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moridinamael comments on A thought about Internet procrastination - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: RolfAndreassen 15 May 2012 09:46PM

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Tags: akrasia internet reinforcement

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Comment author: moridinamael 15 May 2012 11:55:09PM *  13 points [-]

This post inspired me to look up this xkcd comic because I wanted to recall the mouseover text: http://xkcd.com/862/

After years of trying various methods, I broke this habit by pitting my impatience against my laziness. I decoupled the action and the neurological reward by setting up a simple 30-second delay I had to wait through, in which I couldn't do anything else, before any new page or chat client would load (and only allowed one to run at once). The urge to check all those sites magically vanished--and my 'productive' computer use was unaffected.

Then it led me to find this Chrome plugin which executes the proposed hack:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eacjcpfjdlcdggndfhkmlpnhedggdhke

So, I'll be putting LessWrong on timed-block (at least at work!), and I'll try to report my results.

Comment author: Pfft 16 May 2012 01:55:59AM *  5 points [-]

This comment made me decide to try it too. Firefox users can use the Leechblock extension.

For now I'll experiment with adding a 30-second delay to all domains, with a few exceptions (so the blocklist might be *, +google.com, +haskell.org) This doesn't quite match the xkcd setup, since there might be spurious delays if a single task spans multiple domains, but it seems close enough to start with.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 16 May 2012 06:55:58AM 3 points [-]

Thank you! I did not notice Leechblock has this option.

Comment author: [deleted] 16 May 2012 12:32:22AM 2 points [-]

I think concepts like akrasia and hyperbolic discounting contribute somewhere in this approach too. If you can just make it through the initial rush of pleasure seeking behaviour and desire for distraction without acting on it, it seems to be much easier to re-focus on an less stimulating task.

Comment author: moridinamael 21 May 2012 04:28:11PM 1 point [-]

After about a week, here are my results.

Using this plugin has forced me to notice that I have a bad work algorithm: when I hit a roadblock in coding or writing or whatever and I can't immediately see my way through it, I go to the Internet. The plugin basically halts this particular algorithm - when I try to use the Internet I get bored of waiting after about five seconds and go back to working, and usually figure out whatever the problem was.

I quickly realized that some discipline is still required. I have a smartphone, so I have to force myself not to simply use the smartphone for internet distraction. Additionally I convince myself that it would be shameful to find some other workaround like using my remote machine or one of my virtual machines.

Overall, I believe this made my workweek more productive. We'll see if I manage to work around my own convictions and find other ways of distracting myself.

Comment author: ChrisHallquist 18 May 2012 06:17:56AM 0 points [-]

Thank you! I did not know this plugin existed.

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