
Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything? - tossit
I'm sure there are many of us out there.  I have a good eye for usability, proficient enough with HTML5/CSS3+jquery, have TONS of ideas (some of which I'm pretty convinced are good, maybe even good enough for YC) but it seems like every day I just sit around and read HN.  Something about reading other people's opinions, success stories and failures makes me sort of feel like I'm "in the game" even though I'm not actually DOING anything.  It's terrible.  I guess what I'm wondering is: has anyone else gone through this, did you eventually do something real, and how?
======
klodolph
Well, I'm working on something real right now. It's a web application that
works now but it's a total hack. I want to actually make it into something
usable by others so a couple days ago I black holed Reddit in /etc/hosts. It
worked so well I'm considering the same for Hacker News, too.

There's the comment by "AgentConundrum" who argues that any method of limiting
access to an addiction such as HN can be circumvented -- the simple truth is
that you can't outsmart yourself. However, I see it differently.

When I open a browser window and click the Reddit bookmark, it gives me an
error. While I'm staring at that error message, my higher thought processes
have a chance to kick in and argue about what to do next. I think, "Editing my
hosts file would be an admission of defeat. I'm better than that."

It's like the "brush your teeth" diet. You know, the one where you brush your
teeth after you've had enough to eat. Whenever you want to have a snack, you
think, "I can't... I just brushed my teeth. Snacking would undo my progress
with dental hygeine."

Both of these tricks are flat-out illogical. A hypothetical rational person
would not be affected by these tricks. However, if you were a hypothetical
rational person, you wouldn't need to change your behavior in the first place.

~~~
terra_t
"Brush your teeth" never worked me. I'd get hungry and eat anyway. Two
servings of whey protein powder a day, on the other hand, completely nukes my
interest in snacks.

As for HN and such, I find my interest waxes and wanes. I definitely have days
where it's a big distraction, particularly when I'm waiting 10 seconds for
something to compile and come back ten minutes later. Then there are days when
I'm too focused on coding, marketing or whatever I'm doing for it to be a big
distraction.

------
melling
HN should put a little entrepreneur badge next to your name for having shipped
a product. That would motivate some people.

~~~
ericb
It could make a psychological difference by putting a
shame/pride/credibility/game achievement effect in place. I'd put it in
"feature requests" here and see what pg thinks--he is definitely interested in
keeping the HN addiction in check for YC companies too.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363>

In terms of an easy implementation, it could be something users self-manage on
the honor system, and perhaps a "ship" icon could link to the product if
applicable.

~~~
ericb
I took the liberty of submitting the feature request here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1918772>

------
gregschlom
There was a story recently on HN about a guy who splits his work hours into 30
minutes of work and 30 minutes of distraction. It turned out to work quite
well for him. I guess I'm almost doing the same, spending most of my
"distraction" time on HN.

There's a good trick however if you want to stop doing that: work with someone
else, with each one being able to look at the other's monitor. Even better: do
that with people you actually hired. I can guarantee you won't be spending any
minute of your time procrastinating.

~~~
zalew
_There was a story recently on HN about a guy who splits his work hours into
30 minutes of work and 30 minutes of distraction_

<http://chetansurpur.com/blog/2010/11/magic-work-cycle.html>

------
edw519
Simple hack: 2 computers, one for work and one for the internet. Different
workstations, preferably in different rooms.

It's a lot harder to get up off your ass than to hit alt-tab.

Harness that laziness to your advantage.

~~~
albertsun
Cheaper hack if you can't afford two computers. Two seats. I don't work when
sitting in my bedroom, but when I sit at my living room table I only work.

~~~
bd
This. Also do not use wifi.

If I need to concentrate, I physically unplug my notebook from the net (my
only connection is ethernet cable) and move to a different room.

It works wonders. It makes me think hard whether it's really needed to check
something on the web. Usually I just preload in tabs background info I may
need later in the day to get the job done.

~~~
leif
When I need to concentrate, I reboot into another partition where I have
neglected to enable wifi, and have a rather drab, but efficient-looking
environment set up. Turns out FreeBSD and wmaker are great productivity tools.

------
todayiamme
Most people like edw519 have talked about practical solutions to it, but have
you ever considered why you do it?

Maybe you just need excitement and intellectual company? Maybe you just want
to have someone in your life that inspires you to do something? Maybe you just
need to find the right people?

The point is that physical hacks for behavioral problems are ineffective until
emotional hacks are taken into account. Just take a deep breath and try to
understand yourself.

I'm saying this because I used to be addicted to HN, but now it just doesn't
matter. After a series of realizations I'm simply indifferent to that high,
and that's something far more long lasting than a firefox extension.

Take care.

