I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference.
This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me, so I plan carefully before settling in to watch something.
Also, not owning a device to play games and waste hours was another conscious decision I made a while ago. Kicking the TV out of your bedroom is a neat trick that works for many.
I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche.
After a few years, all of this comes naturally to me, but when I talk to people, the first thing they’re amazed by is how I manage to live like this.
> This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me [...]
A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video.
None of them will crash after 30s of playback because your postcode changed for a week, because you have an ad blocker installed, or because you just plugged in an external display and some DRM magic kicked in. Just find the file, download it and double click.
> A little bee told me that VLC + most torrent trackers are still a better UX than most Netflix/Apple TV/Prime video.
I can never understand these claims as anything other than mental gymnastics. There is no way you can convince me that it’s better UX to navigate torrent sites, take all the time to download the file, hope it’s a good copy, and launch it in VLC.
Most of us have something like an Apple TV or other streaming box plugged into a TV. I can power it on and get to the show I want in seconds. It picks up where I left off. I don’t have to worry about quality or subtitles or torrents.
> Just find the file, download it and double click.
The idea of just finding torrents, waiting for them to download, then fiddling with everything to get it in my TV is in no way a superior UX to the streaming services. I think these claims are just attempts to justify piracy as being superior UX, but it doesn’t make sense.
You are severely behind the times when it comes to modern day piracy :)
There are apps like Stremio with the Torrentio plugin (and optionally a direct download server like RealDebrid), that, yes, also work on the TV, which essentially replicate any of today's streaming apps with a nice UI, only you don't have to shuffle between ten different streaming services to find the one want. It's actually superior UX to any of them because it's all-in-one.
One difference is that a little upfront work to download the movie is approximately 500 infinities better than the thing glitching out or stopping during playback either due to the streaming platform or your "99.99%" ISP deciding to have its monthly 5 minutes of downtime during the movie.
And then you have stuff like the streaming platform refusing to play because you don't have the absolute latest browser or drivers.
Content is also spread across a dozen streaming platforms, and a lot of back catalog is hardly available too.. so what you say works within the confines of the subscriptions you have.
I've certainly witnessed people going down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out which platform still has the content they want, getting sent on a goose chase from outdated information, only to just give up and torrent it.
Video quality on the torrents is mixed but it's also mixed on the streaming platforms-- both between the platforms and due to bandwidth management on the platforms. With torrents you have file size ~= quality so you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get. Streaming platforms, or at least the ones I'm familiar with (other than youtube) don't seem to give you any direct control of your bandwidth usage. So if you want lower quality to conserve resources you may not be able to get it.
I think the instant catalog in streaming might also cause some people to suffer from choice peristalsis. I've seen people just scroll long enough on netflix that after a bit they don't have time to watch a movie anymore.
I dunno how much I'd argue that it's superior, but it's certainly different and I think it's easy to understand how someone might prefer one or the other.
One test of your conjecture might be: Do people with all-you-can-eat access to a streaming platform ever torrent content that they could just watch on that platform? -- They do.
We only use the Apple TV device, and we don't see most of these issues. Quality is good, playback starts immediately and rarely glitches, search spans (almost, Netflix doesn't participate) every service we have access to.
It's possible my tastes are too vanilla or I'm blowing way too much $$$ on streaming services, but I rarely have any trouble finding exactly what I want to watch.
It's not like that though, especially when you have the *arr software + jellyfin all setup. It's literally a matter of type name -> watch at that point.
It definitely used to be like that, and it was enough of a hassle that I would get blurays and just watch them. Of course until I wasn't permitted to watch a legitimate bluray on a legitimate bluray player...
It helps if the search is integrated into the torrent client (qbittorrent) and if the computer is plugged into the tv (long hdmi cable).
The UX benefit is that I figure out what I want to watch by browsing the web, then pick a download (lots of seeds, decent size), and before long I can start watching. Usually I queue up a few options in case my mood changes.
It doesn't matter which service owns the rights, or which devices I'm using, or anything. I can watch the downloaded content whenever I want, forever. No trailers or unskippable notices. I'd pay money for this flexibility if I could.
That has not been the experience of the students I know: They get older Amazon Firesticks for free or almost free, use a frontend which might be popcorntime (not sure it its that one, or just looks the same), and have essentially a Netflix-like experience. Some use Usenet accounts, another uses a proxy for torrents, but there's also those who torrent directly. It really was surprising to me–I expected that after the wave of cease & desists along with fines all over the news about 10 years ago few would dare.
