[HN Gopher] Protecting my attention at the dopamine carnival
___________________________________________________________________
Protecting my attention at the dopamine carnival
Author : overload119
Score : 159 points
Date : 2025-07-15 00:34 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.amirsharif.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.amirsharif.com)
| jimbob45 wrote:
| I can't abide by that last claim. AI has been able to fetch some
| dead Microsoft documentation for me that I was not able to
| otherwise find through the regular channels. The code would have
| had to have looked very differently if not for AI.
| robotic wrote:
| Mixed bag for me. I spent a day running in circles working on a
| github action based on lots of very bad info from chatGPT. I
| also just reviewed a PR that allowed for remote function
| execution. The dev that wrote the code has been very open about
| their use of AI. He thought it was good because he wasnt
| thinking.
| hattmall wrote:
| Internet archive is pretty good for old documentation. It's
| very interesting what API features that are removed from new
| versions and all documentation scrubbed but actually still
| work.
| munchler wrote:
| I agree. AI doesn't make me a faster coder, but it helps me do
| things that I wouldn't have been able to do at all otherwise.
| bcoates wrote:
| The idea of app timers seems like exactly the weird self-
| negotiation alcoholics do around booze where they think mimicking
| the habits of casual drinkers (on what is, to the casual, a
| bender) will make them not an alcoholic anymore.
|
| Yes, normies might have three margaritas on a Tuesday. Like, once
| a quarter. Not every single day, and also not followed by a whole
| lot more once you're loosened up.
|
| Likewise, the reaction of a mentally stable person to TikTok is
| like the reaction of a normal person to a casino full of slot
| machines--discomfort and more than a little disgust. If you start
| wagging your tail to that shit, there is no safe level and you
| need to delete it all yesterday, app timers and clever little
| boxes are making you worse.
| pipsterwo wrote:
| I find them really useful, I find youtube to be a good thing in
| moderation. But its very helpful to have a timer forcing me to
| thoughtfully use the time I've allocated.
| GLdRH wrote:
| The "UnTrap"-Add-On for Firefox can block the more
| detrimental aspects of youtube, like shorts or the
| recommendation of other videos. I have it configured so that
| it always brings me directly to the "watch later"-playlist
| and I never go to the main page.
| Esophagus4 wrote:
| FreeTube is also phenomenal for de-enshittifying (dis-
| enshittifying?) the YouTube experience
| mingus88 wrote:
| I get what you are saying but it's 2025 and a mobile device is
| basically required to operate in society today. Especially if
| you want an active social life or to excel at work.
|
| Nobody needs a margarita or any other addictive substance to
| function in society (barring actual substances issues). So it's
| a false equivalence to compare apps like this.
|
| An example in my middle aged life is that my kids extra-
| curriculars are all organized on WhatsApp. If I choose not to
| have a Meta account then my kids suffer when I am out of the
| loop on their events. Then of course all of the invites and
| venues are on Facebook. And all the parents post their pics to
| IG.
|
| Because these apps are purposely designed to addict you, it is
| a real sticky thing to have to dip your toes in without getting
| sucked into a scrolling nightmare.
| hattmall wrote:
| Well he didn't say the phone, but the app. So instead of
| using app timers just delete the app. The point is that you
| find yourself having a problem with the app and regret it's
| usage later then an app timer is the same as an alcoholic
| having one drink, now if you are judicious with the app timer
| and really do it ok. Same for an alcoholic, if you can
| actually have one drink, then it's fine.
|
| Some apps are addictive but have some reasonable
| informational value. Some are just straight key bumps of
| entertainment with an algorithmic comedown to keep you
| looking for the next baggie.
|
| I have the same situation you do about Facebook, but still
| don't have the app on my phone. I just check the mobile site
| and I was forced to install messenger. I have no need or
| desire to install things like TikTok or Instagram, of the
| hundreds of times people have sent me links to things on
| those apps I've never come away with the feeling that it was
| a value add.
| GLdRH wrote:
| It's a good idea to just uninstall some of these apps or
| even accounts and see if you really miss them. I found that
| not to be the case with Twitter and Facebook.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| I do agree with your point about phones being necessary and
| that complicating the addiction but A) people absolutely made
| the same argument about alcohol in the past, that it was
| necessary for a social life and B) they were critical of the
| TikTok app specifically rather than phones as a whole in
| general.
| squigz wrote:
| "Normal" people don't react that way to casinos.
| lmm wrote:
| Have you walked past one recently? Casinos used to have at
| least some veneer of sophistication - polished wood, baize,
| well-dressed croupiers - even if it was ultimately pretty
| thin. Now the whole room looks like a giant kiddie noisemaker
| toy.
