Hacker News Reader

Comment by jorisw | Hacker News Reader

I wish people could just admit to themselves how irrelevant all this social media content is, lose interest, and keep the apps shut (or uninstall in case there's no DM feature that keeps it installed). I can't imagine needing to switch devices for this.

I couldn't give a single shit what friends or acquaintances (much less strangers) are doing in their free time day to day. They can tell me next time I see them. I have Instagram installed, but only because certain people message me there. I never scroll even a pixel.

My biggest distraction? Hacker News.

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But what if it becomes relevant?

An uncertain reward is a strong motivator in psychology. You give a rat a lever that drops a food pellet, he'll push it when he's hungry. You give a rat a lever that drops a food pellet 5% of the time, he'll keep pulling it, build up a little stockpile and then gorge himself.

You give a rat a lever that does nothing and drop pellets at random times, he'll practically pull it until his arms fall off.

>My biggest distraction? Hacker News.

Don't you see it's the same thing? Why can't you just admit to yourself how irrelevant it is and lose interest? I suppose you could use it just to read an article or two, but you're in the comments as well. The apps are just their Hacker News.

> The apps are just their Hacker News.

I like this line, but respectfully disagree that they're a 1:1. The difference being relevance and some of the dynamics of use.

Hacker News pertains to my profession. It's high relevance tech news with comments from peers.

I'm not following anyone just because I know them personally (or worse, because they're famous). I'm not posting photos or videos of activities that I want friends to know about.

There's no infinite doomscrolling either (I view the front page a couple of times a day) nor are there notifications interrupting me.

And very important: there's no dark algorithm that shows a different view each time you go back to HN. It is sometimes boring but the good kind of boring.

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