I wouldn't call VLC friendly UI, but it is the same UI I used when Netflix the DVD service began and the same UI I taught family members. When someone shows me Netflix, every year or two, I have no idea what I am looking at.
>I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche.
n=2 is a poor sample set to develop strong inferences, but I definitely see the upside to this behaviour.
Once I made a conscious decision to become one of those 'low-information voters' you hear about, my mental health improved notably and my screen time dropped by a few hours per week.
>I don’t have any subscriptions except for rent, transportation, a cloud VM, and a domain for my blog, and that has made an incredible difference.
Amazon Prime is a tricky one: bundle shopping deals with streaming video. Youtube is also tricky: it's free.
But despite having Amazon Prime and Youtube, I almost never watch movies, TV, play games, or doomscroll? How? I had a baby. No more time for any for any of that. Once he's old enough to want to watch movies or play games, then maybe I'll watch/play some with him, but he's too young currently.
My son's pediatrician said no screens until he's 2 years old, and it's hard for me to watch something without him watching. I haven't given up books though.
Depends on what you mean by “keep going.” Does a decade and a half mean I became successful? Then yeah.
I come from a middle-class SEA family, where education and frugality are bolted into our DNA, even when we can afford nice things. So it’s a bit easier for me.
However, I see my left-brained Western friends struggle with this quite a lot. Many self-diagnose as having ADHD, need therapy, and can’t seem to win the fight against all the nonsense large corporations throw at us. So I understand that it’s probably difficult.
Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly. As for things that do not seem like folly — well, there can be no question about their smallness!
Here are my three treasures. Guard and keep them! The first is pity; the second, frugality; the third, refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'.
For only he that pities is truly able to be brave;
Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse.
Only he that refuses to be foremost of all things
Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers.
At present your bravery is not based on pity, nor your profusion on frugality, nor your vanguard on your rear; and this is death. But pity cannot fight without conquering or guard without saving. Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed.
On a side note, I find that this flow state has it's addiction of it's own. I find myself doing whatever I can to find time for it. I feel like the reason mathematicians, physicists and artists of the past produced such great results is, they found the flow state so addictive, more addictive than balancing your health or family life, and thus dedicated almost entirety of their lives on it. Just have to be careful on that one. After all, our purpose is (I think) is not just working.
It is addictive, because it feels like living life at its fullest. It feels like life should always feel.
> After all, our purpose is (I think) is not just working.
Agreed, but I think that our purpose is also not just experiencing, nor is it just eating, pairing up, multiplying, and dying (like all life on Earth does, +/- the pairing up stuff).
I also feel that "working" != "working", specifically working for money usually stands in opposition to the kind of work you'd find fulfilling and that benefits from the state of flow.
We associate things and people with the experiences where we encountered them.
Once I made the same observation that GP did, I reflected back on conflicts over code. The most vitriolic arguments I’ve gotten into about design decisions at work have all, almost to a man, boiled down to the person who authored it having done so in flow state and how fucking dare you question the beauty of the output of that effort. They make it personal because the experience was deeply personal.
Flow state cannot make nuanced ethical decisions. It’s right in the characteristics. And both DevEx and maintainability come down to thinking about the people who have to deal with your code for the next four years.
The only way I’ve been able to avoid this trap myself is to spent more effort on refactoring, taking notes, taking breaks, and saving up the Deep Work for special occasions where I have choreographed much of it ahead of time. So I know exactly what to do and why. Exploratory dev in flow state leads to all of these sins. Because you get the bear to dance and then you stop.
>>On a side note, I find that this flow state has it's addiction of it's own.
For this reason, there are societies and cultures where Chess is treated more on the lines of a dangerous addiction one must stay away from. Co-incidentally I have seen similar damage in people with video game addiction. Years wasted online, or on board games. Often when people are young, they could be attending college, or starting a trade or learning new skills. Or just working and earning money.
People are instead playing video games, or chess, where you are not only addicted to gaming, but you also get a illusion that you are doing productive work, where all of your mental faculties are engaged, and you are thinking and executing. Its easy to fall into this simulated productivity trap. Given levels to these games, its easy to create a flow like situation for years.
>>I feel like the reason mathematicians, physicists and artists of the past produced such great results is, they found the flow state so addictive, more addictive than balancing your health or family life, and thus dedicated almost entirety of their lives on it.
Trust me, most people who warn against going into academia are saying precisely this. If you are not too good at Math or Physics, its possible to get addicted to intermediate or beginner intermediate levels for all life and never really go out and make a living.
