Solution: No internet at home[1].
Gave me back ~3hr per day when nothing else worked[2].
Wikipedia can be downloaded via kiwix (~90GB for English WP with images), programming documentation with zeal & devdocs.io. Logseq as a replacement for obsidian/roam, yt-dlp for downloading YouTube videos (and video/audio from many many other sources) to watch/listen to later. wget for downloading whole websites+assets to read at some later point.
No great solution for LLMs (yet…), all the ones I can run on my laptop are not good enough—maybe I should bite the bullet and get a GPU/digits that can run of the big LLaMas/DeepSeek V3 locally. I have internet at my workplace, and a local library with internet 10 minutes away by walk that closes at 7PM.
(No mobile internet either, that'd defeat the purpose. Haven't yet quite figured out to get people to call me when they want stuff…)
For >3 years now. The benefits reduce after a while as homeostasis kicks in (e.g. moving sleeping times back by ~4 hrs got halved to ~2 hrs), but it's still net positive: I used to lose ≥4½ hrs to random aimless websurfing, now it's only about one. Not all time gained is spent productively, I still randomly click through articles of the local Wikipedia copy, but that feels much less unproductive than watching YouTube videos. ↩︎
Website blockers like browser extensions are too easy to turn off (especially since I have complete control over my OS). Accountability didn't work well either. Behavioral interventions (like exercising/meditation/whatever) did ~nil. ↩︎
I'll add: No internet on my phone.
My friend recommended I delete the browser on my phone. It's saved me time from going down curiosity rabbit holes.
Do you think this hints at "doing engineering in an air gapped network can be made somewhat reasonable"?
(I'm asking in the context of securing AI labs' development environments. Random twist, I know)
I think especially if you have a competent coding LLM in the air-gapped network, then probably yes, if you mean software engineering.
The biggest bottlenecks to me look like having nice searchable documentation for libraries the LLM doesn't know well—the documentation for most projects can't easily be downloaded, and the ones for which it can be downloaded easily aren't in a nicely searchable format. Gitbook isn't universal (yet. Growth mindset).
(Similar with the kiwix search—you need to basically know what you're looking for, or you won't find it. E.g. I was trying to think of the Nazi Bureaucrat who in the Sino-Japanese war in the 1930s had rescued many Chinese from getting killed in warcrimes, but couldn't think of it—until LLaMa-2-13b (chat) told me the name was John Rabe—but I've despaired over slightly more obscure questions.)
A well-resourced actor could try to clone the Stackoverflow content and their search, or create embeddings for a ton of documentation pages of different software packages. That'd make it much nicer.
Also, a lot of software straight up doesn't work without an internet connection—see e.g. the incident where people couldn't do arithmetic in Elm without an internet connection. Thankfully it's the exception rather than the norm.
Similar stuff that's worked for me includes:
Agreed. The Unhook Youtube chrome extension is great. Another extension I use in combination with it is Improve Youtube.
Together they've saved me hundreds of hours.
on extensions: note you can use ublock origin[1] to stop sites from loading by setting a filter against their main content. this is preferable to minimize the amount of extensions which can read site data[2], at least if you already use ublock.
My solution:
This works well for me. I watch short videos on days when I'm too tired to do anything productive - this is quite pleasant and relaxing then - but I learned to force myself to logout later, and this is enough.
Selling my TV was one of the best decisions I ever made. In that same post I wrote about the underlying scientific principles behind Supernormal Stimuli.
If you're interested in the topic, I'd recommend author Deirdre Barrett’s book Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose, and also Eliezer's post Superstimuli and the Collapse of Western Civilization.
There have been a lot of tricks I've used over the years, some of which I'm still using now, but many of which require some level of discipline. One requires basically none, has a huge upside (to me), and has been trivial for me to maintain for years: a "newsfeed eradicator" extension. I've never had the temptation to turn it off unless it really messes with the functionality of a website.
It basically turns off the "front page" of whatever website you apply it to (e.g. reddit/twitter/youtube/facebook) so that you don't see anything when you enter the site and have to actually search for whatever you're interested in. And for youtube, you never see suggestions to the right of or at the end of a video.
As a general rule, I try and minimise my phone screen time and maximise my laptop screen time. I can do every "productive" task faster on a laptop than on my phone.
Here are some things object level things I do that I find helpful that I haven't yet seen discussed.
My solution: don’t have a smartphone and don’t use social media at all (don’t even have any social media accounts). Seems to work well.
I don't want to pretend that I'm someone who is immune to Youtube binges or similar behaviors. However I am not sure why this is a problem and what meaningful work that this behavior was getting in the way of? Speaking for myself, 9/10 if I have a commitment the next morning, I won't stay up late on my computer because... I know I have a commitment at a set time. (If you forced me to hypothesize why that 1/10 times I don't, I'd guess that it is stress related anticipation means I can't sleep even if I did lay down - but that is just a wild guess).
