vitabenes

I post whatever I find interesting and occasionally throw in one of the articles I worked on. If people find it interesting or useful, great, if not, that's okay too.

Easier said than done, but almost everything is.

Still, I think there's some utility for self-help stuff. If you spend 30 minutes reading about how to be more effective, if the book is good, it can actually affect behavior, at least in the short term.

Swing dancing has been awesome for me: movement, complexity in the music (jazz), cool people (half of which are women),...

The term "community" is a buzzword. I'd say about 1% of what is claimed to be a community is an actual community.

Awesome! Glad it helped

Others have already offered the more obvious advice, so I'll just add something a bit weird: I've started taking swing dancing classes and it's good fun. I meet people (some of which are women!) and it takes me out of my head. It's good active sort of relaxation.

I've noticed that a lot of programmers are into swing dancing, about 1 in 2 men I talk to at social dancing are in software in some way.

The Steve Jobs effect.

Okay, this might get downvoted, but posts like this are exactly why my co-founder wrote a big series on addiction in general and Internet addiction in particular.

For what it's worth, here it is: https://www.deprocrastination.co/blog/what-is-addiction

Happy to answer any comments, questions, etc

Next.js, TypeScript, RxJS.

This was submitted yesterday too. Duplicate? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31205283

Hmm, interesting. Might be a case of anhedonia, which can be associated with things like addiction or depression.

Most potential enjoyment, perhaps. I think that's more than fine for personal projects (or work projects that don't matter in the company's grand scheme of things).

However, for professional endeavors, I always go back to one of Neil Gaiman's pieces of advice to aspiring authors: "You learn by finishing things."

I usually run through a free Codecademy course if there is one, and then follow a course or two in the target language. I'm not sure the equivalent approach might be useful, since different languages take different views of programming.

Well, focus is all about picking 1-2 projects to work on, and excluding anything not-relevant to those projects. You can't make 10 projects work at once. So pick 1-2 and commit.

Which of your projects are most meaningful to you? Which solve problems you care about and seem most interesting? Start shipping something, share it on HN, Twitter, IndieHackers, etc. Getting positive feedback can also help you stick to 1 thing.

Note: don't focus on technologies and ideas so much, focus on problems to solve for others. What can you make easier for others that would be valuable for them?

A bit more on the point about excluding things and the whole topic of focus here: https://www.deprocrastination.co/blog/how-to-focus-in-the-ag...

I don't know of any platform for this. You could ask around on Indiehackers, or just think about who could be interested in that project and google around to find potential acquirers. Who could add it to their existing offering as an interesting bonus, or add it to their core product?

The topic is not that well researched at the moment. Here's the most relevant study available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/lim2.54

"Dopamine detox" in itself is a catchphrase. While it's uncertain how exactly it transforms the brain and what the specifics of a scientifically "correct" dopamine detox would be, I can tell you from experience running the Dopamine Detox Challenge (https://www.deprocrastination.co/dopamine-detox-challenge) that making changes to one's environment and reducing distractions does help people be more engaged in life and focus better.

In other words, "dopamine detox" serves as an excuse to make positive changes. Of course, Mat (who wrote the posted article) and I keep monitoring this research to see if we need to make changes to any of our materials. Hope that answers your question.

Yes, there's a whole series on addiction on the site that goes into the nuances of it: https://www.deprocrastination.co/blog/what-is-addiction

Well, yes, that's what I meant by "life sucks and a substance/behavior provides a great escape" in the previous comment.

Well, people generally get addicted for 2 main reasons: life sucks and a substance/behavior provides a great escape, or life is boring and a substance/behavior gives you a high that beats anything else. Games fall more into the 2nd category. The challenge part is more related to getting into a flow state.

Yes, her work is quite interesting and that podcast is awesome.

Yeah, understanding why you do what you do is always a key step. In your example the walking/biking part can become a game of sorts, especially when you combine it with stats on Strava and involve some friends. It also crowds out potentially mindless screen time, which is good.

Hmm, the relaxation vs stimulation games angle is interesting.

I think that's the way to treat all devices.

I meant the Screen Time feature of iOS, and Digital Wellbeing app, which is made by Google. Both enable you to put a widget with the app/time breakdown right on your home screen. Some older versions of iOS or Android might not support it, though.

I don't have any piece of advice specific to dating apps. A good general thing is to put a Screen Time/Digital Wellbeing widget on your homescreen, so that you see how much time you spend in a particular app. If you get over 1h / day and it's not for stuff like business or personal communication, then it might be time for a reset (removing the app for a few days, logging out of it, setting limits).

Love that game. Might play it again today after years and years. Glad I saw this post.

Spaces fixed. Upvotes are regular, people are just interested in the topic.

Yes. High-quality games like Factorio or Machinarium are quite good fun. Also helps if a game is finite, not infinite. For example, while you can play Factorio endlessly, the rocket is the goal and it gets less fun once you've done all the things - which is good. You play it, you enjoy it, you move on. That kind of play is quite healthy.

It's up. Should also load faster, without a problem.

Ha, will be up in a minute.

Fair enough, given that the rest of the series is more about behavioral addictions that substance addictions, it might make sense to change that passage. Thank you for the feedback.