Ask HN: How can you frequently post to HN and also be a very successful person? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can you frequently post to HN and also be a very successful person?

4 pointsdidgeoridoo3 comments

I've recently been digging into some of the reasons for my procrastination and inability to consistently do "deep work". My participation in HN conversations intuitively feels like a distraction that's holding me back, but that can't be the whole story. After all, there are plenty of members of this community who engage very frequently, yet are also at the top of their respective fields in the "real world" — e.g. tptacek, patio11, Animats, and grellas.

So, how does one both stay engaged in this community and prevent it from distracting and derailing your real work?

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I think you're mixing up real work with fake work :) I've found that working on anything that doesn't distract and derail effectively kills the creative spirit. While I'm not at the top of anything, I'm guessing that the people you mention find their work distracting and derailing enough to stay awake.

I use http://hckrnews.com/ when I do not have a lot of time to at least catch the top stories over the day

Set some time aside, maybe an hour or two a week, to just go through the posts of HN and get some ideas, information, or respond to posts. That is all.

The rest of the week? Go about your life, your side projects, etc. I find myself procrastinating too when I'm working on something, and there is nothing wrong with it IF you control it and are aware of it.

Imagine all the people using the Internet that aren't developers.. what are they really doing with their time on the Internet? Anything productive? Probably not. Are they scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest all day?

Then again: The Internet has two types of people: Creators and Consumers. Whose making money?

I mean... I admit it: I'm an Internet addict. I am on it until I am exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I do things to exercise and stay healthy, but if I'm not outside, I'm on the Internet. However, I've managed to turn my addiction into something productive: I'm a web designer, web developer, web app creator, whatever name you want to give it. I'm always working on building something, in hopes that it will bring me some recurring revenue or even just some money to help pay the bills.

I have my tendencies: scrolling through Facebook -- which I've now installed an extension to: 1) limit my time and 2) have to click a button to actually see the Feed (which makes me accountable for knowing what I am doing rather than mindlessly typing in Facebook.com and seeing all the technically useless information on my news feed.

As for Hacker News? I do as I told you: 1 - 2 hours a week is usually plenty. Break it down to about 10-20 minutes a day. It can certainly be useful, but you have to pick and choose articles that interest you, choose things that you want to answer. There is a benefit to helping others and answering Ask HNs or even looking at the Show HNs. You can find programs that are helpful to you. You are helping the community out by seeing what they built and even subscribing to the things people do. They aren't building these things just to build them: They are practicing their skills and releasing products for experience or money. I have found that being on Hacker News helps you to brainstorm and get ideas or get you past a rough patch in which you are just struggling with something as well.

If this still doesn't help you, get one of the Chrome or Firefox extensions that allows you an allotted amount of time to spend on websites. For example, I allow myself just 20 minutes on Facebook a day. After that, it won't load anymore. Just think that for every minute you spend on Facebook, they are making a few bucks off you and you are not making anything. I certainly am not knocking Facebook for their cleverness in advertising your account to marketers at your expense, that expense being the time you spend on their website, but they offer the service for free. The price of free always comes with a hidden price, doesn't it?

But 20 minutes is usually more than enough time to procrastinate. The extension lets you put in the websites you want to block and you just set the amount of time you are allowed. 20-30 minutes is usually more than enough time to get your procrastination time in.

Now that you are aware of your problem, do something about it.

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