What is hard about things like this is it ultimately boils down to self control.
Sure, by creating the friction tunnel, you are less likely to get distracted online, which makes self control easier.
But the thing is we are smart and computers are fast; meaning most software-based friction tunnels are quick to undo.
I did something similar to what the OP described by solely using the Mullvad Browser, which is in permanent incognito mode.
The moment this introduced friction in some nuanced way that I had not foreseen, I just switched back to my main browser as I could not think of a way to handle this edge case.
For me at least I think the friction tunnel needs to be inherently physical. Using an old computer (with a new one not in the same room) is a much better friction tunnel than changing your browser.
Another thought is that the friction should be inherently enjoyable. Another person gives the example of an extension that adds 10 seconds to the load time of Youtube videos. This would be a great time to take a breath, clear the mind, think of priorities, and decide if the youtube video is worth watching.
If that 10 second moment of mental space and clarity becomes enjoyable, then you will not want to reverse the friction. The author's point here is that people often add /too much/ friction.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36330900
I propose that the right amount of friction requires an amount of self control that is enjoyable and refreshing - ie, only a /very small/ amount of self control can ever be sustainable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36330900
> What is hard about things like this is it ultimately boils down to self control.
Only because society has allowed for the pervasive adoption and exploiting of persuasive technologies. It's like being in a casino, or having a casino in your pocket, 24 hours/day. Reign in some the extremes of persuasive technologies used in social media and distracting software, and we give people back their own wills.
The real answer to these kinds of problems is that there is no ONE effective solution, and to really tackle you must combine various strategies. Self control is definitely useful but if you depend on it solely you will eventually fail.
> What is hard about things like this is it ultimately boils down to self control.
I'd recommend the research of Wendy Wood, a psychologist who studies habit. The tl;dr here is that willpower doesn't actually have much impact. There's an episode of the podcast Hidden Brain[0] which features her, and I think this soundbite is a pretty good encapsulation of the ideas behind her research:
WOOD: They found that - contrary to all of our expectations, that people who are high achievers, who we think of as having good willpower, good self-control, they didn't actually experience many temptations. They weren't conflicted by having lots of desires that were inappropriate and things they didn't want to do. That was the people who were low in self-control, the people who weren't that successful at achieving their goals in life.
VEDANTAM: In other words, this is not a case of people who have, you know, cake in the refrigerator and are very good at resisting opening the refrigerator to eat the cake. These are just people who don't have cake in the refrigerator.
WOOD: Exactly. Or if they do, they don't see it. (Laughter) They have coded that as, OK, that's my kids' cake. I don't eat that. I eat the fruit, and I like the fruit.
First off, thank you for the resource, I'll dig into Wood's research + checkout this specific podcast.
I think what would be interesting to study (and is likely covered by Wood outside of this soundbite) is not the steady state of someone with good self-control, but the transition period to having good self-control.
I've been using this extension called "Crackbook Revival" which allows you to set timers upon visiting certain websites, in a certain time range like 9-5. I have it setup on Reddit and Youtube to do a 10 second delay before loading the webpage.
I think one of the important tricks to using friction productively is to not use it too aggressively. A lot of people get started on this idea, but they almost instantly find themselves turning the friction back off because it's too much. For example, staying logged out of every website all of the time sounds like way too much friction for me, but Crackbook works because if I really want to watch a Youtube video, waiting 10 seconds really isn't all that long.
More research on what types of friction work, and what types of friction don't work would be extremely useful.
I've been using the "LeechBlock" extension on Firefox mobile in the same way. I find it works well for sites like (ironically) Hacker News, where I get diminishing returns for browsing more in the same day.
On the flip side, reducing friction is also important. I practice my saxophone a lot more than my piano, partly because the sax lives a few feet behind my desk and the piano is down the hallway in the living room.
It's a good idea, but one problem I have with it is that it doesn't distinguish between visiting a website by typing in its address, and clicking on links within that website. I want to be interrupted when I type in "n" and hit enter in the addressbar to get to "news.ycombinator.com", but not every time I click on a link to the comments of an article.
Considering the number of articles about productivity, overcoming procrastination, and finishing projects that have surfaced on Hacker News recently, it seems like June isn't going too well for many of us :D
I think there‘s a confusion of cause and effect going on. If I don’t want to or can’t get stuff done (usually because I‘m too tired), I procrastinate with things that are low friction. OTOH, if I‘m well (enough sleep etc), I find it easy to take on more demanding tasks.
This reads like content farm content.
- Hard to read
- Low information density
- Bad visual design
On the topic of the article, there are much better ways to do this. Getting things done is simply breaking dysfunctional habits/triggers/emotions around working and building better ones.
> simply breaking dysfunctional habits/triggers/emotions
As somebody who's experienced burnout and (kinda) recovered I can assure you that this is only as simple as being other people's problems: you don't need to do their work; you're sitting in an armchair, so of course it feels easy.
Sounds like a friction tunnel for reading.
I wonder if there A/B tests that found the large font size to be better
Not to be pedantic but there is nuance: A frictionless tunnel is better for getting shit done. Know the difference.
Adding friction to the things you're not trying to do is the whole part of the article. You're creating tunnel "walls" of friction to make it so traveling down the tunnel is the most straightforward action.
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