Comment by gavanwoolery | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gavanwoolery | Hacker News Reader

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My only form of contact is Twitter for many people (they do not have my email). I posted my email publicly though when I tried to leave Twitter. Twitter is (to its benefit) an extremely low-friction form of communication that is not quite the same as email or a phone call. For example, I can say something on Twitter without demanding a given person's attention - rather, they can read it if they want to.

Anyhow, it was more a philosophical problem that brought me back. I said, in so many words, that I wanted to be more "zen" (whatever that means) and eliminate distractions. They argued that I was not in a "zen" place if I let distractions bother me in the first place. So I took it as a challenge (which I failed). I think it easier to turn things off permanently than to master one's own willpower.

Sounds like a fallacy. If I choose to not play a TV in the background on full volume in my office all day while I work, is this a result of my lacking willpower?

Also, different people have different sensitivities. Don’t be so quick to write sensitivities off as weaknesses. To illustrate: the nervous system (and most other things) depends on sensing, and would simply fail if it were rendered too insensitive. Your sensitivities are often strengths when managed accordingly. Practicing and challenging them has it’s benefits, but we want to be strategic with this rather than simply withstanding to no end.

thanks, good points :)

> I think it easier to turn things off permanently than to master one's own willpower.

That's one reason I left Reddit; too much coming down the pipe, even when my subscriptions were pared down to a few technical groups. It was easiest just to completely stop going.

For what it's worth, here's my take: turning off social media is far and away more "zen" than having it, no matter how infrequently you use it. Being unplugged from that culture has helped me spend more time thinking about and doing things that have lasting impact on my life. Like learning and building. In my experience, caring about staying up to date on pop culture keeps people from actually doing things they say they want to do.

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