| Terr_ wrote:
| Aside from general infantilization, another theory: The old
| status-signalling has moved on to something else, and past
| generations' signals of upper-class (or at least _classier_
| ) gambling are now obsolete, so nobody bothers projecting
| them.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| I wish Chrome had timers for specific websites on mobile. I
| hate the all-or-nothing Chrome timer, it's ridiculous and so
| counter intuitive.
| parpfish wrote:
| I'd also like more control over chrome autocomplete.
|
| Most of the time that I get sucked into a website, it's
| because autocomplete and muscle memory got me there without
| thinking. Every once in a while I'll clean out my history
| cache and for a week or so I'll find myself on the page of
| google search results for "re" or "fa"
| brailsafe wrote:
| Agreed, and their setting to turn it off entirely doesn't
| work on Pixel at all.
| pphysch wrote:
| You can hold-press over an autocompleted URL to delete it,
| which has much less friction than clearing your history.
| brailsafe wrote:
| > I wish Chrome had timers for specific websites on mobile.
|
| Chrome does have this feature on mobile, but perhaps not on
| your mobile.
| pphysch wrote:
| Pixel phones (at least) have this.
| voidofpasswords wrote:
| this is the sole reason i default to Firefox on mobile as it
| allows extensions. And install a website restriction ext like
| Leechblock [1].
|
| [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/blaaajhemilngeef
| fpb...
| fnord77 wrote:
| > Developers actually take up to 19% longer when coding with AI
| than without it, but self-report that they were able to complete
| tasks 20% faster.
|
| this contradicts thought leaders in the field like Andrew Ng
| unclad5968 wrote:
| What is a thought leader?
| leakycap wrote:
| The person you are asking gave an example:
|
| > thought leaders in the field like Andrew Ng
|
| If its still cloudy, a "thought leader" is anyone recognized
| as an authority in their field, whose ideas and insights
| influence others and shape the direction of the hype cycle.
| GLdRH wrote:
| A Fuhrer for your thoughts
| lbrito wrote:
| Thought Czar is more in vogue
| lubujackson wrote:
| PR speak for marketer
| sothatsit wrote:
| This is a stat from a pretty interesting study:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44522772
|
| I quite like it actually because although I do use AI, I think
| you really do have to be careful about _how_ you use it to
| avoid wasting more time than it saves when you run into a
| problem and insist on getting the AI to fix it instead of doing
| it yourself. It is very easy to fall into this trap of trying
| to get AI to do everything, because our brains are hardwired to
| avoid effort, and so we use it even when AI is not appropriate.
|
| The biggest time saver for me with AI is to really try to avoid
| the round-and-round with AI and instead just get AI to take the
| first pass, maybe some small follow-ups, and then I take it
| from there and complete the task manually. AI can be a
| significant time-saver in that first pass at the problem, but
| after that you can waste so much time trying to get AI to fix
| something small that you could fix yourself in 5 minutes. And
| this can be especially damaging because it is less effort to
| use AI, so we don't necessarily notice when we are wasting time
| due to our own cognitive biases, which I think this study does
| a good job of pointing out.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Pure nonsense (referring to your quote)
| ykonstant wrote:
| Please don't say "thought leader" unironically.
| androng wrote:
| I invested in META stock because I have an addiction to instagram
| and the tracking is so good that the ads are actually tailored to
| me and my desires so my CTR is i think 7% on average. contrast
| with YouTube and Google and Twitter where I block all the ads
| because the CTR is 0.00% because they are all garbage. Instagram
| keeps showing me ads for expensive stuff I don't need but I do
| want, like meal kits and fancy clothes
| milofeynman wrote:
| I've found the same. I actually enjoy Instagram ads. I despise
| almost every other ad I can think of.
| parpfish wrote:
| You enjoy the ads, but do you enjoy the _products_?
|
| I've seen so many ads that show a nice product, so I click
| and it takes me to nice polished landing page, which leads to
| a smooth checkout flow. But then the thing arrives and it's
| garbage. I believe that there's an entire genre of niche-
| marketed consumer goods that have been broken by
| Campbell/Goodharts law because they've integrated the product
| design and marketing so tightly that the product is designed
| to optimize CTR and funnel conversions rather than being a
| good at being the thing that it is.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| The joke is that Instagram is QVC for millennials, it must
| be working on/for some people.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| There's a particular Instagram ad my wife always sees for a
| graphic tee with a design that we both love, but the vendor
| selling it is (according to Reddit reviews) garbage. The
| infuriating thing is that no one else seems to sell a shirt
| with that particular design!
