Ask HN: Is there an OS-level screen reader that blocks distractions? - keenmaster
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bromquinn
Sorry for the late reply:

Not at the OS level, but I’ve built a chrome extension that does this.

I had a hard time focusing in grad school. I’d be watching YouTube lectures or
reading a Reddit thread on a subject I was studying, and all of a sudden It
was like I’d blink and be watching some comedy video or browsing r/funny.

Rather than simply blacklist sites, The chrome extension I built uses a topic
model to block webpages. You input the topics you need to focus on (for me it
was often computer science and math), and the extension will block webpages,
YouTube vids and Reddit threads unrelated to those topics.

You can check it out at ( [https://GetOnTopic.com](https://GetOnTopic.com) )

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just-juan-post
Be more specific.

Perhaps "kiosk mode" software so you can only run certain app(s)?

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keenmaster
More like a kiosk mode where you can only engage in productive activity. You'd
get to define "productive" as well as the time of day where you can only
engage in productive tasks.

The distinction is that some apps, like Chrome, can be used for both
productive and unproductive activities.