I'm also surprised to see how most of the solutions in the comments involve removing access to anything... doing something more productive. I think there is a difference between the nebulous guilt we feel about Opportunity Cost - "oh geez I could have used that time more effectively" and specific, tangible, realistic things we could have done but didn't. I often find that Youtube Binges are caused by/as-a-result-of not being able to find those activities, they do not frustrate them.
I have perennially found that whatever vice (or as you call it 'hyperstimuli') that I remove, I just replace it with another but it's never a beneficial activity. (The one exception I can think of was when I stopped listening to music when I had a bout of insomnia and instead replaced it with lectures on Wittgenstein or Quantum Physics, because I figured "I might as well learn SOMETHING').
This has caused me an incredible amount of frustration. For all the talk of "social media detox" and even the farcically named "dopamine detox" none seem to actually result in net increases in my well being.
Going back to what I said about specific, tangible, realistic alternatives: I have found that the only way to stop mid-way through a Youtube binge or a Instagram scroll is to be excited about a project that I have a lot of faith in my ability to complete, and a viable first-step which I can do now.
This isn't fail-safe, if I'm writing a journal entry or an essay, and I have to leave in 30 minutes, you bet your bottom dollar I'll be late because I'll be so engrossed in that writing process. But that doesn't sound like a 'hyperstimuli'
I use Freedom and Limit on my computer and Stay Focused on my Android phone. The former two allow for a combination of complete blocking during certain time windows and time limits (for any website, even across browsers and even if you open an incognito window). The latter does both for my phone.
I block all social media and content during prime working hours and implement a 30-minute limit outside of that. It works pretty well. I may make it more strict because I sometimes find myself looking at Twitter, etc. occasionally when watching a TV show in the evenings.
I also use BlockTube to get rid of YouTube Shorts entirely from my web browser. They no longer show up in search results or in the menu.
Finally, I recommend the tools here, though I haven't tried all of them: https://liamrosen.com/2023/04/18/modding-social-media-to-win-the-attention-war/
For those who live alone, one option for the phone password is to make it an Antimeme.
Write it down somewhere inconvenient
I installed Mindfulness Bell on my phone, and every time it chimes, I ask myself, "Should I be doing something else right now?" Sometimes I'm being productive and don't need to stop. When I notice I've started ignoring it, I change the chime sound so I notice it again. The interval is adjustable. If I'm stuck scrolling social media, this often gives me the opportunity to stop. Doesn't always work though. I also have it turned off at night so I can sleep. This is a problem if I get stuck on social media at night when I should be sleeping. Instead, after bed time, I progressively dim the lights and screen to the point where I can barely read it. That's usually enough to let me fall asleep.
To avoid shorts/reels etc I use ScreenZen. I'm allowed to use all of YouTube and Instagram with no issues except for the short videos where I receive a special message that I can bypass but then my 100 days streak would be broken so... Yes I used my achievements addiction to force myself out of Reels/shorts.
Depending on how far gone you are it may not be enough but I found that this was great because it gave more control, for instance you can simply delete all shorts from the youtube interface iirc.
This might not work well for others, but a thing that's worked well for me has been to (basically) block cheap access to it with anticharities. Introducing friction in general is good
I also have this problem and tried many things over the years. Here are my conclusions:
Lately I'm using LeechBlock extension for FireFox on android. It's set up so that I have 3 overrides per day of 15 minutes each and usually after 15 minutes I'll concede it's enough and go do something else.
The extension broke down in the last update and my YT consumption spiked, showing that it's both effective and a crutch.
Things that have worked for me:
A thing I'm curious to try:
Firefox Focus on iPhone is useful here.
Delete all social media apps from your phone, and hide safari.
Only access any platforms via Firefox Focus - browsing sessions are ephemeral, so you need to login each time. This added friction basically solved it for me.
Tbh I struggle with this too, and also have ADD tendencies
Some people here have recommended complete abstinence, but that’s almost never worked for me.
I think a better strategy is mindful consumption. Eg
Also, if you find yourself doomscrolling a lot in bed, don’t keep your phone next to your bed. Keep it in your bag, or on the other side of the room, or outside your room.
Lastly try to cultivate better hobbies. I’ve managed to somewhat replace my YT consumption with LessWrong / Kindle consumption recently. It’s a noticeable improvement.
//This Comment contains references to self harm.
This idea is a little crazy, but... You could use a TAP that punishes you every time you open the app.
Trigger: I just clicked the Twitter Icon
Action: Bite my arm until it hurts
Biting is an example, But you could also:
I'd recommend reading the Hammer Time Sequence post on TAPS. Specifically, the part about setting a Yoda Timer and practicing it for 5 minutes.
I remember watching Youtube videos and thinking "This is the last video, I will quit after this". However, as soon as the video ends, my preferences would suddenly change to wanting to do one more!
Many of us understand this false dichotomy:
after the video endsat 3 amSo I would (sometimes) stop binging videos, but only if I quit mid-way through.
Then short-form videos wrecked me.