~~~
sielskr
So you got more or better or smarter friends or work partners in your life,
which stopped your HN addiction?

Or by "someone in your life that inspires" do you mean a sexual or romantic
partner?

Specifics please.

~~~
todayiamme
You know there are different types of relationships in life and this sort of
stimulation can come through any one of them.

For details sake I found better friends.

------
bluishgreen
The /etc/hosts hack actually works. I don't use noprocrast since I need to
visit news.yc for other good reasons during my work.

But the trick that really made the difference is this. I run a cron job which
will over write the /etc/hosts with a file which has yc/reddit blocked. This
way, when ever I open access for good reasons or even to have my 30 minutes
per day of YC reading, the file gets overwritten in the next 30 min window and
I get fed up with editing it again and again. So I give up and go back to
work, sort of like nagging myself very effectively.

~~~
ekanes
I use the /etc/hosts block, but defeat myself if I edit it... would you be
willing to share the cron job? Much oblidged!

~~~
wwortiz
If I understood correctly it should be as simple as having an extra file setup
to replace your hosts file say /etc/hosts.override and put all your blocked
hosts there along with your regular hosts file.

Then you just add a 30 minute cron job to do

    
    
        cp /etc/hosts.override /etc/hosts

~~~
bluishgreen
This is exactly how you do it. Setting up a cron job to run every 30 minutes
can be done like this: crontab -e and put this line in there 0,30 * * * *
your_command or like 0/30 * * * * your_command. The second one works for me, I
am on a mac.

Make sure the user who runs the job has permission to overwrite the file.

------
alex_c
I've never been at the stage where I don't do _anything_, but I'm often
frustrated that I don't do _enough_.

I went through a stage of spending way too much time on Reddit - on the order
of 4-5 hours a day. This has been discussed often, but it can be crippling -
as soon as you hit the tiniest mental roadblock, you switch your browser to
Reddit, next thing you know it's 20 minutes later and not only is your
roadblock not solved, you even forgot what you were doing. So then you read
more Reddit while you try to remember.

It's terrible, and a lot of it isn't even conscious, until the day is over and
you realize how little you did.

My friend made a good point - you don't NEED more than 15 minutes a day to
keep up to date with what's on sites like Reddit or HN. You can spend a lot
more time, but beyond a certain point it's just frustration that you've
already read all of it.

So I installed LeechBlock:

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/>

I set it to allow 15 minutes of access every 6 hours to my timesinks, and I
set it to not allow access to its settings during the blocked times (so I
can't easily turn it off).

At first I would hit the blocked page every few minutes, without even
realizing that I intended to do so. The frequency was a bit shocking, to be
honest - part of it was honestly muscle memory by then (alt-tab to browser,
type "re", down, enter). The blocked page made it possible to force myself to
focus on work again, every time, but it also made me realize how badly my
brain patterns had been disrupted - my brain just craved distractions and did
NOT want to focus for more than a few minutes at a time, which is never enough
to do anything meaningful.

After about a week, the cravings for distraction were a lot lower. After about
two weeks, they were mostly gone. I've now settled into a good rhythm, I
complete tasks without interruption and check the time sinks for a few minutes
at a time in between tasks - and I always have the safety net of the 15
minutes per 6 hours limit. I usually hit that limit, but not always.

Sure, it's trivial to circumvent LeechBlock (just use a different browser, for
example), but that's not the point. The point is that you are making a
conscious decision that what your brain is doing is not OK, and you need to
re-train it to do what you want. Things like LeechBlock are not magical
solutions, but just tools to help you do that.

Edit: I prefer LeechBlock to the hostsfile hacks because it's not as rigid: it
lets me settle into a natural rhythm that works for me, which also means I'm a
lot less likely to turn it off and "forget" to turn it back on.

~~~
raphar
very good chrome equivalent:

StayFocusd
[https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmip...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji)

~~~
guynamedloren
I installed the StayFocusd extension a week ago, and set 20 minute limits for
Hacker News and Facebook. From that alone, my productivity has gone up
tenfold. The amount of time I wasted wandering the internet was ridiculous!

