I've been thinking about this lately, too. A long time ago, I spent almost no time on the internet, because there wasn't really much of an internet to speak of. Instead, I wrote code. Lots, and lots, and lots of code. Some of it in assembly; some of it, even, in hex, with tons of printed pages of processor instructions in front of me.
Feats like that required a level of concentration that I find almost impossible to achieve today. I've developed a tic: write a line of code, check a news site; write another line of code, check email; write another line of code, check a social site.
I can't even call it procrastination anymore. It's something far more insidious. I'm fighting it, but the fight itself requires a nearly exhausting amount of effort.
It's got all the hallmarks of an addiction -- a psychological one, rather than a chemical one, maybe. The trouble is, with many addictive substances, completely avoiding them is a reasonable solution. With the internet, looking up a function reference or even testing and uploading a piece of code can lead too easily to diversions; it's difficult to separate necessary things from distractions and impractical to avoid it altogether.
I hate it. I've tried many of the tricks that people suggest, but the simple fact is, a significant part of my personality would rather mindlessly browse the internet instead of focusing intently for a long enough period of time to do something productive.
> This leads me to believe that the ideas we have reflect the kind of world we live in.
I think this is insightful. I somehow never managed to lose track of my childhood dreams, but instead I'm constantly preventing myself from accomplishing them.
Good luck on your internet diet. If you manage to stick with it for a full month, you're a better person than I am.
I can relate to the <write line of code> and immediately switch to Twitter, email, etc. In fact, this is me right now!
However when I'm working on something truly interesting and challenging, all the distractions vanish. Tweets go unread, emails unanswered, RSS ignored. Unfortunately that state has become a lot more rare lately as I slug away on uninteresting parts of the project and my mind wanders to new ideas I don't have time or opportunity to play with.
I do think that when I was younger it was easier to be utterly immersed in a project because the whole thing was still new and challenging. Now some of the stuff I used to spend hours or days or weeks toiling away with intense concentration feel like.. busy work. It feels like I shouldn't have to program in assembly anymore and that it's tedious. It feels like I shouldn't have to implement yet another <insert data structure or process>. The act of implementing a lot of the small pieces are no longer interesting and instead I just want to get on to the large scale interesting bits, but it can seem that there's so much boilerplate and cruft in the way...
Perhaps you don't like what you're working on enough? I am generally in the same boat as you, constantly interrupted by the need for an easy information stimulus. But I have noticed that when I work on something that I truly and deeply love, then the allure of everything else fades and those "let me just check HN" thoughts are disspelled because that thing I am working on is so goddamn cool.
We all like to hack on stuff, but often our projects are a marriage of convenience between the love of hacking and some project idea that makes business sense. It is in these cases I have found there are often some very tough uphill climbs where the mind constantly tries to escape to more rewarding things. If you are smart and lucky enough to find something that is just so sock-rocking cool that you can't not think about it every waking minute, then I think your complaint would soon be that the only thing you ever want to do is work on your project :)
You are almost entirely correct. I had severe internet addiction (or so i thought) when I was working at this web dev sweat shop. I found it nearly impossible to concentrate, I was on the internet more than I was concentrating on work. One day I did an experiment. I downloaded the database, and setup my computer to work completely unplugged from the network. I was completely off the grid. Yet I still could not get work done. I would stare at the code, not really caring about it.
I found, I wasn't going to the internet because I loved the internet. I was going to the internet because I no longer had ANY interest in my work.
I quit shortly after that, my new job is extremely interesting, and my web usage has minimized severely.
I have felt the same way for a while now and upon reflection I realized that one purchase in my past had pushed me over the top in my addiction: a laptop in 2006.
I was liberated from my desk to do creative things. Think of all the beautiful places I could take may new laptop and feel the juices flowing. The world was my oyster!
Instead, I just looked at crap on the Internet from all those places. I could sit on the couch and have the Internet. I could sit outside and have the Internet. The laptop led to an iPhone. The iPhone led to the Internet while standing in line. The Internet in the car...
I still flirt with the constant idea of selling that laptop, selling that iPhone and seeing what happens. But alas all I do is flirt; I just bought a new laptop last month.