These (tik-toks/shorts/reels) have NO "middle of the video" to have a moment of reflection. I'm constantly in that "high preference for the next hit" state. The algorithms are optimized against me and they're only getting worse!
From social dark matter, if it's taboo to admit to some "problem", then you won't hear about how many people have that "problem"[1]
My shoddy estimate[2] tells me that:
- 1/2 people reading this "waste" 1.5 hrs/day on unendorsed hyper-stimuli
- 1/4 waste 3+ hrs/day
- 1/5 waste 4+ hrs/day
- 1/10 waste 5+ hrs/day
And it's embarassing to talk about! I'm only writing this post because I have been productive/non-binging these past 2 weeks.
Solutions are likely personal, but here's what worked for me.
Keeping electronics & chargers outside of bedroom
When I waste time, it's usually on my side, in bed w/ my phone up to 3am (or when my phone dies).
Turns out I can simply keep my charger outside my bedroom and hook it up at night. In it's place, I've been reading fun, hard-cover fiction books, like The Martian, which I really enjoyed and look forward to:)[3]
Since I've started associating laying down in bed w/ only going to sleep, I've gotten much better sleep (so unintuitive, right?)
You too could move your chargers outside your room, read fun books, and get great sleep!
Seeing a Psychiatrist
I think I might have ADD, so I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist with that ADHD-specialty advertised. I got an off-label prescription for Wellbutrin, which isn't an ADHD treatment (hence "off-label"), but has worked for me so far!
Other's on wellbutrin have said it doesn't help them w/ ADD specifically, but instead allowed starting better routines/habits, which is similar for me (see "Keeping electronics & chargers outside of bedroom")
Even if the effects wear off eventually, I do now have a psychiatrist to figure out a new solution. I predict I'll have found the medication that works for me in 5 months at worst, and I'm glad I started the process.
Take Vitamin D
It's currently winter and I don't get much sunshine, so I started taking vitamin D (w/ the wellbutrin, so unsure on the counterfactual).
Advice that previously worked for me
These are things I currently do which help or worked for a time but weren't sufficient.
Screen Time Passcodes that I don't Know
You can set app limits for your phone, such that you need to enter a passcode to add more time to[4], but I thought "but I'll know the passcode so I can just enter it".
But someone else can make the passcode instead (h/t to Thomas Kwa). Ideally this is someone you are in regular contact with (a partner/roommate) that can give you more time, but maybe it's embarassing because you told them you want to spend less time on it.
So I have a 5 min timer shared across instagram, youtube, X/twitter, & reddit.
A month of minimal social media usage
Alex Turner spent a month w/o social media based off of Digital Minimalism:
I did this back then and it was one of my most productive months! I do recommend reading the post if you intend to do so. You really do need good alternatives (e.g. reading books, calling friends, fun/exciting hobbies).
Just one cup of Coffee in the morning
If I drink coffee past 3pm, I have trouble falling asleep at 11pm.
Maybe Meditation?
Usually if I'm meditating 1+hrs/day, I can be quite productive and happy, but that's a lot! It also requires being skilled at it/not trying too hard, which is hard to explain.
I mention this because I signed up for that jhana Jhourney meditation retreat as a hedge in case other things don't work out for me. It's expensive though (like $1k-$3k), but a DYI version is close to these guided meditation sessions (which might require skills earlier in that guide) with a bigger emphasis on relaxing (e.g. laying down while meditating and being okay w/ napping) and even more playfulness/ experimentation.
New Year, New You
Hyperstimuli is bad and is just going to get worse. More people than you'd naively guess are affected by it due to selection effects, but I've succeeded (for 2 weeks, lol) and am much happier as a result.
I do jokingly tell my partner "New year; new me" when I choose to go to bed earlier. And you know, it is a new year, so feel free to use that as a good excuse to change your habits and live a better life.
I hope any of this advice is helpful for you, but I am also curious: how do you deal w/ super-stimuli?
"problem" in quotes because it's problematic relative to the current society (e.g. being gay was taboo in the US)
Most websites gave the average social media usage (for everyone in US) as 2 hrs 14 min But for children/teenagers, ~1/5 spend 3+ hours on tiktok alone. I sadly couldn't find a graph like above for adults and for all social media usage.
Extrapoloating, we could add an hour for other usage and subtract 30 min, assuming teenagers spend more time.
For me, the endorsed amount of short-form videos is 5 minutes and 1 hr for long form videos (if I'm watching it w/ someone).
Suppose everyone ideally wants 30 min/day, your avg person is spending 2 hours. Your top 20% is spending 3-4+ hours. Then 1/2 people reading this are "wasting" 1.5 hrs/day, 1/4 are wasting 3, 1/5 4, 1/10 5
I would recommend something funner/not too fun. I used to read meditation books, but those were too boring so there wasn't much incentive to go to bed early
on iPhones, you also have to select a button that makes the passcode required, otherwise you can just skip it. Who designed that?