| gs17 wrote:
| Yeah, I've had one that seemed like exactly something I
| wanted, turned out to be a scam, and they fucked it up
| enough that PayPal actually refunded me.
| bsimpson wrote:
| When Facebook first came out, you could run an ad for $5 and
| the ads are often things I happily clicked on.
|
| Granted, it was by and for college students, so there was an
| inherent selection bias. Still, Zuckerberg built his whole
| empire on getting enough data about people to show ads that are
| so targeted they feel relevant.
| androng wrote:
| I think I can obtain a triple benefit by using Cursor "ask" mode
| instead of "agent" mode.
|
| 1) I don't over-rely on the AI so I don't accidentally commit
| bugs
|
| 2) I can just put in a OpenAI API key pay-as-you-go instead of
| subscribing to Cursor Pro monthly and getting screwed by SaaS fee
| I don't use
|
| 3) I actually learn what the AI says and add it to my long-term
| memory instead of just having it write code for me in Agent mode
|
| admittedly this only works for small tasks, for bigger edits I
| think trying to learn everything the AI says is not really
| scalable or at least it takes me much longer.
| gs17 wrote:
| The biggest benefit to me (using Copilot instead of Cursor) is
| that you can make sure that it understands the problem and the
| solution is what you expected. If I want to see if it can make
| a big change, I usually flow through "I need X, what are our
| options" -> "Discuss option N more" -> "Ok, now you can do it".
| brailsafe wrote:
| > for bigger edits I think trying to learn everything the AI
| says is not really scalable or at least it takes me much
| longer.
|
| Seems like this is the inherent difficulty in being a skillful
| developer. Atleast in the context of non-trivial collaborative
| projects, big edits that the person commiting doesn't
| understand might as well be a diceroll, and imo those big edits
| should really only be applied if the intent was to save the
| time in writing it.
| jampa wrote:
| > Having your phone in the same room while doing cognitive work
| reliably drops your memory, attention, and overall cognitive
| performance.
|
| That is my biggest problem with most Multifactor authentication.
| I try to leave my phone in another room to focus, but needing the
| phone authenticator for something always happens within two
| hours.
|
| I still don't know why apps think a device I carry in the streets
| is safer than one I leave at home to do important transactions
| like moving money, for example. Where I live, there are a lot of
| cases of people being kidnapped and coerced to make payments
| (which are instant), yet no Banking app allows you to do anything
| without a phone.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Most MFA solutions can use a FIDO token these days (unless the
| admins are masochists), which you could keep plugged into your
| device
| jampa wrote:
| Most banking apps here only allow their own app as a 2-factor
| authentication, not even TOTP is allowed. (I think they make
| it to increase user engagement.)
|
| The worst one is Mercado Libre, which also requires you to
| use your phone to "scan" your face every time you log in with
| a new device. My friends were locked out due to having an
| allergy or growing a beard. Nowadays, I don't even bother
| with them... I just shop elsewhere.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| This might defeat the purpose of MFA but I use an authenticator
| like Ente that works on the desktop and syncs to and from your
| phone.
| cik wrote:
| Thank you, I really appreciate this. I've been looking for
| something exactly like this for ages, whilst trying to toss
| my current solution.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| It's a great app, open source as well and works everywhere,
| even on the web. I migrated all my MFA to Ente Auth.
| bigDinosaur wrote:
| It does not defeat the purpose as your MFA code/prompt as you
| are still protected even if someone has your password. The
| only slightly lesser protection is that if someone gains
| local access to your machine/password manager then everything
| is compromised vs. having your codes on your phone, but this
| should be very, very far down the list of security concerns
| for the majority of people.
|
| The most realistic security threat for OTP's is that they can
| be phished in a few ways which is the same problem if you're
| using MFA stored on your desktop or phone. Hence the
| preference for physical security keys / passkeys which are
| impossible to phish.
| lmm wrote:
| > I still don't know why apps think a device I carry in the
| streets is safer than one I leave at home to do important
| transactions like moving money, for example. Where I live,
| there are a lot of cases of people being kidnapped and coerced
| to make payments (which are instant), yet no Banking app allows
| you to do anything without a phone.
|
| Muggings and kidnappings, as bad as they are, can't really be
| done at scale.
|
| That device a) has some kind of secure enclave, hopefully, and
| more importantly b) restricts your ability to run arbitrary
| code off the internet to the point that everyday users probably
| can't do it. I don't like it, but they do it because it's
| effective.
| o11c wrote:
| > I still don't know why apps think a device I carry in the
| streets is safer [...]
|
| Because MFA requirements have _never_ been about security, only
| security theater. It 's the modern version of the "you must
| change your password every 30 days" rule.
| p0sixlang wrote:
| Wat? If my laptop gets infected and the bad actor tries to
| access my (insert account protected with MFA here), their
| ability to do harm is limited by spreading things across two
| devices.
| notTooFarGone wrote:
| wild take here.
|
| MFA is like infinitely more secure than your username/pw that
| Tim from accounting writes on his notes and reuses the same
| password everywhere.
|
| How is that not common knowledge?
