline speed?
| bewuethr wrote:
| I thought the same, and then thought it's maybe slowing down?
| And if it isn't, it would be nice.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| Same here and it actually started triggering a little bit of
| anxiety in doing so (I take short breaths or hold my breath
| when anxious). Maybe it should utilize the 4-7-8 pattern.
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| Started it, then almost immediately got a text from daycare and
| clicked away. I guess I'll try again later.
| cchance wrote:
| Firstly... my ADHD did not allow me to complete this.
|
| Secondly... My distrust of the internet did not let me complete
| this as it told me a jump scare was guaranteed to happen
| eventually.
| metadat wrote:
| Life's tough when you voluntarily place yourself in the role of
| the victim and give away all your power.
|
| That phrasing, "wouldn't let me complete this", is a self-
| defeating way to talk to yourself.
|
| Switching it up a bit can make a significant difference, for
| example: "That first try was a struggle, it might take some
| practice for me to improve".
|
| --
|
| In case you or other HN friends are curious and find this
| technique intriguing, it stems from the philosophy suggesting
| healthy thinking can reduce distress and promote well-being.
| The field of study is called Cognitive (or Dialectical)
| Behavioral Therapy, aka CBT / DBT. Millions of people have
| found it an effective framework and strategy to permanently
| improve the way we speak to ourselves and relate to the world.
|
| Here's the book I liked most (but there is an ocean of them):
|
| _DBT Skills Training Manual by Marsha Linehan_
|
| https://www.amazon.com/DBT%C2%AE-Skills-Training-Manual-Seco...
|
| While you're alive, you might as well live your best life.
|
| Sincerely, your buddy Metadat
|
| p.s. sorry for the medium-length text wall, I didn't realize
| this would take be more than a sentence, but after initially
| posting only the first sentence, it was downvoted and it was
| apparent some explanation would be more helpful.
| geoelectric wrote:
| Worth mentioning DBT is a subset of CBT, not a synonym.
|
| https://www.skylandtrail.org/4-differences-between-cbt-
| and-d...
|
| DBT originally stems from therapies for Borderline
| Personality Disorder. While it has applications beyond that
| for things like anxiety and bipolar management, it may or may
| not be the right answer for people who don't struggle with
| negative impulses or behaviors.
|
| I'd probably start with sources on more general CBT for
| someone just needing a nudge or who is more depressive than
| impulsive.
| anonymousd3vil wrote:
| I was expecting Rick Roll, really disappointed.
| noisli wrote:
| Would love to know your feedback on this
| https://breathe.noisli.com - don't worry, no surprises :)
| avtar wrote:
| This isn't related to the linked page, but taking a quick
| look at your noisli.com homepage, I'm fairly certain there
| are some low hanging accessibility issues you could address.
| Off the top of my head:
|
| - Your text on that background colour does not provide enough
| contrast, my guess is that it won't pass WCAG AA requirements
|
| - Keyboard navigation using Tab causes focus to jump down the
| page's content, skipping its navigation and CTA links
|
| You can use extensions such as "axe DevTools" and
| "Accessibility Insights for Web" to run some quick automated
| tests to uncover more issues.
| hirvi74 wrote:
| Our ADHD might actually be an advantage for meditation. Just
| not in the pop-culture mediation format that is commonly used
| here.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuVhCIQgfQ
| boplicity wrote:
| This is a bit like one of my personal focus hacks. When I'm
| struggling, especially in the morning, I'll often set a five
| minute timer, and tell myself: "surely you can focus on something
| for five minutes." This is usually enough to get me over the
| hump, and in the mood to actually get stuff done.
|
| I do think there's something that happens after a short period of
| intentional focus, where you cross a "barrier" into a state of
| mind that is more conducive to long-term focus. But there's
| definitely sometimes real resistance to crossing that barrier.
| globular-toast wrote:
| This sounds similar to the "pomodoro method".
| ApolloFortyNine wrote:
| The problem with pomodoro is eventually you learn that its a
| trick just to get you started, so your brain eventually goes
| back to just wanted to never start again.
|
| That's how it feels for me anyways though.
| boplicity wrote:
| No technique works without enough genuine desire and
| motivation to accomplish whatever it is you're aiming to
| accomplish. (And the belief that you actually have a chance
| of accomplishing it.) If things like Pomodoro or similar
| aren't working, then the next step is to figure out if you
| believe in the path you're on, and are motivated enough to
| continue on it.
