I've found it far rewarding to keep many ebooks and ecourses on my phone and whenever i feel the urge to read hn i open up that instead. I think browsing hn is our way to distract ourselves from whatever we're currently doing and after a while reading an ebook for 10 mins somewhat gives the same feeling but far less boring because there is an element of continuity involved.
No, you have a habit that you don't like but it isn't an addiction. You have developed a default response, any time your brain is bored the new default is "time to check HN".
Try and swap that for a new default, something that is more productive. I use it as an excuse to correct my posture, have a walk or get a drink of water. You could get the DuoLingo app and spend those minutes learning a language.
Don't get rid of your habit, just turn it into something positive.
I would say checking anything 15 times a day isn't a positive habit. HN is certainly not destructive but being here 15x a day isn't any more useful than just visiting 1-2x.
I think you are confusing addiction with eagerness or interest to learn about things, your curiosity. At least that's the reason i typically visit HN, i don't have time to visit all the sourced pages that were once featured on HN because they had a nice article or other sort of information. But i do want to read about new things, explore, for this HN is a great source.
For social 'exploring'/learning or just simple entertainment 9gag.com is a nice website to spend your 'idle minutes' at, the minutes you want to spend on non technical things.
Wikipedia defines addiction as "a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences"
I think it's important to realize that addiction is not just doing something often (e.g. we all drink water often, that's not addicition). It has to have a detrimental consequence in your life for to be addiction.
Is your checking of HN causing you some problems?
For me, I think, we all need to have a break every now and again, whether it's listening to music, going for a walk in the park, getting a coffee, whatever. I think looking at HN during your breaks is an entirely unproblematic way to spend your breaks.
So unless you are having some problems in your life due to checking HN, you are not addicted to HN, even if you check it often.
Is there no way to add a notification when the build is finished?
In my case, for python scripts that take a little more time to run, I add a `tput bel` at the end of the script. By doing this iTerm gives me a visual and a gentle sound notification that things are ready.
Well, it is not actually the compilation but rather the build and reload of a webpage that takes time. But I get a small visual feedback in Vivaldi when its done.
However, sometimes I miss it due to my focus being elsewhere.
* continuing even when you know it's causing you harm
Your use of hackernews might meet one of those (preoccupation) and maybe meet another (seeking -- what would you do if it was taken away from you?) but I don't think it meets the tolerance or the continuing after harm requirements.
In today's world, consuming interesting content on the Internet without ads or fancy UI's, just plain text... it's like taking a steam locomotive every day to go to work. Enjoy it before they take it away from us!
I think that 10-15 times a day is quite normal for a large chunk of frequent visitors.
Instead of worrying about the frequency, perhaps try to turn it into a positive thing. Try to make it a rule that whenever you visit HN, you also add a constructive comment on a story.
Show/Ask HN submissions that don't have many comments can be a great place to do this. Try to thoughtfully answer someone's question, or check out the project they've shared with the world and offer your thoughts and some encouragement.
By turning your HN visits into HN contributions, you'd be both helping yourself grow and contributing to the community. When you go out of your way to write thoughtful responses, you'll often find that they serve as good starting points for blog posts, if blogging is your thing (or you've been meaning to start a blog for years and years, but feel like you never have any good ideas). Your HN responses can serve as great writing prompts.
42 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 85.3 ms ] threadIf my own experiences are to go by anyway.
Try and swap that for a new default, something that is more productive. I use it as an excuse to correct my posture, have a walk or get a drink of water. You could get the DuoLingo app and spend those minutes learning a language.
Don't get rid of your habit, just turn it into something positive.
I came across HN just because the HN bot on Twitter had the most interesting links in my feed.
This will help shut down the neural pathway that you have built.
For social 'exploring'/learning or just simple entertainment 9gag.com is a nice website to spend your 'idle minutes' at, the minutes you want to spend on non technical things.
I learn so much.
I think it's important to realize that addiction is not just doing something often (e.g. we all drink water often, that's not addicition). It has to have a detrimental consequence in your life for to be addiction.
Is your checking of HN causing you some problems?
For me, I think, we all need to have a break every now and again, whether it's listening to music, going for a walk in the park, getting a coffee, whatever. I think looking at HN during your breaks is an entirely unproblematic way to spend your breaks.
So unless you are having some problems in your life due to checking HN, you are not addicted to HN, even if you check it often.
In my case, for python scripts that take a little more time to run, I add a `tput bel` at the end of the script. By doing this iTerm gives me a visual and a gentle sound notification that things are ready.
However, sometimes I miss it due to my focus being elsewhere.
https://github.com/variadico/noti
* tolerance
* seeking
* preoccupation
* continuing even when you know it's causing you harm
Your use of hackernews might meet one of those (preoccupation) and maybe meet another (seeking -- what would you do if it was taken away from you?) but I don't think it meets the tolerance or the continuing after harm requirements.
If you feel ashamed of this, ask yourself: would you advise a trying-to-lose-weight person to keep a plate of cookies on their desk?
Be 100% honest with yourself and ask "what would the optimal version of me be doing instead of reading HN".
If you're doing all these things and being the best version of yourself you won't feel bad going on HN 100 times a day.
On my laptop it's easier to up vote and comment so I get more involved. I also then spend more time reading the articles.
Somehow this manages to satiate my HN thirst and I don't feel the need to go via my laptop.
minimum point threshold: https://twitter.com/newsyc100
daily: http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/ | http://www.hntoplinks.com/ (configurable duration)
weekly: http://www.hackernewsletter.com/ | http://www.daemonology.net/hn-weekly-show/ | http://www.daemonology.net/hn-weekly-ask/
weekly, ultra-cynical edition: self-censoring to avoid a "violation of the prime directive" (with 68 patrons!)
--
[semi-obligatory self-promotional spam]
If there's enough interest, I will record an "Unofficial HN Audio Summary" commutecast and also link anyone else doing it.
https://goo.gl/forms/554KT5a19xprN4Mx2
Instead of worrying about the frequency, perhaps try to turn it into a positive thing. Try to make it a rule that whenever you visit HN, you also add a constructive comment on a story.
Show/Ask HN submissions that don't have many comments can be a great place to do this. Try to thoughtfully answer someone's question, or check out the project they've shared with the world and offer your thoughts and some encouragement.
By turning your HN visits into HN contributions, you'd be both helping yourself grow and contributing to the community. When you go out of your way to write thoughtful responses, you'll often find that they serve as good starting points for blog posts, if blogging is your thing (or you've been meaning to start a blog for years and years, but feel like you never have any good ideas). Your HN responses can serve as great writing prompts.