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| On the contrary, single-factor authentication is generally
| fine (MFA is still better, of course) if the single-factor is
| an authenticator application or, better yet, a U2F hardware
| key. If anything in modern web security is theater, it is the
| password (and SMS MFA but that's because SMS is a joke to
| takeover).
| Dr_Birdbrain wrote:
| What would your employer say if you said "I don't own a
| smartphone. What alternatives exist?"
|
| My current employer has a little nub on my laptop that I touch,
| but my previous employer was big on making me check my
| smartphone.
| bigiain wrote:
| I have at times carried a Firefox Phone and a Pinephone, and
| deeply enjoyed asking work or other people who insisted I
| needed to download an app to do (whatever) "Where I can get
| your app for my phone? No, it's not an iPhone. No, it's not
| an Android phone either."
|
| (Lately I've been using "It's a work phone, I'm not able to
| install apps on it, you'll need to run your app past our
| corporate IT and Security team.")
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| If your work requires you to have a phone, they should
| provide it to you. Call it your authentication brick.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| Phone call, sms, email, physical fob, 2nd person.
| aorloff wrote:
| > My current employer has a little nub on my laptop that I
| touch
|
| This is for authentication ?
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| It's called a yubikey. The slim version barely protrudes
| from the usb port.
| Scarblac wrote:
| They'd give me a conpany smartphone.
| joules77 wrote:
| Don't use apps. The only apps on my phone are for
| communication. Nothing else.
|
| It's quite possible to live with websites.
| p0sixlang wrote:
| How are you delineating websites and apps, and can you
| elaborate what exactly your hypothesis is here?
| medstrom wrote:
| I presume they mean it's a website when you type it into an
| URL bar.
|
| And that you don't ever add website bookmarks to the
| homescreen, because that makes them similar to apps.
| joules77 wrote:
| I mean anything you have to "install" from an app store
| tied to a phone OS. Sometimes if there is no other option I
| install the app/complete the task and uninstall.
|
| The app guys have normalized the idea that every "bright"
| idea they get about how to exploit my data or waste my
| attention, they have a right to push it out to my phone, if
| I have installed their app.
|
| So the stupid apps keep updating with new shit everyday
| whether I need it or not.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Monzo (UK) lets you set a limit on withdrawals when you are
| away from home.
| normie3000 wrote:
| Does it also let you unset the limit?
| RandomBacon wrote:
| That reminds me of the effectiveness of texting codes as
| MFA, when the password can also be reset by texting a
| code...
|
| Those services just have SFA (Single Factor
| Authentication): the cell phone number (which can be stolen
| remotely by social engineering).
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| When you are at home. Also you can print a QR code which
| you can use when away from home.
| AndrewSwift wrote:
| I have always assumed that this was done to drive app usage.
| Companies hope that if you use an app regularly you'll keep it
| on the home screen of your phone, and it becomes a foothold
| into your most intimate device.
| michael1999 wrote:
| Apple keychain lets you store TOTP secrets, and Google Auth
| will let you export the seeds.
|
| That turns the laptop + fingerprint into your extra factors.
| deepsun wrote:
| Pretty much every password managers can store MFA (Bitwarden,
| 1password). You only need smartphone to log in to the password
| manager only once a day.
| darqis wrote:
| Bitwarden has desktop apps. And Vaultwarden hosts your own
| instance. Also, Bitwarden has MFA. But yes I agree, some have a
| specific kind of MFA, like Google. I hate Google's MFA. You
| have to get up and get your phone to press something. I hate
| being forced to use the phone.
| padolsey wrote:
| > Using ChatGPT on cognitive tasks can reduce your brain
| connectivity by up to 50% and reduce your ability to recall
| information about the task by 8x.
|
| Argh people keep referencing this study as Gospel. It has not
| been peer-reviewed. Its methodology has a number of concerning
| confounders. It's a tiny sample with a narrow contrived task
| domain. And the very premise of the study is misframed. The
| implication that 'brain activity' is a positive outcome does not
| follow. Brain connectivity might be analagous to inefficiency as
| opposed to the reported 'engagement' or 'cognitive debt'.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| Im never surprised when someone prattling on about dopamine
| also leans on a bad study to make a spurious point.