| growingkittens wrote:
| *And a working executive function system in your brain.
| No amount of genuine desire and motivation can fix that
| issue.
| mywacaday wrote:
| Nearly impossible to see the circle in dark mode on mobile. Neat
| idea though
| Souk wrote:
| A friend of mine was asked to do "coherence cardiaque" breathing
| exercises so I made them something similar [1]. The circle will
| slowly change hue, before cycling back to blue after about 5
| minutes (They were supposed to do this exercise for 5 minutes and
| I thought having a timer wouldn't be relaxing)
|
| [1] https://souf.dev/cc
| syngrog66 wrote:
| I admire fact you created it. And focus is good. But honestly
| theres no need for this to be software or be on the Internet.
| I've been able to stare at things for over 40 years now, both out
| in the real world around me. As well as at imagined things inside
| my mind's eye. I can stare at things today. Right now, even! And
| for as long or short as I want, tailored to my unique needs. And
| with max privacy. No power or connectivity needed.
|
| I think increasingly that major portions of humanity are.. well,
| insane, to be frank. Perhaps its me thats the crazy one? ;-)
| schaefer wrote:
| Another way to look at it is:
|
| The software does have a purpose. Launching the software
| requires two specific acts of intention. First to open the
| software, and second to affirm our intention and click the
| start button.
|
| Then the intention is realized by sticking with the exercise
| for the duration of the timer.
|
| Since the very purpose of the software is to change the way an
| individual is currently relating to their own mindset, these
| can all be quite useful tools towards that end.
|
| --
|
| Obviously, not Everone's cup of tea. Perhaps specifically not
| yours. but then you said "there's no need for this software"
| and not "I don't need this software". A personal preference
| doesn't imply a universal truth.
| gpmcadam wrote:
| I waited around 30 seconds for this page to load before I gave
| up.
|
| I can't say it improved my focus but I did appreciate the 30s of
| calm. Good work!
| gniv wrote:
| Now that I've been acquired by a cat, I've learned to sit quietly
| for longer periods. She has endless patience if she's not
| disturbed.
| michaelteter wrote:
| Yes. What is going on in their minds?
|
| My cat would sometimes sit close and directly facing the wall,
| eyes open, for many minutes at a time.
| stanac wrote:
| Maybe your cat was angry with you and that was the way to
| tell you "I don't want to talk to you"
| m3kw9 wrote:
| The problem of focus is a problem of motivation, you could band
| aid it by doing this but if you can't solve why you are not drawn
| to the task you will always have this issue.
|
| Can you focus hours playing a good game? Yes? Then why is this
| game innately making you focus and your task isn't? Maybe it can
| be looked at differently? Can it be fixed?
| captainbland wrote:
| I often think this to myself. Why is it when I start on
| something "new and shiny" I get this burst of enthusiasm and
| motivation, but when it loses its novelty it becomes hard work?
|
| I keep trying to think if there is some way I can trick my
| brain into thinking things are always interesting and novel so
| that I can reliably get into a flow state and feel happier
| about what I'm doing.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Maybe make the circle complete as time expire could make people
| stop wondering when it will be done.
| karmajunkie wrote:
| This is basically the "Breathe" meditation helper from the
| mindfulness app on the apple watch (not sure if Android/WearOS
| has something similar...) Useful if you don't have one but the
| watch version is a bit handier for my use.
| moltenc wrote:
| The year is 2024 and a website requires running untrusted scripts
| on your computer to display one dot on the screen.
| gentleman11 wrote:
| > ...has been proven to...
|
| I came here looking for the paper or research that proves this.
| Do you have a source?
| jumperabg wrote:
| I am not sure if I was focusing or I waited for something else to
| happen, for example a zombie to pop up screaming.
| jmbwell wrote:
| I like it! Have you considered adding a little easing to the
| animation so that the changes are more gradual?
| lenerdenator wrote:
| My ADHD (in Darth Vader voice): "Your powers are weak, old man."
| jacobsenscott wrote:
| I couldn't not look at the timer. I lasted 10 seconds.
| swah wrote:
| Related term is trataka (see
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...)
| autoexec wrote:
| The button doesn't work without JS enabled, but just staring at
| the "start" button for 1 minute would probably work just as well
| right?
