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Comment by iratewizard | Hacker News Reader

And cut off the free dopamine sources. Make your phone's screen black and white. Use an extension to block Twitter, reddit, YouTube and HN. Learn to be bored again like when you were young.

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> powersnail "start with something smaller"

> iratewizard "Learn to be bored"

Spot on! And the final ingredient: build habits!

Atomic Habits (I know, I know) has some great techniques. The two I have used successfully are:

- Glue a new habit to the end of an existing habit (e.g. meditate after brushing your teeth)

- Set a time, day (and if required, location) for the task

> Glue a new habit to the end of an existing habit

Thanks for the suggestion. This would be going to help me.

> Make your phone's screen black and white.

Just did this, thank you!

> Use an extension to block Twitter, reddit, YouTube and HN. Learn to be bored again like when you were young.

For those thinking about this, it's pretty easy to add custom url's to uBlocks lists, I've done it on mobile for most sites like this.

...Still struggling with HN though :/

Or block all of the non-educational youtube channels. Personally a good portion of my youtube usage is educational videos about electronics now. It feels like much less of a waste of time than twitter or instagram.

> Make your phone's screen black and white.

A factory-fresh smartphone isn't that distracting and very few of the worst offenders are really necessary for communication. Is the black and white strategy really better than simply uninstalling "algorithm apps"? Both OSs allow both extremely granular and broad editing of notifications. If you "need" Slack/email for 24hr work notifications, that's a cultural issue not a technical one.

In other words, I think we install a lot of unnecessary junk. Just use a phone like it's 2008 and there's no App Store yet.

Black and White really helps. "The algorithm" also plays with the color spectrum to influence our reptilian brain.

On the rare occasion I need to turn my phone to color say once a month (like when buying a pair of shoes and needing to see the color) the hue and intensity of just the regular internet and Instagram is outright overwhelming.

That's anecdotal but in my experience it does work.

who is playing with the color spectrum -- Apple? Google? What would their incentive be? Both Apple and Google have pretty comprehensive features that limit your time with the phone. I would be surprised if HN audience are particularly distracted by SMS/Phone etc

I assume you are mean optional third party apps that are trivial to uninstall.

nah, it's The Algorithm, the big algorithm in the sky, it knows everything we do and controls our destiny.

All Hail The Algorithm

Simple things like the color of icons on your phone launcher. Websites themselves that compete with each other. That CNN video you watch on your phone, etc.

But my point isn't scientifically backed.

Would disagree about the HN audience comment. Just the red and green SMS bubbles are SO strident on iOS on Macbook versus black and white on iPhone.

But just my personal opinion.

Would you have said this in 2008 (iPhone 1), early Mac OS X? Steve Jobs called Aqua icons “lickable” iirc and I can’t remember any of these discussions in the 00s. The problem is recent—bad, optional apps with predatory algorithms and notifications

Mac/iOS/Android/Windows etc haven’t changed that much tbh.

Turning Twitter black & white seems like trying to make fast food healthy to me.

It’s not an “OR” to me. Black and white is an AND to blocking Twitter.

I use the browser for all social media sites, so not installing Apps isn't a solution for people like me

A solution for what? There aren't any eye catching colors or notifications on browser social media unless you manually visit, bookmark sites in the first place :P

I guess it gets into an addiction thing- I'm definitely prone to this/is a little more serious. I have edited hosts files to block sites and used procrastination plugins, for instance.

You can also just delete your Twitter, and Google accounts, and change your Reddit password to something you don't know.

It makes these services more valuable when you are accessible on them. Don't donate time, content, attention, or even namespace to censorship platforms.

This is a really good tip. Once you start contributing to these sites the dopamine spikes from replies, likes and even debate goes up substantially and pulls you into its clutch.

Without active accounts, these things become consumption only which is easier to pull away from.

HN is the only site I feel ok giving my content too.

The big one is it makes it more attractive to your friends. There is no way to turn off Messenger if you have an fb account, so your friends will tend to message you there, and the more friends they have easily accessible in one place, the more likely they are to a) sign up, and b) stay accessible there, which perpetuates the cycle.

You have to delete the accounts so your friends can't reach you on the surveillance/censorship platforms! Otherwise they will use them and continue to use them.

This is so dumb. People are talking about dopamine in the same way they talk about calories. “Just get less dopamine.”

Maybe we should leave terms like that to neuroscientists.

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