| padolsey wrote:
| Yep it's always a bit cute and funny, when you consider the
| absolute necessity of dopamine in basically every
| functionally relevant neural activation. Talk to a
| parkinson's patient about your 'dopamine=bad' fluff. Ugh.
| They may as well just have titled it "Protecting My Attention
| At The {Insert Arbitrary Hormone or Neurotransmission
| Chemical} Carnival"....
| bigiain wrote:
| > They may as well just have titled it "Protecting My
| Attention At The {Insert Arbitrary Hormone or
| Neurotransmission Chemical} Carnival"....
|
| I disagree. I am absolutely certain that the vast majority
| of the readers here would have known in the context of that
| headline exactly what "The Dopamine Carnival" meant,
| without needing any specific positive or negative
| implications about dopamine in general or it's actual
| biochemical mechanisms. It's blatantly obviously about
| social media and mobile apps that are intentionally
| designed to manipulate your brain and its reward system.
| padolsey wrote:
| Ofc the title got its point across, but I'd argue to hold
| ourselves to higher standards of veracity. That's all.
| llmthrow103 wrote:
| I agree that it's not a great study, but I also don't want to
| find out too late that it wasn't a good idea to outsource my
| thinking to ChatGPT.
| vineyardmike wrote:
| The study wasn't great but don't outsource your thinking.
|
| The study (if we assume it was good) told students the
| objective of their task was to generate a factual essay about
| topic X. The study then measured how much they learned about
| the topic at the end, but the students who used ChatGPT
| "learned" less and remembered their own essay less despite an
| equally passable essay. I want the alternative version of the
| study where the students are told the essay is practice, and
| their success will be graded on how much they've learned
| about the topic.
|
| I imagine you could conduct a similar study challenging
| students to complete math tasks with and without a calculator
| and then ask them how much of their multiplication tables
| they've learned afterwards.
|
| If you want to learn and grow as a person, along some
| dimension, you need to practice. Growing requires repetition
| and reflection and to experience the feedback loop of
| improvement. Outsource thinking for whatever task you don't
| want to do when the only result you care about is the only
| outcome. Don't outsource practice and learning if you want to
| improve. Only you can make the decision on when each
| situation applies in your day. Maybe you want to be better at
| some task at your job, but maybe you just need to get through
| the task and move on.
| djtango wrote:
| Speaking about not outsourcing practice reminds me of the
| physical analogue...
|
| I have heard about people talk about "farmer's strength" to
| reference a very natural functional strength that is earned
| by the gruelling and diverse physical demands of doing farm
| labour for a lifetime.
|
| Now people have invented various training regimes to try to
| reproduce that kind of strength outside of the original
| farming environment.
|
| Edit - As an aside, it just occurred to me that I am both a
| functional strength and functional programming proponent
| (facepalm). Perhaps in the future after people seeking to
| strengthen their minds through via mental gymnastics, FP
| will see a renaissance
| BobaFloutist wrote:
| It's kind of the opposite of strength training regimens,
| it's more like people saying "Why would I pick up the
| weight by hand when forklifts exist? When, in the real
| world, when doing a job, am I going to be expected to
| pick up dumbbells by hand lol? I'll just use a forklift
| every time."
| jredwards wrote:
| Same for the reference to developers taking longer to complete
| tasks with AI. That's absolutely not the finding of that study.
| viccis wrote:
| Looks like another ChatGPT victim here folks.
| kortilla wrote:
| Sure, but "computer does all of the logical inference by hand
| and it turns out your brain isn't needed" is awfully a big
| confirmation bias in favor of people who have left LLMs work in
| their favor.
| satyrun wrote:
| I am sure studies would find I use my hamstrings and quadriceps
| less when driving than when walking too.
|
| The problem is if you are driving a car to go the same speed
| and distance as walking then it is missing the point.
| thrawa8387336 wrote:
| So what, ChatGPT is the new weed? One critical statement draws
| out all the addicts in defense?
| crtified wrote:
| The exact mechanisms will be individual to the person.
|
| But the broad point is valid - distraction and subversion of
| attention is very high in today's society. Some people are
| overwhelmed and need to take steps.
| fennec-posix wrote:
| If you work in a SCIF you don't have to worry about your phone
| being a distraction
| normie3000 wrote:
| Great point. So how do you do 2FA? Hardware tokens?