In short: I highly recommend StayFocusd for Chrome users.

------
kacy
I have a _huge_ problem with this. My problem is getting started. Sometimes
I'm so overwhelmed by what I have to do that I either don't want to start or I
don't know where to start. However, when I begin, I can code/study for hours
on end. Maybe some of you are in the same boat.

Here are some tools I'm using to keep myself focused. Concentrate
(<http://getconcentrating.com/>) blocks websites that distract me,
opens/closes apps, blocks distracting apps (RSS reader, Twitter), and reminds
me every ten minutes of my goals via Growl. I'm also using it with Vitamin-R
(<http://www.publicspace.net/Vitamin-R/index.html>) to help me work in
pomodoro cycles. Hope you get some use out of those apps! :-)

------
pierrefar
Yes, which is why there is a useful noprocrast setting in your profile.

~~~
AgentConundrum
I've never used the noprocrast option on HN, but I've tried other things. The
problem is that pretty much any roadblock you put up can be trivially
defeated.

For example, if I were to put sites like reddit or HN in my hosts file, and
point them to 127.0.0.1, it really wouldn't take me more than 30 seconds or so
to get around it. It should work as a reminder that, "oh yeah, I should be
doing something else" but that never seems to work for me.

In this case, I have to assume that just logging out of HN is enough to get
around the noprocrast. Assuming also that when the noprocrast is in effect you
can't access HN to log out, it still only takes 30 seconds to kill the
cookie(s). Even with some sort of unkillable cookie, I do webdev, so I've got
easy access to Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and IE8. Even with something
like a flash cookie which (I think) remembers you cross-browser, I also have
VMs to run IE6 and IE7. Admittedly, by the time I boot up a new VM to visit
HN, I'd definitely get the point that "oh, I should be working" but that's a
bit beside my point.

Besides, HN is nothing compared to the time sink that is StackOverflow.
There's always _something_ I can research ad nauseum there. I've learned a lot
from my procrastination, but I've got shockingly little done.

~~~
chrisbroadfoot
_For example, if I were to put sites like reddit or HN in my hosts file, and
point them to 127.0.0.1, it really wouldn't take me more than 30 seconds or so
to get around it. It should work as a reminder that, "oh yeah, I should be
doing something else" but that never seems to work for me._

I did this when writing my dissertation. It worked really well. I find that
most of my browsing comes from clicking through to the sites in my "Most
visited sites" homepage. Blocking them was a good neg that broke this harmful
browsing pattern.

~~~
AgentConundrum
It's just too easily defeated for it to really work on me, since I convince
myself that I'll just check this _one_ thing, then I'll go back to working.

It's the exact same thought process that, after I've been up all night and I'm
trying to stay up all day to reset my internal clock, convinces me that it's
ok to lay down in my bed for a minute. I inevitably wake up quite confused a
number of hours later.

I saw a site once that you can route your procrastination sites to. When you
browse the site (by IP address, naturally) it displays a message saying
basically "you blocked this for a reason... slacker." Since I can't remember
the address anymore, I've been thinking about installing a web server on my
laptop to emulate it.

Edit: I found it. The address is 66.135.33.106 and it just displays the
message "You've chosen to block this site in your hosts file."

~~~
chrisbroadfoot
Okay - you need _some_ semblance of self control.

For me, it's a subconscious thing. It's close to mindlessly browsing.

