Ask HN: Unplugging | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Unplugging

How would you handle a complete network disconnect for six of the days of the week?

I spent two weeks off the net this summer. The first was car camping. Every day I hiked, swam, kayaked, read, and journaled in addition to the everyday chores of camping with kids and long slow conversations with my wife. The second week I was backpacking solo. I had a little notebook to write in, some questions I had prepared to ponder, and a couple things I wanted to try memorizing. I sang, I talked to myself, I talked to the trees and the squirrels. I was sore, tired, hungry and blistered. I spent entire days intensely focused on a single physical task: getting up or down a mountain. I didn't have any grand epiphanies or clarity, but I felt a wholeness that I struggle to describe.

And naps. Don't underestimate how wonderful naps are.

The question here leaves out so much!

Some responses, and my first instinct, were to note that spending time in nature away from an ability to reach networks can actually feel really great -- e.g. for me this is backpacking/trekking. Bring a book, paper topo maps, and just enjoy the natural world around you.

But I think maybe a tougher question is, how could one be a useful, productive human in society without constant reliance on networks? Could you be productive if you had to get information from books you acquired ahead of time, navigate effectively paper maps, etc? My first instinct is that this is impossible -- and yet almost every other generation in the history of the species managed this way.

Not impossible without some planning. When I'm navigating around my city I'm pretty familiar with the arterial roads that run across the county, so even in a new neighborhood I can feel my way out without anything. If I had a map in my car like my parents growing up, it wouldn't be hard to trace a simple route and drive along it. That's how I mostly use mapping software on my phone anyhow, preplanning the route then just driving it, maybe reviewing briefly at a red light or if I need longer I just pull over for a second. I don't like having to look away from the road at a screen mounted on my dash to navigate, feels dangerous. I feel like I also have a much stronger sense of direction now from navigating like this vs just blithely following the blue line.

In college I would often study on my laptop outdoors where there wasn't any wifi. I would just download all the stuff I needed to read in advance.

You could use the 7th day of the week to just pull stuff you need: relevant technical documentation, cache a few stack over flow threads, update your RSS feeds to keep track of websites you follow, refresh your email (if you have a job where you can get away with replying once a week), etc. Even if your job demanded you be connected to the internet all day, disconnecting after the working day would probably be a nice detox.

I do it all the time. I go hunting where there isn't even cellphone signal.

It's amazing what that does for the mind. Quiet, near-singular focus for a week straight is one of the most relaxing things you can do. You find that the pacing of life just seems to line up a lot better with human neurology.

Definitely agree.

I used to go hunting with my dad every year. Then I realized I had a freezer still mostly full because, well, deer meat isn't that good. So I still go, just without actually shooting anything.

It's a cathartic experience. When your sole focus is spotting a deer, everything else kind of fades away. Starting in pitch blackness. Every little noise makes you turn your head and stare at...nothing. Or is it? Hard to tell. Sun starting to rise - good, you're freezing...but why isn't it warming up yet? You listen for every little crack or grunt. You watch the squirrels chase each other - are they fighting or playing? You start to appreciate the beauty and joy nature, that you've been ignoring for years, can provide.

Well, you could write a book about the experiences, but it's definitely something I highly recommend - even if you don't want to shoot anything.

Huh, I've actually had pretty good experiences with venison. My family weren't hunters, but our house was on an old farm that had been planted over with a pine forest, and we used to have guys come by and ask to hunt on our property (farmers doing population control), and they would give us the first deer they got. Anyways, those were always pretty good, not gamey at all. I think that may have something to do with all the local deer being fat lazy stupid nuisance animals with far too much available food.

The flavor of wild animals varies a lot depending on what they have been eating. A fat trout that has been eating juicy bugs all summer tastes much better than a starving winter trout.

If you do want to shoot something, do it with a camera.

I would like to do woodwork and build furniture that I consider beautiful. A hard day’s work with your hands making perfect joints and chair legs, treating the wood. And cooking, I want to be able to prepare a really high end meal all in one go, master chef or chefs table style. Japanese Italian fusion probably, I have some ideas for tortellini in brodo but with Japanese flavours. Also I like traveling, I want to do a Vipassana in India. I wouldn’t need my precious Internet there. Maybe my life would be better if I wasn’t a programmer.

I would get a nice journal, a nice pen, an old book written by some philosopher, and a good pair of hiking boots.

Go out an explore nature, read, think, and write. That is what I would do with 6 days of freedom.

For people who have lived in the era where doing this is generally the norm, it would be quite easy and straightforward. Most people would do is:

- socialize and interact personally

- focus on manual stuff (cleaning, crafts, etc.)

- sports or physical activity

- reading books or other printed medium

- day trips

For those who were already born where an electronic gadget has been integrated into their lives, this will be challenging, but still doable. The core is to focus on discipline and commitment. Once you have set aside any electronic device, you need to fight the urgency to even peek at it (even for a few minutes).

This comes the part where one would need to introspect and determine what other things in life they (want) can do that does not involve any (inter)network connected device. Find new craft or stuff to focus on. Talk with friends / family members physically (maintaining safe physical distance for health). Feel the nature by taking long walks or hikes.

Handling of this challenge is proportional to your level of discipline.

In terms of personal life, I'd keep spending time with my wife and son. On my connected day I would buy books and the other days I would read them -- almost as it is now, except I'd have to plan my purchases ahead.

In terms of work... well, what does complete network disconnect mean? As long as I have access to the office LAN I could probably still collaborate on code with my co-workers. Even if I didn't, we could, I suppose, pass USB sticks with code around the desks.