| rbosinger wrote:
| Maybe be able to control the breathing speed (the circle
| animation speed) would be handy. Unless this is supposed to be
| scientifically the speed I should be breathing for optimal health
| or something. My body wanted to go a little slower than the
| circle moved and I found myself speeding up to keep time. Or is
| that the point?
| blobbers wrote:
| Huberman's opinion on cognitive focus; possibly an opinion he has
| some authority on!!
|
| (As opposed to all the other opinions he seems to love to opine)
| j4hdufd8 wrote:
| why he only has authority on cognitive focus?
| theonething wrote:
| Tried it and love it. Super simple. Does what it says on the tin
| and nothing else. Thanks for making it!
| abhinai wrote:
| Did it really help?
| VladimirGolovin wrote:
| Very timely and helpful, thank you!
|
| A suggestion: the pulse animation would look much better with
| ease-in / ease-out animation curves instead of the harsh linear
| curve it's currently using. EaseInOutSine from this cheat sheet
| would do fine: https://easings.net/
| myfonj wrote:
| If you'd like to try those easings straight away, you can use
| this bare-bones rip-off in interactive sandbox [0]. Still
| basic: animation is symmetrical, so easing "in" has the same
| easing as "out", just reversed.
|
| Under 2 kB total. HTML, mostly CSS and literally two lines of
| JS only for restarting the animation.
|
| [0]
| https://myfonj.github.io/sandbox.html#%3C!doctype%20html%3E%...
| tootie wrote:
| Trigger warning: I have narcolepsy and the dot induced a
| cataplexy
| lagt_t wrote:
| Huberman passes studies conclusions as settled science.
| h-c-c wrote:
| Isn't that what science is? Our understanding changes all the
| time based on new experiments. "Settled science" isn't a thing
| imho.
| croemer wrote:
| Huberman wildly oversells and overgeneralizes. Apparently
| that's what listeners want.
| layer8 wrote:
| On an iPhone mini, the circle at maximum size extends a bit
| beyond the left and right screen edges (slightly more on the left
| it seems, so not exactly centered). In addition, the page is
| scrollable vertically by about 10% (except that the "About"
| doesn't scroll), despite there being no content that would
| require scrolling.
| pil0u wrote:
| Back to focus on the dot that flattens on the edges.
| karolist wrote:
| does the pulsating dot contain randomised white noise or it's
| solid and it is my vision?
| dimask wrote:
| Nice, I really like it. A quiet nice way to bring meditation
| during my work time actually.
| KerryJones wrote:
| Feedback:
|
| - This is great to link to breathing
|
| - After reading multiple breathing books (Breath by James Nester,
| Outlive by Peter Attia, Oxygen Advantage, etc.), there's a lot of
| evidence to breath slower. Specifically, 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5
| seconds out, make the dot match or be closer to matching that
| rate could actually cause a lot of physical benefit by people
| matching with it
|
| - Alternative if you don't want that, make it a control setting
| so someone (like myself) can do it.
| giberson wrote:
| I found the animation end point and start point to be rather
| abrupt. Can you add/tweak the easing function so the stopping
| isn't sudden? For me it produces a cognitive thunk that takes me
| out of concentration on breathing.
|
| Otherwise it seems it could be effective.
| st3ve445678 wrote:
| Am I supposed to match my breathing to the way the circle moves?
| The instructions make no mention of it.
| lynguist wrote:
| It looks like the hackernewsverse really needed this.
|
| What unexpected positivity in the comments! And when I read this
| I feel somewhat more connected to you others. It's not just text
| that was already plastered here. It is someone's written
| thoughts.
| dusted wrote:
| That was amazingly disturbing.
|
| I'm generally not disturbed by my noisy visual field, but this..
| Giant halo around the breathing dot, as the contrast faded in and
| out the roundness started to disintegrate and as it changed size
| while fading to grey it started straight up breaking into
| geometric patterns, like the geometry was chopped up around the
| edges.
|
| I have no problem looking into nothingness for a long time (I can
| stare at ceilings until the lines disappear, or into the sky
| until the clouds seem to meld away)..
|
| Given how this was probably not intended to be a visual illusion,
| it did a great job of it! :D
| groby_b wrote:
| Congrats on building this!
|
| Initial feedback:
|
| That circle is gargantuan, focusing on it takes no significant
| mental bandwidth. Yes, that's the point of meditation, but if you
| challenge people a bit, it makes it easier for them to stay
| focused, especially for beginners. (Or maybe it's a mobile page
| and I just shouldn't watch it on my desktop monitor?)