Forwarding to that message wouldn't do anything for me. I think the most
important thing was just that "neg" to break out of the mindlessness and get
back on track :)

~~~
pierrefar
I'm told it's like quitting smoking. If you still find ways around the hurdles
you put up for yourself, you're never gonna quit.

------
LordLandon
Two ideas:

A large part of the reason HN is so distracting, is that usually, when you
read it, you look at the front page and open everything that looks interesting
in new tabs. So when you're using your browser for something productive, you
see a tab open that you haven't had a chance to read, and you want to go read
it. Solution? Firefox profiles. Start firefox with firefox -P work --no-
remote, and use that for all your work related things, while your should-read-
later-eventually-maybe tabs stay happily open in another profile.

Second idea,

    
    
      echo "127.0.0.1" `sqlite3 ~/.mozilla/firefox/*default/places.sqlite "select url from moz_places order by -visit_count limit 100" | cut -d/ -f 3|sort -u| tr "\n" " "` | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
    

Maybe HN isn't your only distraction, and this saves you having to figure it
out.

------
jgrahamc
No, but for me Hacker News is like having the radio on in the background. It's
always open in a tab and I'll read it frequently. If I wasn't doing that I'd
probably be day dreaming listening to Radio 4.

------
phalien
Same here. I just started to get out of it, this is how I'm trying:

1\. I made a list with all my (good!) projects ideas 2\. I tried to estimate
how long each would take to have a Minimum Viable Product ready for launch 3\.
I chose the one with the shortest time estimate 4\. I split the whole project
in tiny todo items (things you can do in a few hours: like "create the
sitemap", "create the db structure", "outline the homepage", "make that
script" etc) 5\. I put the list on my desktop in a long Stickie 6\. I commit
to myself to mark as done at least one todo each day

And it seems to work, I'm halfway through my project now.

------
newt
No, I read reddit all day, and when I want to actually do something, I read
HackerNews. It's (almost) work-related.

------
dominostars
If you're easily distracted, it doesn't matter what you're wasting time with.
If it's not HN, then it's Reddit. If it's not Reddit, then it's Facebook. If
it's not Facebook.. and on and on.

I keep myself going by setting personal deadlines: I don't browse the internet
if I 'need' to finish something before, say, going to lunch.

EDIT: Also, before stopping work, I always try to have a good idea of what to
do next. It's much easier to dive back into work because I know what to do,
and my subconscious has had time to think about how to do it. This was
inspired by Hemingway's 'hack':

"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what
will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always
stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until
you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it
all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will
kill it and your brain will be tired before you start."

------
rms
And Less Wrong, and reddit... and my day generally starts in the afternoon, so
the day itself isn't very long.

------
duck
I would recommend Rescue Time (<http://www.rescuetime.com/> \- YC08). You can
try to block HN (and other time wasting sites) multiple ways, but they are
easy to get around. However if you _see_ the total time spent it might make
you change your ways. Plus you can see how much time you are in programming
mode and have a couple weeks can really see some trends and work on them.

~~~
kin
Rescuetime is my savior. It is way too easy to open your browser and click on
those tempting little icons you've bookmarked for your self. Unfortunately, I
can't save my self from external distractions but as long as I'm "wired-in"
from external distractions Rescuetime allows me to work and stay focused.

------
Apreche
Yes, I do this. However, the reason is not because I am unproductive or
distracted. It's because I'm at work. If I have work to do at work, I do it.
Then I have no work to do. I would work on my own personal projects, but then
they would be works for hire. I have to work on them at home in order to own
them. Even if I get them to agree to let me work from home, I have to work on
the things outside of work hours to get them to be my own property.

I would be glad to quit and just work on my own personal projects. Will you
pay my rent? Didn't think so.

------
jseifer
The best thing I've found for distractions is a program called "Concentrate"
on OS X. You can set time to block certain classifications of sites, such as
social networks. I do the pomodoro technique which is 25 minutes code, 5
minute break alternations. You'd be surprised that you get just about the same
amount of HN time in your 5 minute allotments.

