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Comment by dsaavy | Hacker News Reader

I liked the style of this blog post/self-addressed letter. I found myself brainstorming many of the methods for Quiet that the author mentions.

Side note: I've always wondered how much potential is lost in the current generations because of the constant distractions (of all kinds). The type of deep and creative thinking that comes from boredom and a lack of interruptions can drive great change and ideas from a personal and societal perspective.

The switching cost of focus changes is a real issue in thinking in deep ways. And the cost of doing it frequently is definitely a drain and cause of atrophy in overall focus ability. Trying to rein in your ability to focus for longer periods of time is HARD. It's mentally and even physically uncomfortable.

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This and also being able to satisfy an itch at any moment. Be it youtube or facebook, whatever your favourite drug is. It's infinitely available and is much easier than any other form of activity.

But in an of itself doesn't create anything. Mindless content consumption doesn't even leave memories sometimes, what to say of ideas.

I realize it is too late to get rid of mobile devices. But I have long advocated for “Techno-lent”: a period of forty days and nights where you put your mobile devices off and in a drawer, you turn off your WiFi.

Before you claim it is impossible because of your work, is it really? Did you try and think of a way that was possible?

Many moons ago a friend of mine came up with an idea called "Experimonth". Where you would pick something you want to do, and do it for an entire month. Something like wake up at 4am or not eat any meat, etc.

I've done many of these and they were great, including giving up the internet and computers/phones, with the exception of work. This was back when I went into the office and I limited myself to only work related tasks there. Wifi and computers were turned off and phones put away at home for a month.

It's actually somewhat difficult to break the habit and very boring. But after about the third week you start to get used to it. By the end of the month when I could go back to "normal" I realized there was very little I actually wanted back. Mostly it was a few games I wanted to play and texting with friends on a regular basis. I lost all interest in social media after it (and that's still true) and I became very annoyed by the "ding" of the phone so I turned off all notifications and set it on DND full time (and that is also still true).

Another thing that's I got out of it is I notice how much time everyone else is distracted by their phones. It's really crazy to see when you're not one of them.

Shocking your normal schedule is a good way to get out of a depression loop, agreed. I at one point developed an obsession with finding Parrot shops in my area, and drove far and wide to catalogue every one and learn more about the birds. After owning 2 Cockatoos I developed a new life-long passion for rescuing the talking birds as pets. I also make music, and have begun working on dating, and reaching out to old friends for life updates. All of it has really grounded me in the past 5 years, and I'm pretty sure it's what's gotten me through the pandemic years without depression.

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