
Ask HN: Am I addicted to HackerNews? - mithunmanohar1
I keep checking hackernews every now and then be it at work or when I am at home. I come here at least 10-15 times a day. Is that normal ?
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adrianmsmith
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.

~~~
staticelf
Everytime I compile and it takes longer than usual I check HN. Sometimes I
forget to check the new build and 20 minutes have passed.

~~~
mozillas
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.

~~~
foobarchu
For a little more obvious notification, I like noti.

[https://github.com/variadico/noti](https://github.com/variadico/noti)

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helen842000
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.

~~~
slededit
This would imply HN is not positive. There are far worse habits.

~~~
helen842000
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.

~~~
owebmaster
But if you would otherwise be checking reddit or your prefered news website it
is better to check HN 15 times.

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makecheck
You might not know, there are features on your profile page to help control
this: enable "noprocast" and set a "maxvisit".

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rpeden
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.

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newbear
Dealing with the same issue and was thinking of deleting. I consume a lot of
content and learn a lot from but I don't feel myself retaining the
information. Maybe I am subconsciously? As such, I think it contributes more
to anxiety which leads to stress etc. than being a benefit to my life. Do
others feel the same? Does the vast amount of interesting content and
curiousisty to want to consume it all make you anxious? I like the comment
about retraining idle time, so instead of hackernews something else ... but
I'm addicted.

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superasn
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.

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afarrell
Does it matter if your behavior matches the definition of addiction? If this
is causing you problems, consider a website-blocking program such at
[https://selfcontrolapp.com/](https://selfcontrolapp.com/),
[https://getcoldturkey.com/](https://getcoldturkey.com/), and
[https://freedom.to/](https://freedom.to/)

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?

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thinkMOAR
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.

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j_s
Anyone willing to list additional summary tools for those hoping to reduce
their time on the site?

minimum point threshold:
[https://twitter.com/newsyc100](https://twitter.com/newsyc100)

daily: [http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/](http://www.daemonology.net/hn-
daily/) | [http://www.hntoplinks.com/](http://www.hntoplinks.com/)
(configurable duration)

weekly: [http://www.hackernewsletter.com/](http://www.hackernewsletter.com/) |
[http://www.daemonology.net/hn-weekly-show/](http://www.daemonology.net/hn-
weekly-show/) | [http://www.daemonology.net/hn-weekly-
ask/](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](https://goo.gl/forms/554KT5a19xprN4Mx2)

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ignawin
Same frequency here. But I still find it better than checking the
news/tw/fb/yt.

~~~
icc97
I treat HN like nicotine patches. It's still addictive but much better than
the alternatives.

I came across HN just because the HN bot on Twitter had the most interesting
links in my feed.

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to_bpr
You're addicted to HN but it's probably only part of a larger problem to do
with the internet/devices in general.

If my own experiences are to go by anyway.

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icc97
I've found it's less addictive on my phone than on my laptop. I can dip in
skim a couple of articles and dip back out.

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.

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DanBC
Addiction normally requires:

 __* 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.

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bsvalley
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!

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dusandusan
If you use Google Chrome, try Waitblock
([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waitblock/kcnjfepp...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waitblock/kcnjfeppclpdinikcljfjigoongebpkh?hl=en)).

This will help shut down the neural pathway that you have built.

~~~
ATsch
HN has this built in, with the "noprocrastination" setting

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brad0
If you're asking the question then the answer is probably yes. You're asking
this question for a reason.

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.

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owebmaster
It is an addiction. But it is a good one, at least to me. Because otherwise I
would be surfing around useless stuff on the internet, at least here I gain
new insights everytime.

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quickthrower2
Only 10-15?

~~~
mars4rp
I check it at least 90-100 times a day, and I don't know how to quit!

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maxscam
You are addicted, but there are worse things.

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0x4f3759df
Block it for a month as an experiment.

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iamalchemist
I check HN every couple of hours. :P

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unixhero
Me too.

I learn so much.

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maxwin
better than addicting to facebook or twitter

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dandanio
It is a case of FOMO, it is treatable.

~~~
mod
I don't think it's FOMO, I visit frequently because I want to read interesting
things. I'm not trying to catch every thing that might make the top page,
rather I'm trying to fill each minute of boredom.

Anytime I'm unsure what to do or waiting on something to
download/build/install/whatever, I reflexively hit "ne[Enter]" in my URL bar.

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ap46
Same goes for me, HN, Quora, Reddit.

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hannofcart
I check HN 3-4 times an hour. :P

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zipotm
YES

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wheresvic1
join the club

