Ask HN: Addicted to HN

[ashitvora]

These days I see myself spending a lot of time on HN.

It's good spend an hour or so to learn something new and interesting but I sometimes spend too much time on it and then I don't have time left to work on my projects.

Has any of you faced this problem? How did you overcome it?

[jacquesm]

I used to worry that I spend too much time here, then the pay-offs started coming in and now I don't worry about it any more.

I have found:

  - people to work with

  - concrete knowledge that I didn't even know I was missing

  - instant help

  - advertisers

  - friends

Through HN, which is more than I can say for any other online community that I've ever been a part of.

And all that for 'free', if you don't count the time spent on it. If you would count the time then the 'investment' side of it (I estimated that at roughly 4 months full time) at a 'regular' salary (say 100K per year) would equate to about $30K, I would say I'm more than break-even already in a direct monetary sense but that's not where the real value is, the real value is in the increase of your potential by being able to tap in to this resource.

Time spent on HN to me is now a form of investment with a completely unknown return, both in kind and magnitude and I don't mind spending time to give others back the same that I have received.

HN is a pay-it-forward scheme if you 'use' it properly.

[wyclif]

Visit HN less by using utilities like http://hckrnews.com/ so you don't miss the stories you learn the most from.

[stoney → wyclif]

Also http://hnrecap.com - you can get the day/week/months top stories in one visit.

[ashitvora → stoney]

This is awesome. I like the integration with Instapaper. Lately I have been using Instrapaper alot.

Thanks :)

[ashitvora → wyclif]

oh cool. This seems interesting.

Thanks :)

[stoney]

There's the no procrast settings, or alternatively there is your hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts on windows). I added the following line to mine:

127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

That means that if I open a browser and try to come here I get nothing. If I really want to visit here I need to open up the hosts file and comment out that line, which is slightly painful because you have to get administrator privileges to edit it. I find that the extra effort involved is enough to stop the mindless "I'm bored, I know, I'll check HN" kind of time wasting and make me realise I should be doing something productive.

[binarymax]

Turn on no procrast in your account settings.

[revorad → binarymax]

noprocast only stops you from posting. You can still waste hours reading. In fact, you can also post even with noprocast on (figuring out how is left as an exercise to the reader. you have 30 secs).

The only solution I find that really works is to get more involved and make it a point to post good comments. If I feel bad about not participating in HN well, either it makes me write good comments and have new insights or get back to work. I've also started taking notes on my blog from articles and discussions I find interesting.

[cdr → binarymax]

The LeechBlock add-on for Firefox is a great general-purpose solution if you have trouble with other sites besides HN.

[ashitvora → binarymax]

oh! I was always wondering what that stands for.

Thanks alot :)

[hkuo]

Keep your eye onthe prize! Corny, I know, but maybe just remind yourself every once in a while whats important. When you let your body and mind fall naturally to what it's attracted to, you can end up on a site like this or reddit or the like for a long time, but if you pause for a second and think about what you could be doing instead, you might pass on spending time here and doing some work.

[fzort]

iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d news.ycombinator.com -j DROP