Comment by ivansavz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ivansavz | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to share two hacks that have made a big difference for me:

/1/ black-hole certain websites in /etc/hosts, see here for details https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29217297

/2/ making the computer read books to me using the text-to-speech feature. See here for instructions to setup keyboard shortcut for Mac OS users https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mApa60zJA8rgEm6T6GF0yIem... and this is the command line version https://gist.github.com/ivanistheone/de3ccb244224d101bb93320...

Hack /1/ was useful to get rid of the "new tab > enter distracting site url" urges that I get several times per hour. The error loading the page reminds me of my commitment to seek less superficial distractions and practicing better information hygiene. Disclaimer: it's not easy to stick to this (for god's sake I'm no HN right now!!), but I sometimes get good chunks of disconnected time (several weeks in a row).

Hack /2/ has allowed me to read A LOT more books then ever before in my life (like one book per week): I simply open the PDF, select a good chunk of text (like one chapter or something), then listen to the book while doing other things (e.g. exercise, cleanup, or computer tasks with low cognitive requirements).

Re: 2, I find that listening to something (that is not music) while doing something else makes me zone out for one of the two activities.

I tried listening to podcasts/conferences while coding, or listening to a zoom meeting while reading my email or doing work, and it doesn't work. I tend to zone out on the listening. If it was audio, I must rewind and listen to it again. If it was a zoom call... oh, well, "what were you saying again?".

I’ve had the same experience, although it depends on the difficulty of the podcast and the difficulty of the task. I feel like I have an inner threshold.

Also, I’m convinced that multitasking obliterates your long term memory, in addition to stunting your short term memory.

There have been many studies on this, people much overestimate their ability to multitask. Of course if you listen to a book being read to you while doing other stuff, retention isn't going to be as high. You also won't be able to reflect as much on what's being read to you as you would if the book had your full attention.

What I'm curious about is if people actually read less or if people who read less tend to congregate on social media, which would make sense.

True that — I can only combine the "speech input channel" in my brain with very low cognitive load tasks like data entry or doing the dishes.

Interestingly, I've noticed that "can you understand the article while doing the dishes" is a very good test of the quality of a piece of writing. Whenever I lose track on the narrative repeatedly (I must stop the computer and restart from the beginning) it's usually a sign that whatever I'm reading is too "fluffy" (convoluted sentence structure, no clear point, roundabout explanations, all-opinions, outrage narrative, etc.).

I feel like I actually get a bump in comprehension if I do a menial task like dishwashing while listening to an audiobook, versus sitting down with my eyes closed. I think the key is to occupy that little bit of your brain that would otherwise spin off on an internal tangent with every new idea you hear.

I have noticed I have the same issue, but I can play Minecraft while listening to something. So I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts while playing Minecraft.

I assume the same would be possible with audiobooks.

For 1, I use Focus: https://heyfocus.com/

It used to be much cheaper, but it really helps to stop the surfing urges for a time. Well, not stop them so much as force me to realize when I have them.

FocusLite (https://focuslite.app) has interesting business model - you purchase a consumable ($7.99 I think) to start a streak. If you wanna cancel blocking, you have to delete the app. And once you've done that, you have to purchase the consumable again.

SelfControl is a nicely done, free open source program that does the same thing. https://selfcontrolapp.com/. Code: https://github.com/SelfControlApp/selfcontrol/

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