|
| Like the pulse in general, but maybe a bit too fast. Absolutely
| hate the coloring - black is having a mood impact, and washed out
| grey is just meh. That's probably a personal reaction, but worth
| keeping in mind if you want to build on it.
|
| Having a clearer indication of time left might be helpful for
| people beginning to meditate. (If I'd built it, I'd progressively
| make the focus object vanish until it's gone at the end, but,
| again, that might be personal preference.)
| rsyring wrote:
| There is a muted countdown at the very bottom center.
| neves wrote:
| When I have a hard time to focus, I use this feature in my Mi
| Band. It is nice to have it always with ou
| olegdater wrote:
| would be cool if it used webcam and then would detect if you stop
| looking at the circle, then reset the timer if detected
|
| the aim would be to be focused for 1 min
| anonymous344 wrote:
| 1. how is it so fast? 2. dark mode?
| hirvi74 wrote:
| For all the ADHD people saying that we are unable to meditate,
| just know that ADHD might be beneficial in some forms of
| meditation.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvuVhCIQgfQ
| hwbunny wrote:
| I usually watch my desktop background or other art. The more you
| watch an art piece the more interesting nuances you tend to
| discover. This could also ruin an at first perfect looking art
| piece once you see discover some very disturbing details ;P.
| cupcakecommons wrote:
| It's not a jumpscare. Had to let it run to completion before
| using it.
| treprinum wrote:
| I hoped for something from /r/unexpected or /r/AbruptChaos at the
| end to verify that my focus really improved ;-)
| zestyping wrote:
| I could only make it for 30 seconds before I couldn't stand the
| sharp corner in the animation curves any longer and opened the
| Dev Tools to try to fix the easing! :)
| hereforcomments wrote:
| Awesome! I've added this to CJS Chrome extension and randomly
| (2%) it will throw me to the site. So during the day I'll do some
| breathwork to manage stress and get into focus.
| analog31 wrote:
| I fell asleep. Well, at least that's another cognitive
| improvement.
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| Went from start to finish, but it hasn't helped a bit. :(
| MisterKent wrote:
| I like the idea, and the simplicity of the site.
|
| Two minor requests:
|
| - Ability to hide the timer at the bottom completely (one less
| distraction for my brain)
|
| - Dark mode (or maybe selectable colors?) -- I think it could be
| useful right before going to bed, clear my mind out etc.
|
| Ideally, both could be saved to local storage so the settings
| persist.
| alphabet9000 wrote:
| the maze game (screamer) permanently rewired my brain to avoid
| anything like this on the internet forever. staring at the dot
| for 2 seconds is already nerve wracking - will an exorcist face
| suddenly pop up? is it worth the risk? never again
| evanjrowley wrote:
| You could make some $ if you presented an ad instead of a dot.
| mirekrusin wrote:
| Gamify it, pro paid version shows more and more distracting ads
| on next levels. Buy bundle with adult ads etc.
| holoduke wrote:
| I started looking at it and forced myself to not look somewhere
| else. Without directly looking I saw some vague thing below the
| circle. Was it a timer? Was it some kind of "too bad you lose"
| text. I did not watch.
| dtgriscom wrote:
| [delayed]
| stevage wrote:
| IMHO the breaths are too fast.
|
| There is a type of breathing recommended for calming the body
| which is something like 4 seconds in, hold 4 seconds, 4 seconds
| out, wait 4 seconds, repeat.
| wruza wrote:
| Not that I had any subsequent tasks at hand, but thanks.
|
| Few things I'd consider:
|
| 1. Make it to not stop when the time's out. New users will wonder
| if a minute passed and see 0:00, happy. Regular users will know
| the trick and will learn to spend as much time as they need
| around a minute, instead of feeling interrupted. Some will be
| angry, they failed anyway.
|
| 2. Make the "dot" smaller and blurry to avoid sharp halo.
|
| 3. Fade-in unintrusive "vvv" under 0:00 to suggest scrolling down
| for a random short advice/info. What was expected, how to deal
| next time, and so on. Educational and praising component.
|
| 4. Dark mode for those who can't browser extensions.
|
| 5. Click on a circle is probably barely discoverable due to the
| nature of the process. I'd push it down to #3.
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