I’m taking a software-enforced three-month hiatus from Less Wrong effective immediately. I can be reached at zackmdavis ATT yahoo fullstahp kahm. I thought it might be polite to post this note in Open Thread, but maybe it’s just obnoxious and self-important; please downvote if the latter is the case thx
Given how much time I’ve spent reading this site lately, doing something like that is probably a good idea. Therefore, I am now incorporating Less Wrong into the day-week-month rule, which is a personal policy that I use for intoxicants, videogames, and other potentially addictive activities—I designate one day of each week, one week of each month, and one month of each year in which to abstain entirely. Thus, from now on, I will not read or post on Less Wrong at all on Wednesdays, during the second week of any month, or during any September. (These values chosen by polyhedrical die rolls.)
Awesome. Less Wrong does seem to be an addictive activity. Wanting to keep up with recent comments is one factor in this, and I think I lose more time than I’ve estimated doing so.
Disciplined abstention is actually a really good solution. I will implement something analogous. For the next 40 days, I will comment only on even days of the month. (I cannot commit to abstaining entirely because I don’t have the will-power to enforce gray areas … for example, can I refresh the page if it’s already open? Can I work on my post drafts? Can I read another chapter of The Golden Braid? Etc.)
Later edit: ooh! Parent upvoted for very useful link to LeechBlock.
Yeah… and I’m going into withdrawal already. What if somebody comments about one of my favorite topics—tomorrow?!?
It’s like deciding to diet. As soon as I decide to go on a diet I start feeling hungry. It doesn’t make any difference how recently I’ve eaten. Heck, if I’m currently eating when I make this decision, I’ll eat extra … Totally counter-productive for me. Nevertheless.
Weird— without having read this, I just mentioned LeechBlock too and pointed out that I’ve been blocking myself from LW during weekdays (until 5). I guess all the cool kids are doing it too...
It’s possible that I shouldn’t try to other-optimize here, but in the case of recent comments, I wonder if it’d be practical to make a folder on your computer where you save a copy of the latest-comments page when you see something interesting, telling yourself you’ll look when you have more time. Or first retrieve all recent comments (with wget or cURL, or just right-clicking and saving), then turn on Leechblock to look at them, so you at least have an inconvenience barrier between writing a comment and posting it.
On another site, I found that first writing comments without posting them and then saving threads without reading them helped me feel less anxious about missing things, although I’ve been backsliding recently.
I’m taking a software-enforced three-month hiatus from Less Wrong effective immediately. I can be reached at zackmdavis ATT yahoo fullstahp kahm. I thought it might be polite to post this note in Open Thread, but maybe it’s just obnoxious and self-important; please downvote if the latter is the case thx
Given how much time I’ve spent reading this site lately, doing something like that is probably a good idea. Therefore, I am now incorporating Less Wrong into the day-week-month rule, which is a personal policy that I use for intoxicants, videogames, and other potentially addictive activities—I designate one day of each week, one week of each month, and one month of each year in which to abstain entirely. Thus, from now on, I will not read or post on Less Wrong at all on Wednesdays, during the second week of any month, or during any September. (These values chosen by polyhedrical die rolls.)
I’m not going to be posting/reading so much for a while. I need to change my headspace. I’ll probably try your method when I want to get back in.
Awesome. Less Wrong does seem to be an addictive activity. Wanting to keep up with recent comments is one factor in this, and I think I lose more time than I’ve estimated doing so.
Disciplined abstention is actually a really good solution. I will implement something analogous. For the next 40 days, I will comment only on even days of the month. (I cannot commit to abstaining entirely because I don’t have the will-power to enforce gray areas … for example, can I refresh the page if it’s already open? Can I work on my post drafts? Can I read another chapter of The Golden Braid? Etc.)
Later edit: ooh! Parent upvoted for very useful link to LeechBlock.
I feel like the 20-something whose friends are all getting married and quiting drinking. This is lame. The party is just starting guys!
Yeah… and I’m going into withdrawal already. What if somebody comments about one of my favorite topics—tomorrow?!?
It’s like deciding to diet. As soon as I decide to go on a diet I start feeling hungry. It doesn’t make any difference how recently I’ve eaten. Heck, if I’m currently eating when I make this decision, I’ll eat extra … Totally counter-productive for me. Nevertheless.
Weird— without having read this, I just mentioned LeechBlock too and pointed out that I’ve been blocking myself from LW during weekdays (until 5). I guess all the cool kids are doing it too...
Rehab is for quitters.
Why does everyone like LeechBlock? pageaddict works pretty well and has a far less convoluted interface.
EDIT: and now pageaddict seems to be completely unmaintained and even the domain is expired. Oh well.
It’s possible that I shouldn’t try to other-optimize here, but in the case of recent comments, I wonder if it’d be practical to make a folder on your computer where you save a copy of the latest-comments page when you see something interesting, telling yourself you’ll look when you have more time. Or first retrieve all recent comments (with wget or cURL, or just right-clicking and saving), then turn on Leechblock to look at them, so you at least have an inconvenience barrier between writing a comment and posting it.
On another site, I found that first writing comments without posting them and then saving threads without reading them helped me feel less anxious about missing things, although I’ve been backsliding recently.
Share Your Anti-Akrasia Tricks might be useful to save and read offline, or print out if you want to go extreme.
[Comment edited once.]
This is to confess that I cheated several times by reading the Google cache.
Turning the siteblocker back on (including the Google cache, thank you). Two months, possibly more. Love &c.
Tsk, tsk. You can block the Google cache too.
Great plugin. In case you have a linux dev (virtual) machine I also recommend:
sudo iptables -A INPUT -d lesswrong.com -j DROP
It does wonders for productivity!
I’m disappointed, but if you think you have better things to do, I won’t object.