I did a blog post about it here: [http://jasonseifer.com/2010/02/08/using-
concentrate-for-pomo...](http://jasonseifer.com/2010/02/08/using-concentrate-
for-pomodoro).

~~~
kacy
I just wrote a comment to this submission before reading yours. :-) I totally
agree. Concentrate is a lifesaver.

------
adambyrtek
You're in a good company, Paul Graham himself wrote about this problem several
times.

<http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html>

<http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html>

------
vaksel
realizing that you have a problem is the first step.

you just need to get started doing something, once you are actually doing
instead of dreaming, you won't have the free time to waste on distractions

------
warmfuzzykitten
HackerNews is an example of a larger problem: addiction to intellectual
stimulation. Reality is, human brains move very slowly and most often in
predictable paths. Therefore, the odds of you hearing of a breakthrough in
your chosen discipline on any given day are approximately the same as winning
a national lottery. But the probability of hearing on any given day about
inventive false starts that will eventually lead nowhere or something some
intelligent person said somewhere that might have a glimmer of promise
approaches one. These constant bursts of stimulation are sufficiently
pleasurable, if you can't clamp down on them, to occupy your entire day.
Here's a litmus test: If you read HackerNews from start to dregs and are let
down because you didn't find anything really new, you're reading too
frequently. Don't read it or anything like it for a month. If you have the
same experience after a month, extend the wait to two months, and so on.
Genuine novelty comes along once in a blue moon. False novelty is an
addiction.

------
andreas_bak
As long as you making plans and analyze why to do something or not, you are
losing your time on over-analysis. Instead of reading super-analytical and
pseudo philosophical 'less wrong' or marketing crap from 'techcrunch', that
have little to do with reality, start to do something REAL. When you do
something REAL, ideas will pop-up on the course and some believes will be
challenged, but this is the only way.

HN is great community but there are some stereotypes that need to be chalenged
on personal level:

1\. The "SWEAT CAPITAL" is better than Venture Capital, and you have access to
it already.

2\. If you want to make money, do not think in the box. Here people tend to
analyze what already been done. This is not a way - you need to innovate.

3\. People will laugh with your ideas and failures. You need to be firm
believer in what you do. Respect is gained and not granted.

4\. Start doing something "stupid", without prospects of economical gain. you
will see that you will end up with something completely different than when
you started thinking about it.

5\. Stop dreaming -- Start Doing. It is much more rewarding and interesting.

Let It Be.

------
momotomo
Solution I found (globally, in a lot of scenarios, not just related to HN) is:
Don't do anything unless it's specific.

I try to only sit at the PC if I'm "doing" something on it. Even in micro
bursts. Shortlist of examples:

\- If I'm thinking, I'll stand up away from the station

\- If I need to code, I'll sit down with the purpose of coding to a goal /
time window

\- If I'm stuck, then again, I'll get off the station / away from the keyboard
and think

\- If I fire up HN, its specific - I'm checking HN for 20 mins to see whats
happening, browsing some articles, then stopping.

\- I try to avoid randomly tabbing back into mail clients and etc, I'd rather
tackle it as a distinct thing as well

It applies pretty much everywhere though. If I want to game, I don't just sit
down and play, I'll decide - take a break, 20 mins, gaming, do it. Done is
done, get back on task.

The higher level thing is to hit your day / hour / afternoon period etc with a
clear idea of what you actually want to get done. I find when you're carrying
a bigger idea (eg, shit, i need to get this document out today!), it
automagically structures your time a bit more.

------
jorangreef
Ben Franklin has a saying "experience keeps a dear school but a fool will
learn at no other". In other words, seek wisdom and experience vicariously,
and as Isaac Newton said, "stand on the shoulders of giants". The word
vicarious means "experienced in the imagination through the feelings or
actions of another person".

But there's a cost to vicarious experience when we start to derive feelings of
fulfillment ("being in the game") from success stories at the neglect of
reaching for our own. A telltale sign is when people start calling Steve Jobs
"Jobs" or Bob Dylan "Dylan", as if they know them. Don't live in the movies.
The real world is a better movie.

There's a Biblical saying that goes something like this "the Kingdom of Heaven
is not a matter of talk, but of power". The earthly realm is certainly no
different. Use vicarious experience to gain wisdom, not to trigger endorphins.
Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and get on with your own business.

------
GrayRoark
I'm working on something real. The trick for the overload:

1) [http://jeffmiller.github.com/2010/07/23/a-cure-for-hacker-
ne...](http://jeffmiller.github.com/2010/07/23/a-cure-for-hacker-news-
overload) 2) Never read it immediatly _, use instapaper first, and only read
at the end of the day.

_ \- sometimes I just go take a peak, just like this story =)

------
spacecadet
I usually read HN once in the morning, once at lunch, and maybe before falling
asleep. I find it doesn't really change enough for me to read it "all day".
But I never leave the first page ;p

------
tfh
May be you need a coding buddy. Sharing the ideas and working together on a
project always gives me strong motivational boosts. Plus having to explain
ideas to others helps in finding flaws.

------
rosariom
Hi,

I have faced (maybe still facing) the same issue and have started to employee
3 techniques, first two of which Tim Ferris mentioned. 1- Cultivate selective
ignorance 2- Batching tasks up 3- Create a schedule

How would this help? HN, Reddit, and the other news and information sites out
there are awesome but can become time-thieves if you let them. We come to
these sites to see what is the latest and greatest in the news, for
inspiration, and also to learn so that we can do things better. The question
is: how much information do we need to be adequately informed and how much do
we need to learn in order to get to work on something we are passionate about?
Not as much as we would think in my opinion. Cultivating selective ignorance
is necessary to ward off the feelings of "I need to read more in order to get
this thing going", or "I am falling behind, need to catch up with the news".
We will never be able to get it all and thus just need to focus and specialize
to some extent. Well rounded-ness is great, but in excess it will give you no
depth in anything. Do not try to consume all data from all sources; we cannot
keep up with the data deluge and will drown in it if we foolishly attempt to
do so. Use what you already know, get started and focus on your ideas. If you
do not you will just build up all kinds of anxieties and will feel down on
yourself for not doing anything. In addition, this data deluge is also
overwhelming and you may feel like you are not smart enough or the product
will not be good enough for launch. It feels good to even do the simplest of
tasks you set out to do and makes you want to do more. I blog about something
similar to this here: [http://techjobsspace.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-
furthermore-my...](http://techjobsspace.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-furthermore-
my-son-be-admonished-of.html)

Batching and scheduling are awesome concepts to start using immediately.
Information addict? I know I am and love to consume much data. My information-
rich diet includes all the stuff you guys are reading but what I do slightly
differently than some is set dates and times during the week on my phone
calendar to read this data. Instead of reading everyday I pick some days of
the week to get it all in and limit myself to that. If you have a calendar on
your phone or pc or the web, use that to control the addiction. You do not
need to deprive yourself completely (unless it is a severe problem) just
schedule when it is ok to read. I use this for errands and other things as
well. We all need breaks from work to unwind; use this time to catch up with
friends and family, errands, and reading. Stick to your schedule and it will
all fall into place eventually. Paul Graham definitely does not want this site
to be a time-sink.

Hope this helps!

------
viraptor
Yes, but it's ok - my code is compiling...