The sheer amount of failed musicians, mathematicians, physicists who went to in to the field because of curiosity, but got addicted to 'flow' and could never really bail and go on to earn or have a good living is quite large, and in many ways this is a bigger let down than even gaming addiction.
I know quite a few musicians and even graduate level math professors, who have totally broken families and finances because they can't explain anyone why they like doing it, and families don't get why they must remain broke.
I'm a physicist and musician, though I'm certainly not one of the greats in either area. Musicians have their reputation for dealing with addictions, though I've avoided them myself.
But I've read that the stereotype of the musician needing the junk in order to be creative, is a myth. When people study the actual timelines, they've found that the great artists did their best work when they were relatively clean, and that the addictions detracted from their work.
I, for one, can do heavy bodily harm to myself if I attempt to live in this state for long periods. It turns out my mind is much stronger than my body. Perhaps the flow state removes the regular messages the body sends when it's had enough.
Either way, life without play is dangerous for me.
One of my tricks is keeping a glass of water at my desk. Filling the glass is a break. So is emptying my bladder. The break lets you reflect, and decide if you’re chasing your tail or doing something questionable.
Drinking is also a work appropriate fidget. Sip of water instead of tapping a pen or bouncing your leg. And easier on your kidneys than overdosing on caffeine all day.
Why don’t posts like this ever explain what the end goal is? The biggest problem in my life is that all this work and productivity feels meaningless. Everyone is always writing as if these goals are common knowledge but I don’t even know why I work anymore other than I can’t retire yet.
> The biggest problem in my life is that all this work and productivity feels meaningless.
This is an entirely different, more high-level problem (like software architecture vs. specific algorithms)
Commonly, some may have a short-term goal (get a promotion / climb the next step of the career ladder / finish university) which gives them intrinsic motivation in such a way that they can't rationally explain why they are attracted to that goal.
Motivation might be derived from responsibility towards others: Trying to get more done to have more time for kids / elderly parents / partner / hobbies / side-project startup idea.
"Feeling no purpose" however is a very common problem. There are coaching programs, retreats, therapy programs and books revolving around this topic.
It tends to be complex, and could be a learned behaviour pattern where one neglects their true intrinsic interests; undiagnosed depression; being in a field your parents forced you into which you have no intrinsic interest in, or a mixture of those and some others.
I agree that generally, the low-level optimization of flow states only makes sense once you have found your true calling.
I’m reading The Choice right now. I can’t tell you if it makes sense without having read at least The Goal, but I suspect not. But that book still sells 100k copies a year despite used copies being everywhere, because it’s worth reading. The Choice may offer you some notions about the silver linings in failure. Eli loved when things failed because they helped him find the boundaries of the problem. Like a human SAT solver.
Work and focus aren’t limited to your paid job. Focus states are helpful in everything to hobbies to inconsequential things like doing a puzzle alone or with friends.
These techniques can be applied anywhere. The goals are entirely personal, so you can’t expect to find them listed for you in someone else’s blog post.
I want to know where their goals and favourite source of flow come from. Do any of these bloggers know what they’re writing or does it just sound good to other people who are also aimlessly playing on the computer? I want more depth.
It’s a lot more enjoyable and “flow”y to get stoned and watch YouTube all day everyday but I know that’s not what he’s talking about. I want to know what’s so great about the work and personal lives of these productivity guru guys. Seems like they all just make another data analytics tool, AI toys, or write blogs for each other.
Sure there are people that make a living from marketing self-help. Some of them might even really enjoy it.
But flow as defined in the book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi[0], is "a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation." In the book, it gives a few guide rails. Just enjoying something is different from it being in the sweet spot of challenging you, triggering growth, enabling you to learn something new or achieve something.
Of course that could come from selling your book or making a YouTube video, but instead of focusing on other people, and their motivations, and what they get out of whatever they're doing, the whole point is to figure out where you are really in a flow state that you personally find fulfilling, and would want to repeat. If you can't find that, then forget about, ignore all the information out there, and find a different life goal to pursue.
> focusing on other people, and their motivations, and what they get out of whatever they're doing
I want to focus on this because I don’t believe in the idea of an authentic self and I want to know how anyone can find something that makes them feel this way, or at least how they can trick themselves into thinking some boring topic like writing productivity advice blogs can feel meaningful. Put this guy’s birth in 1800 and I’m sure he won’t feel any sense of loss because he can’t write anymore.