| fennec-posix wrote:
| Smart Cards
| mortsnort wrote:
| Tik Tok is obvious brain rot, but what if one's time at the
| dopamine carnival is spent consuming "brain-growth" content?
| Phones essentially put all human knowledge at our fingertips,
| where is the line of diminishing or negative returns when trying
| to consume it?
| spaqin wrote:
| Popular science videos is still filler; I'd be inclined agree
| if you were scrolling MIT lectures (and watching them in their
| entirety), but how much of actual knowledge (and not random
| tidbits) do you retain from short form videos?
| mortsnort wrote:
| Where is popular science videos coming from? Blogs,
| Wikipedia, research papers, Substacks, newspapers, magazines,
| ChatGPT, etc.
| satyrun wrote:
| I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a
| short form video in conveying information but what
| information in this context can be compressed down to fit?
|
| How much can you really learn from even a 30 second Feynman
| lecture?
| YuukiRey wrote:
| 99% of the time it is consumption without ever utilizing the
| knowledge for any creative endeavor . And without application
| the knowledge will quickly fade and you'll find yourself
| watching the same 10min video on statistics 101 for the 3rd
| time, because you keep forgetting.
|
| It's still mindless consumption if you don't interact with the
| material in any meaningful way (follow up questions,
| application, try to refute it, evaluate a hypothesis you had
| before watching it, ...)
| cgriswald wrote:
| Whether your mind is engaged or not seems unrelated to the
| type of video. As a writer of fiction, even a 'mindless'
| video made for entertainment can send my mind reeling through
| possibilities, relationships, and connections I'd never
| thought about before, but I think that's just a quibble over
| wording.
|
| You always lose what you don't use over a long enough time
| window and in proportion to how much you used it when you did
| use it. Everything that is true about this 10 minute video is
| true about a college course. You just retain the college
| course for longer because (presumably) you've spent more time
| in class than a 10 minutes video and you've done your
| homework. But if you don't use it after college, there's a
| strong chance you've forgotten the details.
|
| Sometimes it's just important to know a thing exists, what it
| can be used for, and roughly how it is used. Everything else
| can be learned or refreshed when you need it.
|
| Suppose you've watched that stats 101 video but didn't follow
| up. You now know:
|
| - The broad strokes of stats 101 even if you don't have
| perfect recall on the details.
|
| - What it can be used for.
|
| - Whether the particular video is worth watching when and if
| you _do_ need to use it.
|
| Initial exposure is important. A claim could be made that if
| _nothing_ is ever done with it, it is a waste; but how does
| someone without any knowledge know enough to decide whether
| they should go further with it or not?
| wellwellwell2 wrote:
| > ('Wrongquote':) Whether your mind is engaged or not seems
| unrelated to any video.
|
| _heck_...damn... that was a lot of fun in the Job 's area,
| steve Jobs official presented his 1st Ipad showing an
| interactive Book for children but also adults, and for sure
| there was something to learn.
|
| > But... Does it also let you unset any limits?
|
| _Nah_ they never released any well known interactive books
| as far as i know, so i didn 't bought that ipad. But was
| interested in the 'screen-only'-technology since 2003
| (bought my first tablet PC around 2005)...
|
| A few days ago, there was a topic about the book
| 'neuromancer' could you even imagine such a book as
| interactive (not a game) ?
|
| It may took years and a hell of a crowd to finish something
| like that satisfying enough to get only a niche of people.
|
| HINT: The Message of the Book (the Punk-Part) was about:
| 'Everybody needs money (Products) so you have to get a
| job.'
|
| Quoting more "nonsens" but remarkable;
|
| It's quite possible to live with websites. Nothing else.
|
| Clue: Apps let you set a limit on withdrawals when you are
| away from home.
|
| (edited: found some typos^^) You enjoyed the ads, but do
| you enjoy the products designed to optimize Clickrates and
| funnel conversions?
|
| And if it was too OT, think just a random person typing
| something...never mind...
|
| btw: google didn't show, what does that mean - it has more
| speculated 'space' one screen than the regular charsetting,
| tinyer chars i had known and seen before...but... ??
