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Comment by navs | Hacker News Reader

This may sound silly but I think I have my first Macbook to thank for removing me from the world of addictive gaming.

If I wasn't gaming, I was reading or watching movies. Like the person in this article, I would ignore friends and largely spent much of my childhood and teenage years alone. It's hurt my ability to relate and converse with people. I don't know if it's the main reason for my depression and social anxiety diagnosis but there does seem to be a correlation if not causation.

I ultimately stopped my serious gaming when I moved completely into the Apple ecosystem. Nothing ran well and those that did weren't in the genre I was interested in. It was a roadblock.

That didn't do anything for the other aspects of internet consumption (which I'm still working on) but one down, a few more to go.

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> That didn't do anything for the other aspects of internet consumption (which I'm still working on)

Have you considered getting internet service from CenturyLink?

This is a nice subtle side effect of owning Apple.

- non tech friends stop asking you for tech advice once you have a MacBook because people assume you're dumb as a door knob carrying apple products.

- you rarely from them once you advise someone to buy an apple product because things generally work in the ecosystem.

And let's not forget that Apple premium leaving you with little more left to spend.

No doubt. Current price increases may be unsustainable.

Only extremely competitive insecure gadget geeks think only dummies use Apple.

I used Windows + Linux heavily until Vista came out and it forced me to Apple to run XP, ironically.

The most popular Apple devices, iPhone + iPad are designed for the average user in the masses first, and not the power user. One is a much larger group of sales.

Most of the non-tech people I know with an iPhone do so because "it just works" and they "aren't very good with tech". A lot of these users buy an Apple laptop for an overpriced but reliable web browser, again for ease of use and not being a power user, and not having to fight with a historical windows OS that will slow to a crawl.

It's the same people that before an iPhone would have a window laptop and always be asking for help with it. I think a segment of these users are being well served by chromebooks too.

Also, my strategy for progressive change in habits is to make a simple pair of lists, which I call “do(s)” and “don’t(s)”. Every day just focus on avoiding the don’ts. If time allows and you are willing, do a do, so to speak. After ~8 months (anecdotal) you will kick the bad habits and hopefully replace them with better ones.

I've been attempting to do this by weening myself off onto Linux dual booting so I can get more things done. Unfortunately I find so many issues with UI/UX that I just get tired of looking at it and fiddling with countless distributions. I never considered a Mac for the same purpose.

The most productive I've ever been was when I had a junk HP laptop with only Arch and no internet at home.

I switched to linux in 2010 for this reason. Removed my dual boot this year. Unfortunately curiosity and boredom got the better of me and I was able to get Star Craft 2 running in wine recently.

Hm, I guess games don’t work that well without a graphics card? On a desktop computer you could physically remove it so you’d have to plug it back in when you want to play games.

Funny thread of comments with all the ways people go about things! Here’s one, perhaps: do nothing. Set a timer on your phone, then just lie down and close your eyes and do nothing until the timer is over. Could even satisfy your information desires by mulling over old information to think of new things or remembering forgotten information!

I have some bad news for you then...

Valve has made it easier than ever to run some Windows-only games on Linux with Steam Play, which uses a special version of Wine with better graphics support.

It has been hit-or-miss for me when I wander off of the pre-approved game list, but it does make it easier.

I can totally see that. Once I went to college, I stopped watching TV because my roommate and I were both too lazy to get one for the dorm room. I haven’t had cable since (5 years later).

I had the same experience. I got badly into League of Legends in 2009 and don’t think I’d have weaned myself off of it as quickly if I didn’t buy a used MBP in 2010.

God, my roommate punched a hole in our wall when he lost once back in college. That’s the behavior of an addict, I assume. Then of course he paid our greedy landlord who demanded the whole apt be repainted.

I got into League of Legends pretty bad as well. Unfortunately for me, the MacBook Air I got in 2013 ran the game on low settings perfectly in OSX.

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