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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.




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