

Take a short break in a quiet place - supercopter
http://amitaytweeto.com/thequietplace/

======
akkartik
It ruined it at the end by asking me to share it on Twitter.

~~~
aMoniker
Also by having music and asking for a donation of $1. A donation for what,
exactly?

~~~
user24
yeah, the music jolted me out of a quiet place. I muted my speakers.

Nevertheless, it's an important message.

------
irahul
I have my phone on all the time, regardless of if I am on vacation or not.
When I take a vacation and I have spare time, I work - sometimes billable,
sometimes not. Vacation for me doesn't equate to switch off the laptop.

I spend a lot of time glued to my laptop. When I am not at my laptop, I browse
and read mails on my phone. I generally reply to the mails as soon as I get
them.

I like it this way - this is a worthy investment of my time. What I do with my
personal time is totally my prerogative. I don't see why people feel the need
to preach around their lifestyles with silly music playing in the background.
And seriously, the obsession with FB bashing is sickening. Don't like it,
don't use it. How hard is that?

I am not an outgoing type, and without FB, I would have lost touch with a lot
of friends and acquaintances. I don't engage in a regular conversation with
many people, but I do catch them once in a while. There are other mediums for
communication, but FB is all inclusive for my circle - everyone I know is on
FB.

If you don't like being connected, switch off your phone - that's not rocket
science. If you feel one shouldn't work more than 8 hours a day, that again is
up to you. But why do you feel the need to preach it in a condescending, all-
knowing tone.

~~~
josephg
I'm not going to defend the tone, or facebook bashing, or anything like that.
I will say, I enjoyed that site a great deal.

I feel like I'm often on a slippery slope toward easy, short, quick and cheap
entertainment. Sometimes I'll go to my computer not for any particular reason,
just because I want something to do. I should be going to my computer to
accomplish something I want, and if I want to relax I shouldn't do it reading
blog posts. From time to time, I need to (yet again) jolt myself off the short
attention span path and remind myself that I have agency. Then I'm alright for
awhile longer.

I think its this tendency in people which makes sites like facebook so
popular. I think this is what caused reddit to drift from an interesting
discussion forum to a repository of memes and cat pictures.

I suspect a lot of the facebook bashing you see on hackernews isn't because we
hate facebook, but because hate using a site like facebook as a crutch to
procrastinate doing anything actually useful.

------
iradik
I thought that was awesome. Discovering this on info-fueled hacker news made
it more special.

I'd make several changes:

#1 _Fix the F-11 message._ Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and
display the right message.

#2 _Get rid of the share on Twitter links at the end._ just tacky.

#3 _Get rid of the countdown._ 30s break is cool, but countdown display speeds
time up. Make the countdown hidden. If the user presses spacebar before 30s is
up, should say "try harder" and reset the countdown.

#4 _get rid of the cursing_ wasn't that funny

Anyways, I really liked this, especially the music and the white space.

~~~
Too
#1 Fix the F-11 message. Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and display
the right message.

No, it's an IE, Firefox, Chrome and Opera-thing. All browsers use F11 for
fullscreen and i don't think there's an api for reading which button they use
anyway. :P

~~~
ajanuary
Not on OS X. I'm sure I've seen a tiny js library on github that does browser
sniffing and gives you the relevant keyboard shortcut. Can't find it now.

------
ricefield
Nice idea... but I don't like how it implies that I'm wired on social media
and notifications. Seems almost patronizing and condescending. Yes, I check my
email and facebook often. Yes, I do have a smartphone that gives me push
notifications for a lot of things. Yes, I check twitter. Check, check, check.

Does this mean I never take a break from time to time to think? That I don't
(or can't) enjoy quiet time? That I'm glued to my digital life every second of
the day? That I need some snarky web app to tell me how to "relax"?

~~~
cowpewter
And it really doesn't work for someone who doesn't constantly check
twitter/facebook, does not have push notifications enabled for email on my
smartphone, etc, etc. I suppose the extra "no really, turn off your phone" is
supposed to be clever, but it only makes it a bit more condescending.

I guess I'm not the target audience, though the idea of taking 30 seconds to
reflect is valuable to anyone. I would have preferred an even quieter 30
seconds (maybe white or pink noise, or some ocean sounds or something?) The
music was a bit loud through my headphones and not to my taste for relaxing. I
also would have preferred a soothing grey background rather than blinding
white. Oh yeah, and the F11 on a Mac thing...

I didn't stay for the countdown, because I didn't want to listen to the music
anymore.

------
icebraining
This would have more effect on me if I had a Twitter account. Or Facebook. Or
Google+. Or if my phone "rang" more than a couple times per day, if that. Or
if I had notifications for my email.

Seriously, I can't stand those. It's not willpower; it's a physical aversion
to being interrupted.