Is there anything you like to do without being prompted by someone else? Something you have to take an active part of? That's the thing you're searching for. It's the act of doing that gives happiness and the fact that you've done something that give satisfaction. I don't think of it as authentic self or whatever. It's just something that I can do and I enjoy doing. It's not supposed to be objectively meaningful.
Nice post. It really is a challenge to find time and mental space for one’s creative moments when everything around us is literally optimised to maximise engagement.
Even places like Netflix/Prime/AppleTV where we’re supposed to go for recreation, would rather you quickly flick through several “shallow” productions than invest in something deep and meaningful.
Indeed. Even the deep and meaningful are part of the same goal, ecosystem retention. The aim is to keep serving slop and convincing you that you necessarily need entertainment of this specific type and no other.
The only answer is to not engage. Entertainment can be of many kinds, some simple kinds too.
> Even places like Netflix/Prime/AppleTV where we’re supposed to go for recreation, would rather you quickly flick through several “shallow” productions than invest in something deep and meaningful.
That’s not my experience at all.
I rarely watch TV, so when I sit down I’m often looking for a good movie to watch. Much of the content these days is long, multi-episode shows that they want you to get invested in for 5-10 hours per season.
Don’t pay for those—problem solved. No one is forcing us to do any of these things.
Yelling at the cloud will rarely solve this. Blaming profit mega-corps for our woes is like trying to warm up the Earth to battle winter instead of just getting a thermostat or moving to a warmer climate.
While we do have agency to decide not to use addictive technology, it's not always that simple.
For many of us, the addictive technology is tightly integrated with technology that we want or need to use. For example, I use local facebook groups for certain things, I use youtube to learn how to do things, I sometimes use instagram to communicate with certain people who prefer that. All of these have integrated those horrible short videos that can become very addictive - I've seen myself get stuck there, and many people I know who were never tech or phone addicts before this technology came around, including my mom.
I could and maybe should radically change my life and just not use these things - facebook and instgram I could get by without, but youtube would be difficult - I am a musician and use it for finding music, and also for how to do or fix anything.
I finally three months ago got a combination of firefox extensions and android apps to make it impossible for me to see these short videos, as well as all social media feeds etc, unless I specifically go change the settings to bring them back. And I've managed to avoid doing that. So in total over the last three months I've spent about 10 minutes watching the horrible short videos (when some slipped through the cracks) compared to before where I often found myself stuck there for an hour or two. I do still waste time on the internet often, but it's usually in a specific online community that's stuff I want to read and not random crap the algorithm gives me.
I think it's like trying to quit a sugar addiction while having a donut strapped to your hand at all times. It really makes it easier if you can get rid of the donut. But when the donut is tied to your work or hobbies and there's no way to do the work or hobbies without the donut being there, it's hard. It can be done, and many people do it, but there are also many people who would choose to never see the donut if that option was easily available, but it's not.
If you can't get rid of it, add friction. I quit Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter gradually by removing the apps on my phone and using the browser on my laptop. Then I only use incognito mode to access them. Then I just get used to their absence. If I needed them for work. I'd use a separate device and a separate account.
Another thing that help is bookmark and notes. Anything great I found on those platforms, I just store them somewhere so I can access them directly instead of browsing through the sludge.
I really appreciated this line on the Vaticans' thoughts on AI:
The twentieth-century philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev observed that people often blame machines for personal and social problems; however, “this only humiliates man and does not correspond to his dignity,” for “it is unworthy to transfer responsibility from man to a machine.”
Spot on. I say this every time someone complains that they can’t stop scrolling Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts. Just don’t install those apps. Browsing them from a mobile browser is awful without the apps, and if you can manage to live like that for a few days, you’ll stop doing it.
Ah yes, the dream where "vote with your wallet" was supposed to be a thing. The reality is though, these corporations are so big and have so much unbounded power in real life stuff (including legislation and policy) that my wallet is meaningless to their existnace.
Also, not paying for them just means they will try to find me whever I'm (through ads, notifications, related products) and push some emotional buttons so I will join them, or at least sign up for something that gives them data points.
The parent isn’t suggesting not to buy things to influence what the corporations are doing. They are suggesting that if you, yourself, are unhappy with a services impact on you, then the first and most obvious step is to stop paying for it. That’s a reasonably surefire way to remove that distraction.
Conversely, if you don’t like the impact of something on your life, but cannot bring yourself to remove it, that is almost exactly the definition of addiction and you should probably go looking for help.