~~~
JonnieCache
These days all the cool kids are using the "my test suite is running" excuse
instead.

------
klaut
Since i've handed in my resignation letter it is very hard to actually do any
work at all. I spend almost all my time at work reading HN and other similar
sites. I do feel very bad for this but can't help it.

------
godawful
Try Leech Block:

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/>

It blocks selected websites during hours / days you select, or allows you to
say "No more than 30 minutes of Hacker News every 4 hours." It's highly
configurable.

Of course, you're smart enough to find a way round its blocking if you want
to. But really, deep down, you want to be productive and when Leech block pops
up with its "Site blocked" screen, it will be a helpful reminder of this.

------
StudyAnimal
Yes, but only at work. It works out quite well actually, when work is over, I
am pretty sick of HN, so it isn't quite as appealing a distraction at home as
it is at work.

------
SkyMarshal
Part of the problem is Variable Ratio Rewards, or random rewards. MMOs use
them intentionally to get people addicted, but they're also inherent in social
news sites.

Sometimes you find real gems, either in the articles or the discussions (on HN
often the latter as much or more than the former), and sometimes just noise.
But you never know which will turn up on the front page and when, so you keep
checking back over and over.

------
ungerik
A mentor of mine always says: Do you want to be the one who reads the news, or
the one who makes the news?

Also: Learn more just in time instead of just in case.

------
ThomPete
What I would do if I where you would be to start writing a blog and then feed
that into the HN community. That way you are forcing yourself to do something
while still being able to read HN.

After a while someone will probably tell you that some of your ideas are great
enough that you will build the necessary will power to get started.

Remember ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is king.

------
dragons
No, I work at my 9-5 job all day. I usually peruse HN over breakfast or
dinner. After dinner, and on weekends, I work on coding a little application
of my own.

I find that it helps to read HN to keep me motivated. I doubt I'll ever make
much money off of the applications I create. But it's encouraging to read
about people who do.

------
sfphotoarts
Since this community is largely made up of smart people, and since it seems
pretty common to spend 'too much time' doing things like HN, and since we are
currently the product of a lot of evolution I wonder if focus is actually all
that's its cracked up to be. Possibly our overall productivity when viewed on
a larger scale is better because we get distracted, possibly idea generation,
possibly just the social aspect, or learning of a new technology etc. I just
wonder if this is so bad really.

The Web2.0 Summit said that the tech sector is innovating at an unprecedented
rate. One of the changes in the software industry in recent years is the rise
of the social network and sites like HN. Maybe 'time wasting' isn't so bad
after all - viewed at a higher altitude that personal productivity.