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| > Developers actually take up to 19% longer when coding with AI
| than without it, but self-report that they were able to complete
| tasks 20% faster.
|
| IF TRUE and taken at face value, surely it could have nothing to
| do with AI coding being so new everyone just figuring how to best
| use a new tool at all once.
|
| No no, best to right out the gate compare the new tool to the
| decades old process.
| specproc wrote:
| Had my phone left uncharged for the best part of a week recently.
| Barely needed it.
|
| It's my laptop that eats my brain.
| wzdd wrote:
| The "surprising results" are a bit factoid-ey and if taken at
| face value are far more shocking than they turned out to be (I
| very much appreciate the references so I could check this):
|
| "You can reverse up to 10 years of age-related cognitive decline
| simply by blocking mobile data on your phone for 2 weeks": the
| linked study says that it's _attention span_ that is improved
| equivalent to being 10 years younger, as measured immediately
| after the study ends (only)
|
| "Using ChatGPT on cognitive tasks can reduce your brain
| connectivity by up to 50%": this is measured using an EEG, so is
| measuring involvement of multiple brain regions while doing a
| task. Basically your brain doesn't have to work as hard at the
| task if you're using an LLM. It's not, you know, your connectome
| atrophying.
| senko wrote:
| > Basically your brain doesn't have to work as hard at the task
| if you're using an LLM
|
| That's kind of the point of most tech. Consider:
|
| "In another eye-opening study, researchers have conclusively
| shown that your muscles atrophy if you're using a forklift
| instead of your back!"
| blotfaba wrote:
| > Using ChatGPT on cognitive tasks can reduce your brain
| connectivity by up to 50% and reduce your ability to recall
| information about the task by 8x.
|
| I hate this thing. I don't think it added anything to this
| article to conflate this "study" - did no one stop to think your
| brain isn't firing on all cylinders when the AI is doing the work
| because that's what the whole point of AI is?
|
| It's supposed to free up your mind to attend to other matters.
|
| We're not building muscles like we used to when we use tractors
| and heavy machinery instead of building houses brick by brick by
| hand either. So what?? Attend a gym and read something technical
| and dense.
| superkuh wrote:
| It's really hard to take any of his claims seriously when the
| article title itself is leading with 1960s old wives tales about
| dopamine neurochemistry.
| rglover wrote:
| My wife and I have been talking about noticing the general
| cognitive decline in people we interact with. We both started to
| notice that people have been getting a little bit...goofy
| (spacing out, not really reciprocating communication, hyper-
| limited attention spans, etc).
|
| We both land on a combination of social media and economic
| effects (people stressed to make ends meet leading to an anxious
| mind). AI is on the lower-end of our concerns.
| QuantumGood wrote:
| You say "people", any filters? Young/old, working/not working.
| I notice changes in each new generation that are at least
| cognitive adjacent.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| My partner was telling me about the Gen Z stare last night.
| Apparently when you try and talk to them in the workplace
| they don't know how to respond so they will just stare back
| at you.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| And you know what your partner telling you about the gen-z
| stare story means?
|
| They are a social media trend addict, just like anyone
| else. Because the gen-z stare is a new meme that bubbled up
| to the top of social media infinite scrool content in the
| last week.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| And here I am bubbling it up to the nerdiest social media
| of all! :)
| lesinski wrote:
| I am a party magician in my spare time -- I walk around parties
| and show short bits of eye-catching magic to guests.
|
| I have noticed that some young people (~18-30 yo) lose
| attention within as little as 5 seconds. I could have someone
| choose a card and in that amount of time, they have spaced out
| -- no phone, just staring blankly. I have two rubber bands
| examined and by the time they are handed back, someone is on
| their phone.
|
| The most annoying part is that -- because I construct my
| routines for minimal attention spans -- within 2 more seconds,
| something magic happens and everyone who's paying attention
| reacts. And the 1-2 young people who zoned out start panicking
| about the FOMO, "what happened?" "do it again!" Sorry folks!
| mitchell_h wrote:
| google "gen z stare". This is such a commonly observed thing
| that it got a name, meme, tiktok sound, and news articles.
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| For what it's worth, the nature of the stare seems to be in
| dispute:
|
| > With this, a lot of Gen Z "clapped back," if you will
| (this essentially means they rebutted), saying that this
| stare comes from listening to Boomers or Millennials ask
| them obvious questions or start demanding things from them
| that warrant a look that says, "Are you actually serious
| right now?" or "I don't get paid enough for this."
|
| https://www.insidehook.com/internet/gen-z-stare (first
| result after searching "gen z stare" on DDG)
|
| Not saying some people don't get bored and start looking at
| their phones _way_ too fast (uh, like drivers at a stop
| light? that 's not limited to gen z), just that there might
| be another reason for any given blank stare.
| anothereng wrote:
| everyone's becoming an addict. Few people will avoid digital
| addiction
| devmor wrote:
| > I don't rely on "willpower" or "discipline" - I try to design
| each day with intention
|
| This point is the most important callout to me. This is a
| macrocosm of how I focus on tasks as a person with already
| disastrous dopamine interactions (severe ADHD).
