A userscript to take your attention back
Hello HN. I have a theory that doomscrolling is a lot like overeating: it becomes possible when it takes zero effort to consume the next bite of food or information. In the nature, obtaining food requires effort, so I have a thought: what if this was the case when reading news feeds?
The simplest form of effort is waiting. Below is a userscript that blurs every post and comment until you hover the cursor over it. You can install it with ViolentMonkey or TamperMonkey. The effect is that you have to wait for 3 seconds before you can read a comment. Then 3 seconds for another comment and so on. This gives you time to contemplate on the purpose of reading what you are reading.
// ==UserScript==
// @name HN Blur
// @namespace Violentmonkey Scripts
// @match https://news.ycombinator.com/*
// @grant none
// @version 1.0
// @author -
// @description 9/1/2024, 12:00:00 AM
// ==/UserScript==
document.head.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend',`
<style>
tr.athing {
filter: opacity(5%);
transition: filter 2s linear;
}
tr.athing:hover {
filter: none;
}
</style>
`);