------
abyssknight
Yes, a little. I have a day job, and unfortunately am unable to break away
from that to join the entrepreneurial pool. Like you, I have a background
littered with technical acumen and actually _helped_ with a few start ups. I
enjoyed it, but the instability just isn't for me _right now_.

I still _do things_ and _make things_ , but they aren't start ups. Some are
school projects, others are for my day job, and some are just for fun. I read
HN because there are great people with interesting opinions on stories I want
to read.

That said, I feel the same way. I want to break out and do things. I get that
feeling sometimes, and it hurts to feel trapped, but then my paycheck goes
through and I log my 40 hours and go home.

------
gtani
Suppose you're working on debugging java threads. You can open browser tabs
like these, instead. Works for me.

<http://www.delicious.com/tag/java+concurrency?setcount=100>

<http://www.reddit.com/search?q=java+concurrency>

[http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com#s...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=site:news.ycombinator.com+java+concurrency&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=240c6721121f4cc3)

------
joe_the_user
Hacker news has wasted a lot of my time.

But it has also provided a lot of information that constitutes authentic
"professional development" - links to important algorithms, debate over
software process and similar things.

I don't know have any idea how the equation balances but if I didn't read
Hacker News I'd have to find some more active way to make sure I read enough
papers.

What seems like an opportunity would be to build a discussion forum where the
posts and discussion was at a high enough level that the time essentially
wasn't wasted. HN isn't there yet but it's a hint about what might be...

------
emilepetrone
Download Selfcontrol, set it for 8 hours, and block HN, Fb, news sites, etc.

It blocks those sites you waste time on, and you cannot change the settings by
quitting the app or even restarting your computer. It's great.

~~~
fharper1961
MacOS only for now.

~~~
genieyclo
Linux port: <http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html>

Has perl module and deb package

------
Omnipresent
This happens to me all the time. For a while I stopped visiting HN to make
myself feel better. Reading all the comments on this page, I feel people are
just proposing hacks that stop you from visiting sites like HN or reddit. I
think best hack is to start your own project. Do anything, it could even be
reading a book and typing code from the book into your computer. Doing
_anything_ will make you feel better about yourself. Remember, it does NOT
have to be a product that magically changes the world and brings unicorns to
life

------
vilius
How many hours does HN distraction cost you? For me it was like 2 hours per
day, until I reached a point where I felt that I knew just enough to actually
go and start doing something. Building something was the way to test my
knowledge. Now I'm in progress with my first startup and HN browsing takes 15
minutes, I mainly bookmark stories that might benefit the project I am working
with, it keeps me going.

So my advice would be, go and test how well you know "THE GAME", build
something!

------
racerrick
Underwear. Never get out of bed.

Just me and Hacker News.

Big picture of Paul Graham on the wall.

------
transmit101
May I suggest my noprocrast gem? Designed to solve exactly this problem.

<http://github.com/rfwatson/noprocrast>

------
bendotc
If your problem is spending too much time on HN, do you really think the
solution involves posting on HN?

If this is really a problem, close your browser and never come back here and
you'll have a much more productive life. If you find yourself coming up with
substitutes, do the same with them. Think of this as your alcoholism, and
realize that moderation, while it works for some people, is not an option for
you.

------
SkuldOMG
My problem is that my time is occupied by other things at the moment. I read
Hacker News (and Hackers Monthly) every day before heading to University and
during my afternoon cup(s) of coffee and feel really inspired to get something
done, but work for University and for an upcoming language exam keep me so
busy that I don't have the time to actually get some coding done.

I hope that changes sometime soon..

------
frazerb
As a self confessed HN addict, I want to share a new technique I found that
massively improved my productivity in an instant.

Too good to be true ? Read on....

The technique is slightly different, depending in which operating system you
have, but in general the instructions are:

(i) switch to your browser (ii) select "Exit" from the "File" menu.

Voila! Productivity improves. [[ assuming your not using the browser for work,
of course ]]

Try it.

------
kinnth0
Yes.

------
paufernandez
I do. But I've come to accept it like that, for me it's not that terrible
anymore. After all, I am _not_ "in the game", really, even if it would be
nice. It's a shame you cannot get the entrepreneurial gene after being born.
But it's nice to be able to watch things unfold from a close distance.