Oh, and to relax I like either to kill the lights and listen to some Jazz, or
to watch people on the street. Reading stuff isn't relaxing.

~~~
mindslight
But what prompted you to cancel all those accounts you were born with? And how
can you stand not knowing how each of your acquaintances is currently
distracting themselves from their reality? Maybe you have some blogs or
twitstreams I could subscribe to that would help me lead a simpler life?

I think the original site says more about the author (and those that find it
insightful) than anything else. You're getting possibly multiple
'notifications' per minute and it _just now_ occurs to you that it might be
suboptimal? Sigh.

------
mattlong
Cool idea. I'd use music not associated with a show like Lost. I couldn't
relax; was thinking about unanswered Lost questions the whole time...

~~~
ineedtosleep
That's actually one of the hardest things I've tried to overcome (after
realizing it) in the last few years: Music that's connected to some kind of
memory/event/show/movie/etc. will constantly make me think about its
associations rather than my work at hand.

~~~
anjc
Why overcome it? That's one of the most beautiful things about music, no?

------
skrebbel
I stared at the "welcome to the quiet place" sentence for 2 minutes waiting
for something to happen.

Lousy quiet place if I have to press space bar all the time, only to be
rewarded with messages about how addicted i'm supposed to be to things.

------
yodamaniac
Sadly having a mechanical keyboard did not help the experience.

[spacebar] to continue _CLACK_

~~~
wladimir
Heh. The full screen white background floodlighting my eyes didn't really help
the experience either. When I need a quiet place to relax I'll go somewhere
without screens and keyboards.

Then again, the overall idea is good, it's never bad to remind people they
need to take a break once in a while.

------
Archio
I love this, I use it to keep myself in perspective from time to time when I
alt-tab to Reddit fifty times in a minute without thinking. Also, use of the
Lost soundtrack was awesome. Really underrated music IMO.

------
marckremers
This sort of thing is so pedantic, almost insulting to my intelligence. Do i
really need a website to remind me how to get off the internet from some
random hacker news guy with too much time on his hands? He's almost countering
his own message here. This is not a quite place. It's still the internet. I
have to click my space bar to get to a new line teaching me about going to a
'quiet place'. Why is this even being clicked up on HN? And then i have to
tweet it too? It's a joke right?!

------
mikescar
All the spacebar action to read bits of text for <= 2 seconds was not very
calming.

------
kilian
I found this incredibly condescending, especially when it likened "a friend"
to "meaningless shit". Like someone else mentioned, my quiet place doesn't
involve clicking or pressing a spacebar, or a computer for that matter.

------
kellishaver
Neat idea, but it would be easier to stop everything and sit and relax if one
didn't have to press the spacebar continually. ;)

I have a playlist of soft jazz music, and sometimes when I need a break, I
will load it up and adjust the volume in iTunes so that it sounds low and
distant. Then I'll pull up rainymood.com in the browser, flip off the overhead
office light, and go sit on the couch (my office has a couch) for a few
minutes with my eyes closed.

With the combination of soft jazz + thunder storm + darkness, I find it hard
to stay stressed about anything for too long. Of course, real rain is better,
but this still works surprisingly well.

The only (slight) downside is that every time I'm finished with this little
exercise, I'm left with the urge to write a 1950's detective story....

------
scottkrager
Darn, I miss Lost.

Well, Seasons 1 and 2 at least.

------
VoxelBoy
I find it confusing that a lot of people found this preachy and patronizing. A
lot of things on the internet vie for your attention. You go places on the
internet, like Facebook and Google, where you have to endure a lot of ads that
tell you what you should buy, what you should like, and how you should live
your life. What's so terrible about this one thing that reminds you to relax
once in a while instead of giving you yet another point of distraction? This
isn't trying to force you into some new way of life. It's just making a
friendly suggestion. 'Take it or leave it' applies here as well.

------
timcederman
F11 - what's the breakdown of Mac users visiting your site?

------
brainfed
Without even thinking I checked Twitter during the 30 second countdown.

------
natesm
The quiet place isn't so quiet then OS X doesn't have a volume level low
enough for your headphones :)

Yes, I have to run iTunes at 50% volume, on the lowest rectangle for system
volume.

~~~
rachelbythebay
Be sure to try shift-option-volume, assuming you haven't installed Lion.

I'm wishing I hadn't. Sigh.

~~~
natesm
For what it's worth, you can still do it with Applescript:

    
    
        osascript -e "set volume 0.1"
    

I don't really know anything about Applescript, but presumably it wouldn't be
hard to hook it into the Shift+Vol keys.