Like with food one aspect to realize is that you can nudge yourself one way or another by making certain decisions in front.
It is harder to eat unhealthy if you don't buy groceries that allow you to make unhealthy food. And you buy unhealthy food when you enter the grocery store hungry.
Similar frontloaded decisions affect digital consumption. This is mostly about how we design the places where we consume, how we set up our devices etc.
A good way to start is to switch off notifications for certain classes of apps and setup an automatic do-not-disturb based on your schedule (e.g. between 22:00 and 10:00). Don't put distracting apps on Desktop and home screens, those should only be opened by you if you actively decided to do so — adding multiple steps to doing so is a feature, not a bug.
If you really wanna go hardcore you could DNS block certain apps during certain times, forcing you to read a book instead.
In the end it is just about creating an environment for yourself where the things you want to do are easier choices than the things you want to avoid.
I do this too. I’ve even managed to go years without opening the news. What I can’t deny, the news still sneaks in through WhatsApp/Telegram groups.
> or caring about strangers opinions has done wonders for my psyche.
The final bos !. Jumping into these kinds of conversations just to prove you're smart—or look smart—is the ultimate time stealer. The dopamine hits hard.
Yes, i proved i'm smarter than my average friends. friends also happy to get good insights from me.
The ironic part? times fades away while the quality of my work takes a nosedive.
>>I’ve even managed to go years without opening the news.
If only life was that simple.
If you are not Knuth or Einstein, you better be open to the world. Or you won't win at life.
Focus is for people are absolutely too darn good at what they do, and get rewarded for it. For everybody else, you have to be open enough to be informed about newer and rewarding things.
Tangentially related, I finished “You Should Quit Reddit” by Jacob Desforges yesterday, at the recommendation of a fellow HN user. Definitely worth a read if you are leaning that way already and just need a few well-reasoned arguments to seal the deal.
I found it difficult to work when connected to the internet. (Unmedicated ADHD.)
So I'd turn it off before sleep (as part of basic "hygiene"), and keep it off (router and phone) for at least the first hour the next day.
I'd wake up and begin working immediately. Usually I'd get so much done this way, that I'd choose to stay offline for a few more hours voluntarily.
This routine I developed to deal with a disability is now being promoted by YouTube influencers as a productivity secret used by billionaires, which I find endlessly amusing!
> So I'd turn it off before sleep (as part of basic "hygiene"), and keep it off (router and phone) for at least the first hour the next day.
How do you do this technically? Shutting down phone and router (so many things complain when no WiFi, you need a phd to disable iPhones), alarms, and still a way to be reached in case of emergency?
I unplugged the router from the wall, and turned off my phone. I also moved it to another room, as it's been demonstrated to make you stupider even when it's switched off. (I think it has to do with the subconscious expectation of constant interruptions associated with the physical object.)
The mere presence of a smartphone reduces basal attentional performance
The only thing I missed was documentation, so I downloaded offline docs. Then occasionally I missed Google. So I just kept a list of stuff to Google an hour or two later when I came back online.
I made sure my work was full of variety so if I got completely stuck on one task (rare), I could just switch gears.
I think while things may complain simply pulling the power to the ISP modem/router and doing a full shutdown of any phone would replicate what they are doing. If you wanted you could have a separate AP from the router that could stay running even when the router loses internet to keep the local network running, but if we're being honest... does it really matter?
Most devices might complain, but most will simply stop working silently and then reconnect when they have a chance. Some might need to be power cycled because they gave up trying to connect (I had a smart garage door that had bad connectivity and would sometimes do a version of this).
I agree with everything in this post, and have had similar reactions to changing environment.
BUT. I think it is easy to lose sight that these practices only work for a small segment of society that have high paying jobs and a lot of freedom. And software engineers make up the bulk of them.
I really do dig the Software Engineer = Artist Comparison. SE do 'create', use creativity to solve problems. And also 'creative' like a writer or poet, painter. And Flow is important.
But also, there is a reason a lot of artists don't make a lot of money. And, sadly, the 'creative drive' to do Open Source projects, also does not pay.
So, follow your dream to hang out in coffee shops writing code, but know that is a luxury that can end any minute, like with the first major illness.
I recently got back into coding (thank you LLMs!) and I find this is much more isolating lifestyle. If I didn’t find the problem solving so rewarding and money was not a consideration I would actually prefer a more social job with MORE distractions even though I consider myself introvert.
A social job forces interactions on you. You may not become a better coder but you will become a better communicator and arguably a person that’s easier to live or work with. So isolating and living distraction free is just a spectrum that you don’t want to overdo in either direction.
