Passive consumption and addiction/distraction policies
Previously at: https://wild-quit-ebe.notion.site/Passive-consumption-and-addiction-distraction-policies-e9467e7d3d2b479a8847f2da6c70063d
If something is worth doing at all, it is worth doing with full engagement.
I want to be alive and conscious and engaged with the world as much and as often as I can be. Whatever I’m doing, I want to be doing it seriously, with my full attention and presence.
But I can definitely get into a mode that is much more myopic than that, which I’m following second-level dopamine impulses seeking stimulation, even though that’s neither rewarding nor satisfying, only reinforced. Sometimes for hours at a time. Or alternatively, I can fall into mode of passively consuming material in a shallow way, low-effort way, that doesn’t result in new thoughts or in real learning.
So I to make an explicit point not to do that.
With a combination of intentional practice and external systems, I aim to set up my life so that I’m spending a minimal amount of time reading or doing anything in a shallow way, and to push myself towards full engagement instead.
Part of this is active. And I use a variety of strategies and habits to induce active thinking, in places where I could fall into patterns of more or less unreflective consumption.
Part of that is just straight up avoiding, or setting careful limits around, the kinds of dopamine loops that are reinforcing but not rewarding or productive.
When I notice the impulse to check one of those addiction-distractions, I treat it as a mindfulness practice. I notice the urge, and then let it go, explicitly enjoying my own sovereignty.
Distraction as a flag
When I’m in the rhythm of it, this is actually pretty easy. Just like once you’re in the habit of eating well, eating junk food is pretty unappealing, once I’m in the habit of full engagement with material worth engaging with, the impulse to check the dopamine-addictive stuff fades.
So when I notice myself reaching for a distraction this is a flag for me. It usually means one of three things.
- I’m experiencing an aversion, anxiety, or agitation, and some part of me is trying to distract / pacify myself.
- I’m bouncing off of an ambiguity aversion.
- I’m cognitively tried or sleepy.
Aversion, Anxiety, Agitation
I’m actually not sure what the right thing to do is. Probably remember my feet, and do a few cycles of resonance frequency breathing. And then in short order make some time to do a full focusing session to draw out and dialog with whatever is bothering me, and get to a place where nothing is energetically stuck.
If I’m spending a lot of time on dopamine-loop distractions, it’s almost always because I have something emotional unhandled that I’m avoiding, and maybe don’t know how to deal with. (If I knew how to deal with it, I wouldn’t be as inclined to avoid it.)
Ambiguity aversion
In response to ambiguity aversion, I want to clarify the ambiguity.
- “What’s the next step here?”
- “What’s the tiniest next step to take here?”
- “What’s currently blocking me?”
- “What are some things that I could try?”
Tired
If I’m just feeling slow and tired (possibly because it’s around the time of my circadian dip), I should go take a nap [link to nap protocol].
If I’m feeling brain-fried, which is a distinct feeling, I should either go exercise, or lie down with my eyes closed, or go and sing.
Specific (potential) addiction-distractions and policies for them
LessWrong, blogs
I can read LessWrong basically whenever I want, but I always have a notes pane open in parallel. I want to be having new thoughts while I read, not just running my eyes over words, dimly hoping for the dopamine hit of easy faux insight. So I force myself to write something, even just one sentence, about every post that I read.
This applies generally to blogs. Reading with full engagement, in a way that causes me to have new thoughts, or to change my beliefs or leave me with memories, is great. Semi-mindlessly skimming material, and skipping over any parts that are kind of hard to parse is not very valuable. (Though it's not completely worthless, some of that will stick with me for a few days, and those memories might be cued by something else.) Forcing myself to write something about everything that I read pushes me towards the first mode.
If I’m too tired or lazy and I don’t want to take notes, or I’m bouncing off of semi-high-effort reading into looking at random memes, that means that I should go take a nap instead.
Podcasts and audiobooks
I do sometimes want to listen to podcasts, but only when I’m giving my full attention to listening and thinking about them. It’s usually low value to listen to audio in the background while I’m doing other things—not much of the content actually sticks with me.
It often doesn’t seem that bad, in the moment, to listen casually to audio, but it’s dangerous because it’s addictive. I’ll start listening to something while I walk home, thinking that I can’t do much else right then, so I might as well listen to something. But then when I get home, and I could be doing something else with my time, I’m tempted to keep walking and listening to finish the chapter / podcast / audiobook.
And more than that, I get addicted to the constant stimulation, so that I find myself and find myself reaching for audio content during empty moments, even when there’s not something in particular that I’m interested in listening to. I’m just seeking the dopamine hit of low-effort interestingness.
So I don’t listen to podcasts or audiobooks unless that is the explicit activity that I’m engaged in: I’m tracking it in toggl and I’m taking notes.