I wouldn't be, because dealing with a console all day drives me up the wall. For me, it's an utterly miserable way to work--this is the future, we have these things called "mice" and "overlapping Windows" and "text editors that don't expect you to have a modal brain or memorize three-modifier shortcuts."
I just unplug from the Internet, and have my reference materials in hardcopy or sitting on my hard drive (the complete Java and .NET references are in local storage, for example). It's not hard to do, it just takes a bit of self-discipline.
Tiling windows do not cause more mental overhead--for me. I've used awesome on my Linux machines and decided to tube it because it gave me nothing. A laptop, for example, does not have sufficient screen space to allow me to effectively tile most applications.
This faux-authoritative bullshit that infests any comments about Unix really should stop. Again: for me, tiling window managers are not pleasant or comfortable and they don't work in two of the three environments in which I work anyway. Maybe not for you, but for me. I said for me in my original post, and you come along and tell me that I'm wrong about my own experiences? Believe me, you're free to show yourself out instead of trying to correct me about personal preferences--don't let the door hit you on the way out.
> but the simple fact is, a significant part of my personality would rather mindlessly browse the internet instead of focusing intently for a long enough period of time to do something productive.
Perhaps OT, but I've come to the conclusion that this is a modern form of gluttony: We are feeding ourselves far beyond the point of nourishment.
The most successful technique I've found to fight my own periodic recalcitrance is to get enough sleep. Seriously, being even a little tired weakens my focus so much.
The second is, when I'm having very bad days, I will try and recognize that and bust out the Pomodoro method. In general I don't need it, but I've worked with it a bunch and it's "just 10 more minutes" philosophy and ever-ticking-timer help me play a carrot-stick game when I'm otherwise unable to get a good cognitive state going.
I can relate. For the last five months I have finally been committed to working full time on the idea that has been ruminating in the back of my mind for the last 10 years.
My time is spent in front of the computer doing research and writing code, and lately I have noticed that "insidious" thing too. Hacker News has become the biggest culprit so last week I enabled noprocrast mode for the first time. I was noticeably more productive.
However, even with it enabled I found myself habitually clicking on HN during context shifts -- evidently it is now wired in as a conditioned response (having it on my Chrome start page is probably one of the triggers).
Whatever it is, it's definitely noticeable and not something easily avoided because of the entanglement issue. This weekend I deactivated noprocrast to do some casual browsing and didn't turn it back on -- I probably should switch it back :)
I agree the tic you mention can be a serious problem. Here's how I dealt with it: no DSL/cable internet connection to my apartment for 6 months. Looking up technical questions on Stackoverflow was done via iPhone 3G connection (to the phone only, no tethering). Email and IM were also done via the phone.
During this time I created iOS apps. When I needed an internet connection (to download open-source code etc) I would go to a cafe, library or friend's place.
This solution is extreme. It certainly won't work for everyone (or most people for that matter). However it worked well for me so I though I'd share it.
Feats like that required a level of concentration that I find almost impossible to achieve today. I've developed a tic: write a line of code, check a news site; write another line of code, check email; write another line of code, check a social site.
I can't even call it procrastination anymore. It's something far more insidious. I'm fighting it, but the fight itself requires a nearly exhausting amount of effort.
It's got all the hallmarks of an addiction -- a psychological one, rather than a chemical one, maybe. The trouble is, with many addictive substances, completely avoiding them is a reasonable solution. With the internet, looking up a function reference or even testing and uploading a piece of code can lead too easily to diversions; it's difficult to separate necessary things from distractions and impractical to avoid it altogether.
I hate it. I've tried many of the tricks that people suggest, but the simple fact is, a significant part of my personality would rather mindlessly browse the internet instead of focusing intently for a long enough period of time to do something productive.
> This leads me to believe that the ideas we have reflect the kind of world we live in.
I think this is insightful. I somehow never managed to lose track of my childhood dreams, but instead I'm constantly preventing myself from accomplishing them.
Good luck on your internet diet. If you manage to stick with it for a full month, you're a better person than I am.