If you have to do as much as he does to get in the flow then you have no idea what flow is nor how to enter it. Much of what is says is a great help to seeing flow however.
To find flow all you have to do is look around you because you are already in it.
Flow is always happening and it is not personal to any one being.
To get in the flow of a river you just have to jump in it. The minute you try to make the "perfect" river to jump in, that is man made flow, and not natural flow.
One can even be in the flow while using social media.
All you have to do is let go.
Anyone looking for flow I would advise they read Zhuang Zhou:
"Horses can with their hoofs tread on the hoarfrost and snow, and with their hair withstand the wind and cold; they feed on the grass and drink water; they prance with their legs and leap:-- this is the true nature of horses. Though there were made for them grand towers and large dormitories, they would prefer not to use them. But when Po-lâo (arose and) said, 'I know well how to manage horses,' (men proceeded) to singe and mark them, to clip their hair, to pare their hoofs, to halter their heads, to bridle them and hobble them, and to confine them in stables and corrals. (When subjected to this treatment), two or three in every ten of them died. (Men proceeded further) to subject them to hunger and thirst, to gallop them and race them, and to make them go together in regular order. In front were the evils of the bit and ornamented breastbands, and behind were the terrors of the whip and switch. (When so treated), more than half of them died."
Maybe there are different ideas about flow. But to me, flow is about eliminating distractions, and being creative without requiring too much pondering.
Our brains are always looking for distractions. Having your phone nearby, or working in an area where distractions are easily accessible prevents flow. Your brain is always looking to be distracted, it's akin to how you are tuned to pay more attention when you hear your name called. Even if you think to yourself: I'm not going to touch my phone while I work, it's always there calling for your brain's attention.
So step 1 to flow is removing distractions. Going to a library helps because you're cut off from many distractions and your brain stops "listening" for a bit.
And then, you must be able to create something from what you already know. Fluent writing, art, programming can then "flow" directly from you into the real world without requiring looking up info, or taking tutorials.
Flow has little to do with the "true nature of things", imo.
This could be valuable advice for someone who is beating themselves up about not being perfect at controlling their focus (if they are ready to hear it).
However it’s also stated in a way that’s disrespectful to the discussion. It’s okay for people to have goals, and to strive and struggle towards them, resisting instinct that could undermine their efforts, and sometimes falling short and being disappointed. This is a natural part of the higher level reasoning we are blessed with.
SAYS Chuang Tsu: Confucius went to the West to deposit his writings in the library of the Imperial House of Chao, and Tsu Lu counseled him, saying:
“I have heard that the officer in charge was one named Lao Tsu, who has resigned his office and lives privately. As you, master, wish to deposit your works, why not go and gain his help? “
Confucius said, “Good”, and went to see Lao Tsu, who refused his assistance, whereupon the other began to give a summary of Spring and Autumn with the view of convincing Lao Tsu. But Lao Tsu interrupted:
“This is all nonsense. What are your fundamentals? “
“Charity”, replied Confucius, and duty to one s neighbor.
Said Lao Tsu: “And do you think charity and righteousness constitute man’s original nature?”
“I do. Without charity the princely man could not be what he is. Without righteousness he would be of no effect. These two belong to the original nature of the superior man.”
Lao Tsu continued:
“Tell me what you mean by charity and righteousness?”
Confucius answered:
“To be in one s inmost heart in sympathy with all things, to love all men without selfishness this is the characteristic of charity and duty to one s neighbor.”
Lao Tsu exclaimed:
“What stuff! Does not universal love contradict itself? Is not your elimination of self a positive manifestation of self?”
Personally I use the hammy package in Emacs with the "Flywheel" timer from the examples to get into a flow, these days it's enough to just start it and unless I get distracted by outside forces I keep hammering away at my task(s) while disregarding the timer. In this way the timer itself serves as more of a Pavlovian trigger rather than an actual device with utility by itself.
This doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies or have fun—it’s just that watching movies requires jumping through a few hoops for me, so I plan carefully before settling in to watch something.
Also, not owning a device to play games and waste hours was another conscious decision I made a while ago. Kicking the TV out of your bedroom is a neat trick that works for many.
I still get distracted and doomscroll sometimes, but usually those are planned sessions. Not reading the news or caring about strangers’ opinions has done wonders for my psyche.
After a few years, all of this comes naturally to me, but when I talk to people, the first thing they’re amazed by is how I manage to live like this.
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