If we go even further disconnected than that, I.e. collaboration with co-workers only allowed on one day out of seven -- well, it'd be an interesting challenge. I'm always the lean advocate pushing for shorter cycle time and tighter deployments, so it'd go against my nature. But I can also imagine a strictly cadenced weekly integration working. We'd sure have to structure the work differently!

Maybe that would be an interesting thing to try just to see what one learns from it.

My previous work was almost completely offline. I had limited access to the Internet on a different computer, but I couldn't use it all the time and it was inconvenient.

Basically I had to setup completely offline development environment. It's easy when you can connect to the internet temporarily. Otherwise it might be tricky for some environments. In your case it'll be easy.

I download all documentation. I'm using Java and I've found that most of libraries and frameworks that I use provide downloadable offline documentation.

While I wouldn't disconnect myself from the Internet willingly, it was not that big deal. Sure, I couldn't stackoverflow trivial questions like how do I find files in powershell, I had to actually read powershell mans and spend 10 minutes instead of 10 seconds, but that's not a big issue, rather a nuisance.

Stop caring. Let go. Throw your devices in a faraday bag. Ideally go somewhere remote where communication is impossible anyways. Realize that any problems caused while you're away would have been there anyways and that the discontent of others is superficial (read: in their own head).

Just leave.

That sounds interesting. Each week, I'd keep a list of things to download on Saturday (or whatever day the network is available). That would include software updates, documentation, books, movies, podcasts, songs, news, and shared files. I'd block out time for replying to emails on that day. I'd also upload stuff like backups and new blog posts.

The rest of the week would be spent writing code offline, working through the downloaded content, taking notes and journaling, spending time outside. I would spend much less time on my phone: no emails, messages, or other notifications; no feeds to scroll through; no sites to browse or blog articles to read. I'd likely do a lot of reading on some sort of e-reader, though.

It kind of depends on the definition of complete. If it's actually complete I suppose I'd go running and read a lot and see if I can serendipitously run into some interesting people to make plans with out and about. If you didn't actually mean complete, then I'd try to make plans with friends and family on top of exercising and reading. Depending on what else is going on with me at the time I'd probably clean a lot, or reorganize, or decorate. If I can coordinate it while disconnected, I might try to volunteer somewhere.

This is assuming I wouldn't be working of course, since work involves connecting more than anything else I do.

Six days of every week? For how many weeks?

Assuming I could see it coming, and had time to prepare:

1) Take PTO for that week. I would make it very clear to my team I will be completely offline (no checking email, or responding to Slack pings)

2) Give an early warning to family, friends, and significant other.

3) Plan out offline entertainment (books) and activities. If I was traveling I would print out any maps/tickets I need ahead of time

4) Relax and detox from my normally hyper-connected life

I would finally read that lengthy bash manual. What gems like /dev/tcp or suspend -f am I missing?

Well, I would at leaststart to read it

Is this something you're doing yourself for mental health or something being imposed upon you that you're trying to deal with?

Handle in terms of what?

Making sure things continue to work? Delegate to trusted and capable friends, freelances, or hires.

Making sure you don't die of FOMO while offline? Deal with it as you would with any addiction: just go and stop coming up with excuses. In a couple of days you'll restore your sanity and appreciate freedom.

t. Quit my job to embark on months-long offline adventures.

Never could do that.... I do try to take at least a week of mostly-offline vacation a year (ski-trip), but laptop and phone are always close, as my (self-employed) company offers 24//7 sysadmin services / on-call service. And being a single-guy it-shop, it's not something to hand over to someone else for the week.

Um, which network? Internet? any communications/social net? My stack of tech journals unread, novels unread, tech books with interesting sections unread, and the code projects waiting for feature additions and bug fixes could easily last at least a year, if not a lifetime...

Meditation. Breath work. Stretching. Active stretching. Walking my dog. Reading the huge pile of books in my current queue. Grow cannabis. Grow mushrooms.

Lately though… the most pleasing place for me to be is in my own mind, on a foam roller or lacrosse ball, focusing on breath work and mobility.

I'd say instead of a sudden and complete disconnect, go for a phased disconnect. In the very first phase, avoid using the network and look for other alternate resources like other posters have mentioned here. Reach out to network only as a last resort.

Due to some fun things happening all at once, I have been without internet at home, but for a work phone, for about four months. I'll get around to doing something about it but I can keep myself entertained, surprisingly.

Question is worded a bit funny- will you have 1 day of connectivity 1 day a week for x weeks? You'd probably end up just making a list of things to cram in to that one day all week.

I'd get a lot more drawing and reading done, probably. I am an artist, and one of my favorite ways to work is to grab my laptop and go out in the park where there's no net.

With gratitude! And maybe some withdrawals.

Since much of the Internet is social activity, I'd try to replace it with some real life socialization.

I'm not entirely convinced that fully disconnecting is necessary, although it is nice. Instead, I take an old phone without any work stuff on it, and go moto camping. Occasionally, messages will come in from friends and family, and I can respond to them.

But the most important thing, imo, is not attaching yourself to outside responsibilities for a few days.

I'd probably make music instead of reading about making music.

Spend more time with my kids. Read a lot of books on my e-reader.

Poorly.

I would likely be outdoors on an extended trip.

That sounds wonderful to me.

Not well.

to what purpose

Make it 14 days and I'd call that my last vacation. I spent most of it partying like it was 1999. I read books on paper. I listened to heavy metal albums on CD. I talked to people in person. I got more sleep. I chilled the fuck out and even got laid a few times.

Try it. You might like it.

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