Thank HN: I'm taking a year off HN | Hacker News Reader

Thank HN: I'm taking a year off HN

38 pointspetecooper15 comments

I'm 40 this week. The last ten years has been challenging in many, varied ways. My HN post history should give you an idea: I've been looking for direction for some time. I have yet to find my path, whatever that may look like.

I live and work well away from the startup world, but the level of posting around here is something that keeps drawing me back, again and again. And again. And I'm spending _way_ too much time around here. Time I should be spending reading and writing books, getting exercise and fresh air, talking with people, tinkering with cars, that sort of thing.

From someone you will likely never meet in real life: thank you for the high quality discourse. Thanks for showing me all the amazing things you make, your words of wisdom, and for curating an environment where I'm never the smartest in the room. You're basically a daily drug to me, and I must go cold turkey until I can get a handle on my consumption.

From midnight GMT tonight, I'm taking a year off HN to start making things, and I'm looking forward to catching up in November 2019 to read all about what you've made, found and hacked. You'll be a `hosts` file entry until November 2019. Don't worry, I still love you.

All the very best.

I’m 40 as of last week! High five 1978!

We all have our vices and consumption excesses that when unchecked are unhealthy. Social media became that for me and started to cut into time I’d rather be spending doing something else. So I quit in 2016 and have been much happier without it. HackerNews has not become that for me but if it did I would do the same.

I took the hosts file approach as well and it has been sufficient to remind me and catch the occasional lapse.

Best of luck!

Interesting, I was introduced to Hacker News by CGP Grey on the Hello Internet podcast, declaring he was taking a long break from Twitter, Reddit, and HN. About a year ago I decided to avoid all media as a sort of test. I later also deleted all of my social media accounts.

Media does seem to have significant psychological effects, comparable to drugs. I think reading books has to be the healthiest way to consume media, because unlike movies, shows, podcasts, surfing, and scrolling, it takes an active effort to do, and thus you get out of it everything you put in. Passive media consumption leads to spending more time with what has no value to you. I believe it should only be done with other people, to establish context and references between each other. I feel the same way about recreational drug use. In general it is good to choose activities that connect you to others, rather than separate.

My time spent away from the internet and media, really has broadened my view of the world. I've thought a lot about motivation, narrative, and relationships. I seem to be bent on figuring these things out, and trying to uncover the inner workings of life. This does me no good though, and the analysis and overthinking is crippling. My focus recently has been on not complicating life. It is not an optimization problem. Instead I'd like to let go of the need to understand, and simply experience and appreciate more.

As for Hacker News, I am quite pleased with the postings I've seen so far, and is inspiring and motivating to me. I will be wary of HN leading to a decrease in productivity and becoming a time sink.

Apologies for the slightly off topic rant, I just had some thoughts I wanted to get out.

Good idea and good luck with this, especially the timing. I was just reading Judson Brewer's book on mindfulness and addiction (The Craving Mind) and he mentioned December is the most challenging month for people to quit smoking, not to say you have an addiction, but rather a change of habit.

I just edited my hosts file to visit hn for a little break in the middle of the day. About to re-enable for some focused time this afternoon.

> You'll be a `hosts` file entry until November 2019.

If you find that is not effective, the apps Freedom, ColdTurkey, and SelfControl are useful apps to download. Humans are tool-users and should never feel ashamed of that.

I've done 6 months or so before without visiting. At first it's habitual. Find another source of content you like to consume to replace it and/or your will power will need to be that much stronger. Find something else you are excited for and look forward to. After a while you'll forget to even bother checking. Your 12 months might turn into 18, 24, or just weekly or once daily as part of a ritual when you wake up or something. It's not hard. Just think, what life was like before Hacker News.

Read your previous post. You might find cognitive behavior therapy useful. It applies to both depression and addiction. It's a framework for analyzing your thoughts and emotions.

Thinking of doing the same, but I wish I could delete my account (just account, not posts). I guess if I want to leave a service I'd also like to be really "gone" from it!

You could turn on noprocrast with a huge minaway and a small maxvisit to accomplish approximately the same thing.

Good luck! Be consistent

Or just use the noprocrast setting. I set mine to boot me off after 1 hour, doesn't let me back for 6 hours. Works great.

Be safe and happy trails.

Best of luck - and happy birthday!

Good luck and happy birthday!

High quality? It was web-boys trying to one up each other and bootcampers from toxic work environment practicing how to insult the parent poster without sounding aggressive.

> how to insult

This is usually done by silently downvoting.

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