------
etruong42
Sorry. Forcing myself to take a break is just like forcing myself to work.
Something to be avoided. I think we are misinterpreting the Taoist concept of
"do nothing" which I think inspires a lot of these sentiments that "we should
take breaks". "Do nothing" means to do what comes so naturally to us that it
feels like "doing nothing". We simply allow our actions to play itself out,
just like we allow our body to breathe.

------
Apocryphon
I liked what it tried to do. It seems to be a work in progress. The social
medial sharing is just to get the message across.

------
Skillset
Meditation breaks are great, as is occasionally disconnecting from the matrix.
But I'm not sure clicking through text on a website is the most effective way
to accomplish this.

I'd say you're better off stretching for a minute or doing some light
callisthenics. Perhaps while blasting doom metal.

~~~
polshaw
Amen.

Take a break. By staying at your computer screen, reading a bunch of text and
pressing space bar. Then stare at your computer screen for 30 seconds more;
you clearly don't do enough of that. PS: Quiet place not actually quiet.

OR you could, you know, go stretch your legs? rest your eyes from staring at a
screen? Not be lectured about twitter et al by a website?? Maybe even outside?

Sorry if i'm harsh, but this is the definition of 'solution looking for a
problem'.

------
dvdhsu
It worked very well on an iPhone. Taps moved it forwards, and I was surprised
there was a dedicated mobile site.

One thing to nitpick: on the countdown, it ends with "1 seconds". Trivial to
fix, and really makes it look like you spent time thinking through the
details.

------
bigbento
The tone and nature of this oddly reminds me of a point in the video game
_Earthbound_ , where part way through the game you take a coffee break with
one of the NPCs. It serves no purpose other than to give you a break and
reflect on the game.

------
tempire
Now I'm depressed because someone I liked on the island just died.

Damned LOST music.

~~~
54mf
Came to post this. I was all ready for a nice quiet moment, and then that damn
music and NOT PENNY'S BOAT and now I'm super depressed.

------
bkorte
Sounds like music from the finale of Lost.

------
stevejalim
I sat there for 20 seconds in silence, before realising my Flash blocker was
stopping the music. If it were my site, I'd use Flash as the fallback to HTML5
audio, not as the default.

------
anjc
I like its style. I wasn't aware that that's the music from Lost...if i'd
watched Lost it might've annoyed me. As everyone said, the spacebar clicking
doesn't help, the mixed messages don't help (the share links at the end), the
cursing is way out of place and jarring. And i guess in a weird way it
actually highlights how sad the whole situation is, to think that 30 seconds
of downtime should be enough.

But i do like its style, good work.

------
radagaisus
At first I was _click_ but then I was _click click click_. Amitay is a
friggin' great designer, but there's no way he can beat my addiction to the
web.

------
rooshdi
Whoa...I went to a quiet place and realized there's a potential startup here.
Like a LaunchRock for "Do Nothing" sites. Someone take a stab at it before I
do.

~~~
anjc
I think I came up with a monetization scheme while meditating...

~~~
rooshdi
Ah yes, meditization.

~~~
anjc
It works for us, but we need to work on our meditizarketing strategy...

~~~
rooshdi
Sure, just as soon as we're done redditating. ;)

------
apechai
Good idea. A quiet place (with lost music) and anti-social media (with sharing
buttons at the end). Hopefully, the irony is intentional.

Makes me wonder if the desire to optimize UI/UX and the viral loop will keep
shortening our attention spans. It's a prisoner's dilemma where we're better
off in the short run but worse off in the long run because we can no longer
process longer form thoughts.

------
splicer
GAh! Information overload! Pop "ambient" music, animations, and shit to read;
WTF kind of quiet place is this?! If you really want to take a break to
reflect, go sit on a park bench outside with a pen and paper.

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tuananh
oh crap, I forgot to turn off Growl and it popup in the middle @@"

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cannuk
A good idea. However, the music made me feel as though the title should be
"Take a short break in a Tom Hanks movie".

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calbotron3k
I found it aggravating. I know when to slow down. The music came on without an
invitation. Trying way too hard.

------
kellyreid
now that we're back to normal, share this on all the social media i've just
condemned and give me money.

that ruined it for me. but I'm glad he reassured me it wouldn't be a site that
meant to scare the shit out of me!

------
tronicron
wtf, I get to the quiet place and someone started playing a bunch of shit
music.

------
coderholic
Great site. Similar to donothingfor2minutes.com, but with more words.

------
grigy
Anyone know what music is that?

------
suivix
I did not appreciate having to press spacebar for every sentence, so I exited
early. For something that tells you to relax, it sure does make you do a lot
of work.

~~~
slipperyp
Same here. I found this patronizing and nearly the opposite of relaxing - it
reminded me of 10th grade English teachers bringing in mood music for a
freewriting exercise.

<http://www.workrave.org/> is a much better solution for this kind of "break
excessive computer addiction," IMHO.