------
codefisher
Do similar things only when there is nothing else really interesting ready to
hand. So if I have an assignment due and have a total dislike for it, yes I
will waste a lot of time reading various site like HN. But if I have something
fun available, maybe only a few moments when I am taking a break.

------
piramida
Click on your username, set "noprocrast" to yes, then you will find yourself
often staring at the "Sorry you can't view this site" text but you will get
more productive. You can even select how long you want to work between reading
HN there. It really helps and I can't thank PG enough for this :)

------
iuguy
Not so much (mind you I was on HN a lot by my standards yesterday, but I was
off sick), although lately I've been going through my morning browsing and
submitting the tabs I found interesting, which I've noticed tends to result in
a minor surge in posts by me on the new page.

------
ithkuil
same here, ehm I don't whether to feel ashamed or happy to see somebody else
in the same situation

------
kristiandupont
If you are on Windows, you can download CherryTomato which is designed to help
you with procrastination even though it sounds like your condition might be
severe :-)

<http://www.beatpoints.com/cherrytomato>

~~~
raju
CherryTomato uses the Pomodoro technique, and I have found it handy
(occasionally).

If you are on a Mac, here is one that I use -
<http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/>

------
forgottenpaswrd
No, I divide my time on two fronts: quality time, when I'm fresh and full with
energy, and rest time.

Hacker news is always part of the rest time, when I'm tired and lazy so no
problem quitting.

On quality time focus and only interrupt it for resting.

------
ammmir
i find that small distractions of 10 minutes at a time are fine, but often we
get stuck on a site because we haven't finished reading it fully before we
tell ourselves to get back to work. long pages (like these comment threads on
HN and other sites) don't seem to help the matter.

someone should make a browser extension that visually blocks out parts of a
page while you're supposed to be working. it would slowly reveal (say from top
to bottom) parts of it the more time you're away from it and actually working.
this way, your "reward" would be a fully rendered page every 10 minutes or so.

------
seejay
well... all my work is scripted... so its ok to spend a little time on HN B-)

------
nayanshah
I read it through feeds and keep checking every 3-4 hours. This gives me time
to do others things as well. As of now, not very active in discussions, but
trying to hop in.

------
tzury
on your profile page fill in these fields

    
    
        noprocrast: yes
        maxvisit: 15
        minaway: 180
    

That will allow you spend no more than 15 minutes every 3 hours

------
plehoux
For the past month etc/host block on my macbook. Access with my ipad at night
and in the morning. I gained a lot of productivity!

------
IAforyears
You seem to be doing something, since you are reflecting about your own
problems and making this little post about doing nothing.

------
willheim
Was this posted by Ryan of The Office while he was supposed to be selling
WUPHF.com?

------
xgMz
Me weekend, full of plans, ended in only reading HN (except when I went
out)...

------
scrrr
I don't see a reason to up-vote that post.

I guess you don't feel the incredible urge to make things. Perhaps making
things is not for you then. I don't think its laziness, it's simply that you
don't NEED to do anything.

------
sacv
on mon-fri - yes..it helps me to run....on weekends - no, cause - HN walks on
weekends

------
jyf1987
nope , mine is Google Reader i want to make a filter to help me do reading
quickly

~~~
swah
Just shift+a it

------
itsnotvalid
Count me in.

------
JohnDeHope
Yes.

------
timme
No.

------
iepaul
yes every day!

------
klbarry
Keep in mind sites like Reddit and HN are pretty addictive in a chemical way
(so can your email be). When you see something interesting or that agrees with
your identity your brain gives you a hit of dopamine. You browse and look for
the funny or fascinating because you remember finding somehting great earlier.

It's funny because Reddit hates advertising/mass manipulation etc but are
being manipulated by the group all the time in many ways.

~~~
adrianwaj
For dopamine, try <http://hackerbra.in/> (specifically
<http://hackerbra.in/ask> ) (you get it faster and easier - top comments
without page refreshes.)

------
d3x
I am glad I have never had this problem. I really dont care about HN @ all and
just use it as a resource to learn from the same as TC and a plethora of other
websites. I enjoy making things so thats what I do and the same goes for my
friends. If you enjoy studying startups more than launching products etc...
then perhaps you should shift your career in that direction.

------
J3L2404
There are addictions in this world far worse than HN.

I may have a monkey on my back but at least he is fairly civil and always has
something interesting to say.

