Ask HN: How can I get rid of addiction to HN? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I get rid of addiction to HN?

I browse HN multiple times a day. Perhaps, I am way too curious. Sometimes, it eats up a lot of time. Edit: or perhaps FOMO disguised as curiosity?

View on HN

Just my own experience to speak from: My use of HN is escapism, not curiosity or FOMO. I turn to it when I'm too mentally worn out to do any of the things that belong on my own plate, or when I'm avoiding them for some other reason.

There are worse choices, but I'm sure there are also better ones. At the end of your day, look back at the moments you pulled up HN and see if you can figure out what was going on then that you mentally wanted to escape from, and what alternatives you had.

Like for me today, I'm under the weather and was too dizzy to make it to my other commitment this evening. I already took a nap, and it's too early to go to bed unless I want to wake up at 3. My head is largely full of clouds, so anything else I'd be doing right now is even less useful than this. I'm pretty OK with it in this circumstance, because the opportunity cost is so low.

That said, this is also my last comment for the evening.

This, and it applies not just to HN but all distractions. I have periods where I cycle through various distractions. Sometimes I don't visit HN for a few weeks, but I instead visit a reddit community that I discovered. Then I drop reddit for a few weeks and replace it with Twitter. Then I replace Twitter with playing a game instead. It's not because any of these are particularly interesting or useful, it's because I want to escape from whatever else I'm supposed be doing, which most of the time is boring work.

I use /etc/hosts. I made /etc/hosts.default and /etc/hosts.work. At 10:00 `cron` (with sudo) lauches `cp` to copy /etc/hosts.work over /etc/hosts. At 18:00 /etc/hosts.default is copied over.

The /etc/hosts.work file contains a list of websites I don’t want to check during work. But HN is not in this list, yet.

Very nice.

I combine the /etc/hosts approach with the StayFocusd browser extension.

This is a very simple and elegant solution to the problem. Kudos!

Turn on the noprocrast setting on your profile, and set a high minaway time

That only has an effect when you're logged in.

One way is to fundamentally change how you spend your time. For example, if you're gardening for 3 hours a day then you can't also be on HN. I've found this method is the only way to break habits/addictions.

I had this issue with another website (a reddit clone). I tried blocking it on the host, on the router etc. and always found a way to go there. That was a moment I realized that was a sick addiction and not fun anymore.

So I started taking an eye on myself, and whenever I went there I closed the browser and reprimended myself vocally (I said: you went there again. Do not go there anymore.)

After some time I stopped typing the address, I stopped choosing it from the browser hints, I stopped choosing it from the search results.

That was hard, but worked. Even today I do not go there, as the addiction may return (I saw that on myself in the past).

Good luck and... goodbye!

You might be asking the wrong bunch of people :)

You've built a habit of checking HN. If you feel this is a bad habit (sounds like it) then you need to break it. I've been reading thru Atomic Habits and have found it helpful so my advice is to attack the root cause of the "addiction" (aka bad habit) to HN or any other consumable content.

You don't need to buy the book, many of the things discussed there are referenced from lots of other works. There may even be notes or synopsis of the framework online. The core idea is to recognize the habit, then dissect it and make it invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying. Some good suggestions in this thread to block the site, etc. but some more steps are needed to really reduce HN consumption than just blocking it.

HN, reddit and social media in general are kind of the equivalent of customized tabloids you see at the market. Same patterns of headlines, outrageous claims, filler content, ads, etc. and the bonus of being able to immediately argue (on HN politely) with others (or are they bots?) about things.

Non chemical addictions represent unmet needs.

Being in a state of need creates discomfort. Discomfort creates a desire to seek comfort. Comfort prevents the opportunity for growth. Lack of growth means needs will continue to be unmet. The stress of unmet needs grows and having chosen to seek comfort rather than growth, the unfulfilled need seems even less fulfill-able, creating a greater desire to seek comfort. The negative feedback loop then spirals.

These words like escapism and distraction are key indicators, escaping what? distracting from what? The discomfort of what needs to be confronted is the driving force, and it only gets stronger.

Addictions only start to get better once you choose pain today (discomfort/growth) instead of pain tomorrow (comfort/stagnancy).

Suicide by dang.

Get yourself banned somehow. You’ll still be able to lurk, but that’s not nearly as addictive and time-consuming as writing comments and compulsively refreshing your threads page.

Reset your password to something random and unknown. You still have an account, but when you want to participate you need to go through the password recovery workflow. After contributing, reset your password so you dont know it again.

Self control, I the master of my own domain - I could choose to not visit this website for 20 days and it would be no issue.

Strengthen your weak mind

People who speak in tautologies are the worst.

Needing self control is a given, OP is asking how to attain it.

<<Answer>>, <<My ability>>, <<Real world example>> <<Final advice>>

No repetition, only facts

Subscribe via rss, so you can scratch the curiosity itch and each the FOMO, without coming to the site all the time and looking over the same things 20 times?

https://hnrss.github.io/

Of course you’ll need something to fill the time you free up. If you don’t know what is going to fill that time, you still have a problem.

This link is amazing — thank you so much for sharing it!

:-D

I think someone described this some time ago as productivity theatre - reading too much about what others are doing instead of doing things yourself.

I blocked Reddit with my pihole. That cured me of the habit. It keeps you from reflexively going there.

Substitute the internet for a LLM. Internets are needed for work, but social media is not.

Substitute something more addictive. Have you tried Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a terrible idea. They lace other drugs with it to make the drug more potent. All you'll accomplish is a more addictive HN.

I think the title should be:

How can I get rid of FOMO?

How can I control/manage my curiosity?

What are you riveted to, here?

What stories make you feel like you're missing out?

Check into a facility for internet addiction. Maybe you will discover you aren’t actually addicted, but if you are, best to start treatment right away.

Destroy your computer with a hammer

This really works!

This comment is smashing! lol

@dang can you delete this account? Thanks

For me, all of the alternatives disappeared over time. First RSS got killed when Google Reader went away. Somewhere along the line delcio.us died, as well as Kur5hin. MetaFilter went woke (or more correctly, intolerant of the non-woke).

Then Covid happened, and Long Covid yeeted me out of the workforce. So now I spend almost all my time at a desk with a 31" monitor and the web.

I played Universal Paperclips through 100 times in a row.

Google search self immolated, so there are far fewer ways to find interesting things. Reddit self immolated, so many of my niche areas of interest now can't be explored any more.

I had cataract surgery, so now reading books is way harder.

I'm left with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and HN. No BBSs, no Usenet.

I have the opposite problem... too much attention, and not enough productive ways to expend it.

That's interesting. I am very nearsighted, and whenever I need new lenses, it's going to be a dilemma. I read the iphone without my glasses; that's as far as I can see, and can read most tiny print without the glasses.

If I misplace my glasses, I can't see very far, so I use the phone as my second set of eyes to find them.

Camera viewfinder requires near-infinity focus by my eyes whereas the flat panel requires taking my glasses off.

How I manage is beyond me, and could just flip.

I just wonder how high power readers will need to be if I go for infinity focus, i.e. "normal" vision.

"Looking" forward to varifocal glasses, contacts or implants. Some rudimentary progress has been made, I recall. Of course, headsets will do that, but I'm not going there full time, nor even part time.

As far as HN goes, there are sufficient articles of real interest to me, that FOMO takes over. My interests are pretty varied, so filtering, which I tried, fails. My hobbies could take full time (retired). Photos keep on coming and piano practice is never ended. There is always something just beyond reach.

FWIW Tech URLS https://techurls.com and their many related sites go beyond what even Hacker News misses.

Get a few downvotes. :-O

Reply on news.ycombinator.com