|
| I was actually thinking about this last night, when I noticed
| that I approached the self-checkout at the grocery store with
| more items than the two people who'd been there before me, and
| left before either of them had finished checking out despite not
| being in any particular rush.
|
| When I'm going about my day, I am thinking about the actions I'm
| going to take, deliberating on them and deciding my intent prior
| to when I will need to execute it. Not to a significant degree,
| but to go back to my grocery store anecdote: when I was waiting
| in line I was preparing myself to execute these tasks:
|
| 1. Set my re-usable bags in the bagging area.
|
| 2. Respond to the prompt asking me if I have placed bags there.
|
| 3. Enter my loyalty code.
|
| 4. Scan the rigid and heavier items first, placing them in the
| bottom of the bags.
|
| 5. Scan the lighter, crushable items last.
|
| 6. Select my payment method.
|
| 7. Tap my payment card, and respond to the PIN prompts.
|
| 8. Retrieve my bags and receipt.
|
| This sounds like a lot, looking at it. Maybe it was early on, but
| now this is such a natural part of my cognitive load that I
| didn't even specifically notice that I do it until I wondered
| about the speed difference I observed.
|
| To further reinforce the hypothesis, I thought about the most
| recent times that I did something completely unstructured with no
| idea what I would have to do (or at least no solid plan due to
| the event being controlled by other people) and concluded that I
| was generally slower to act and felt less able to respond to
| stimuli appropriately.
|
| This is all to say, given these observations and the initial
| recognition of what I use as an ADHD-coping strategy, I wonder if
| the overuse of social media and similar stimuli effectively
| reproduces the negative aspects of ADHD on otherwise
| "normal"-brained individuals.
| pirates wrote:
| Is this an ADHD coping strategy? I'm not trying to second
| guess, I'm actually very intrigued because the way you
| described your thought process is very similar to mine, but
| I've never been tested or diagnosed.
|
| In any case thanks, this will help me in the future I think.
| ladino wrote:
| a gamechanger for me was to set my device to grey:
| https://trendscout.com/gogrey/
| Uehreka wrote:
| > They call it centaur guardrails because it's AI on the bottom,
| human on the top. Nice.
|
| Did you just define a term, act like it already existed, then
| compliment yourself for coming up with it?
| overload119 wrote:
| It was directly from the study that I had linked. I was
| complimenting them.
| layer8 wrote:
| > I stumbled on this elegant [lockable] box you put phones into
| and it blocks all radio communications.
|
| If you truly want to block yourself from using your phone (or
| similar) for some amount of time, the Kitchen Safe time-lock
| boxes are great. They don't look particularly elegant, nor do
| they block radio communication, but their unique feature is that
| you'd have to irreversibly physically break them to access
| whatever you locked inside before the timer has elapsed. There
| are many similar products, which however usually have an
| "emergency" mechanism to preempt the timer, which defeats the
| purpose.
| darqis wrote:
| Man, instead of going to some discord channel, asking waiting for
| some human to respond, if they do, then potentially misunderstand
| the question, maybe even cause drama, or using a search engine to
| crawl, tediously through SO and Reddit posts, because Google
| favors those 2, or wading through pages of potentially badly
| written documentation, I just turn on github and ask copilot. And
| it responds in most cases, and I can even chat with it ask for
| alternatives or better approaches to my problems.
|
| And then I needed a logo for my new service I'm building. Search
| for AI image generator, input the prompt and a few seconds later
| I have my really cool image. Time saved -> infinity.
|
| But I also thought, all this problem solving done by the
| machines, leaves my brain unemployed, well not exactly, I can
| focus on solving issues that usually take hours to solve and get
| on with it. However those hard nuts are no longer cracked by me,
| and I focus on the lighter cognitive load.
|
| Probably not good, but idk, I don't have the luxury to be picky,
| being an unemployed freelancer on social security
| _rpxpx wrote:
| Articles like this always start with such radical criticism, and
| end with such dismally modest proposals: "try not to look at your
| phone for 1 hour after you wake up", "before you pick up your
| phone, try counting to 100 first", "move 'instagram' away from
| your homescreen", etc. What about just getting rid of your
| smartphone? Who really needs anything beyond calls and text
| messages...? You can get a GPS map, and a camera. Complete
| freedom is right there for the taking.
| mrbluecoat wrote:
| > I stumbled on this elegant box you put phones into and it
| blocks all radio communications.
|
| $249 for a Faraday cage? You can find $10 Faraday bags on
| Amazon..
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