Ask HN: What's your solution to tech addiction?
Seems like most tech right now is focused on driving engagement, profit, etc through addictive behaviours. I guess that's not news to anyone. Doomscrolling, swiping, etc. Anyone have some good alternatives. I decided to build something for myself to combat it, but wondered what other people are doing.
- Reading more books.
- Going on more walks and runs.
- Spending more time with kids and spouse, particularly actively listening to.
- Getting back to being used to, and comfortable with, being bored, like we were before social media and shorts.
I don't think building tech is a good solution to tech addiction.
Are you going to build tech to combat tech?
I got a phone lock box and bring physical books everywhere now. I bring classics or sci-fi stuff.
What really started driving me crazy is that when I'm doing kid stuff like sports or library events all the parents drop of their kids, head to the parent area, and everyone sits on their phones.
I'm always the only one reading a book. And yeah I have my phone with me, but I try to exclusively use it to take pictures.
as heartbreaking as it's been to realize that i no longer love the thing that used to bring me so much joy, i've found a lot of pleasure in more physical pursuits.
i picked up sewing (messenger bags, backpacks etc) with an industrial sewing machine - it's a real rabbit hole but i get a real, tangible reward for my hard work (something besides "hey cool, the blinkenlights do the thing now"). it's pretty amazing to assemble a physical good and then use it on a daily basis, and i've gotten to the point where i've even made bags for others who like my stuff.
it's not going to replace my tech career as far as paying the bills, but i get to use a lot of the same abstract mental tools (design, iteration, experimentation, learning from others and disassembling/reassembling things to learn how they work).
It's funny every time there is some corporate team building session or whatever and the question is asked "what do you want to do when you retire?" every developer always suggests doing something more tangible.
Nobody ever says I want to spend more time behind the computer.
Reasonable. You could get the answer of "being on the computer" by asking to the people that don't spend 20 years of their career on it
Ever heard of the grass is always greener?
i'm not going to lie; learning to sew has me wanting to buy a table saw and learn how to build cabinets for a living.
Table saws seem too dangerous for me but a track saw would work too!
I think I'm going to go paint lines in parking lots.
I mean it’s right there for you to do it. Your actions will tell you how much you really want to do it.