I used to use custom workflow and a software chain to record notes on the material that was listening to, and then review and process the transcript later. This allowed me to listen and take notes while walking outside, which I liked. But it was overall too inefficient to be worth it, and so now I only listen to stuff while sitting or standing, taking notes on my laptop.
If I don’t feel like taking notes, that means, I’m not actually planning or expecting to get much out of listening to it, and that I should go take a nap instead (or sometimes, I prefer to push myself to take notes anyway, even if I’m not quite feeling it). And most importantly, listing to audio passively, is investing in and reinforcing a habit of reaching for stimulation in down moments, which doesn’t serve me in the long run.
I've deleted the podcast and audiobook apps on my phone to preempt the distractions.
Nothing is so time-sucking for me as twitter. It can eat hours of my life and I feel terrible afterwards: reactive and antsy.
I’ve blocked twitter on my main laptop. I can write to twitter from my main machine, using the twitter API and tools like Typefully.
I have a separate distraction laptop that I use for visiting the twitter site. I keep that laptop at the house of some friends of mine, about a 7 minute walk from where I live. This creates an activation energy barrier. I can check twitter, but I can’t impulsively and instantly check twitter. And it means that if I’m checking twitter I’m more likely to have some in-person interaction with my friends as well.
I also have a rule that I don’t check twitter until I’ve finished my core daily things for the day: shipped something, exercised, completed my daily anki review, and reviewed my notes.
(Note: I need a TAP for checking my daily things before checking twitter).
Also, before I use my twitter laptop, I send an email to a google group containing some friends of mine, saying what I’m planning to use it for, and for how long. I send a follow up email reporting what actually happened, when I finish.
My distraction laptop is set up with Intention, so I don’t spend more than an hour in total on distracting sites, and news feed eradicator, which blocks the twitter feed.
Every week or so, I’ll walk over to the group house and check my twitter messages, and check a few specific profiles (mostly @ESYudkowsky).
I do subscribe to some twitter people via threadreader, which is a much better reader experience for me. When threads of theirs are added, I’ll read them (only sometimes taking notes).
When I want to read a particular tweet or tweet thread, I can copy it and view it on threadreader.
Youtube and other video
I’ve blocked YouTube. I can watch YouTube videos, but I don't go to YouTube, to do it, which is cluttered with enticements to watch more videos that might or might not serve me. If there's a particular video that I want to watch for specific reasons, I can do that by copying the url into video.link or safeshare.
Webcomics
I’ve blocked xkcd, smbc, and abstruse goose.
If I notice that I’m spending a lot of time on a webcomic, I’ll block that one too.
Reddit, Quora
I sometimes want to look at reddit pages to find the answer to questions that I’m trying to resolve. But also there are subreddits that are infinity pools of low value distraction.
Same with Quora.
I’ve set up both with Intention, limiting my engagement to an hour a day.
I’ve blocked the facebook newsfeed with newsfeed eradicator, and set it up with intention. I’ll periodically go to read the content on Duncan Sabien’s and Eliezer Yudkowsky’s pages.
I do some deliberate practice, every few months, of going to facebook to get some specific information, while ignoring and not clicking on the notifications of new content.
I’ve blocked pinterest.
Mint, Coinbase, Fidelity, Wealthfront
I sometimes get distracted idly looking at my finances, when I don’t have to do anything with them. Especially when my investments are doing well, it’s fun to see the graphs go up.
So every time I visit one of the websites that tracks my finances, I set a 5 minute timer and remind myself that I’m going to close the window when the timer rings first. Then when the timer rings, I close the window. (I did a few cycles of intentional practice to engrain this habit.)
I’ve set up an automated email to remind me to rebalance my portfolio. I only log into fidelity when I get one of those emails, or if I’ve decided to buy a specific stock.
I’ve likewise set up an automated email to remind me to move money from my personal development fund to my checking account, to cover expenses from the past month.
I’ve blocked email on my phone.
I usually don’t look at my emails unless I’m ready to sit down and process it with committed engagement, deciding how to respond to each message and responding, not putting any of it till later. I have Inbox When Ready set up for gmail on my laptop, so that I easily send an email without needing to catch a distracting glimpse of my inbox.
Porn / masturbation
My current policy is that I’m allowed to masturbate using static image porn, but not video porn. This requires me to mostly be relying on my internal fantasies (often informed by images).
There’s a way that I can kind of force myself to ejaculate to video porn, even when my body is not really needing or hungry for that, which leaves me feeling sick and depleted, but there’s a lot less of that effect from my own fantasies and images.
Comic books
I’ve put all the graphic novels I own in boxes under my bed where they’re not visible most of the time, so that I don’t slide into reading them when I would be better off napping.