Ask HN: How To Overcome Information Addiction?
I consider my information addiction as one of the top two personal problems that are holding me back in my life.
What are you doing to deal with this?
What are you doing to deal with this?
Your brain is a part of your body.
A person with an iron deficiency can feel compelled to chew ice[1]. Ice does not cures anemia, brains are weird parts of the body and do weird things when the body is not getting what it needs. So, get better sleep, food, and exercise. Prof Andrew Huberman has some good tips[2].
B. Decide what few things you really value and allocate your time to those on purpose.
If you find yourself repeatedly drawn to the news, maybe you are genuinely give a fuck about civic engagement. Your personality has a need for it. Trying to meet that need by scrolling twitter is like eating 3 bags of tortilla chips for dinner -- quick-access, but not healthy. If you be better off deciding that you value Mexican food, opening your calendar and honestly deciding to spend the time to learn to cook Mexican food.
Look for the virtue underneath your vice -- What information are you most drawn to and what healthy activities does it point towards?
Pick 3 and pursue those deeply.
Why 3? You can only honestly give a fuck about a few things[3], so that requires deciding to not do other reasonable fun activities. If shallow engagement with your interests has been your primary mode of procrastination, then honest and deep engagement might deceptively feel like a waste of time. That makes this hard. Why arbitrarily avoid those other things? You are choosing to be the arbiter of your time. Take pride in grappling with the fear of procrastination.
C. Set goals and expectations of yourself that you cannot be blocked from.
If you discover that you really do care about civic engagement but then decide it is your responsibility to end systemic racism, personally defend the US constitution, or protect your community from a terrorist attack, then no information will ever be enough to guarantee that. So, you'll struggle to respect any boundaries for yourself or your time. You'll again run into the same problems which lead it to feel like an addiction.
So be grateful for small wins and seek the wisdom to tell the difference between what you can and cannot change:
- Set broad themes[4] and intentions you can always return to even if you've had a bad week.
- Only attack obstacles that you can tell yourself a credible story of overcoming.
- Strive to accept that you will lack answers and cannot control the outcomes you want, but can still pursue it.
- Be grateful for the questions and the process of pursuit.
D. Build a healthier reward model.
Behaviour change is hard.
To be motivated move toward a non-habitual outcome, your brain needs to hear it is "on the right path". In AI, this is called a reward model[5]. In humans, it is a story ending in a rewarding outcome. One way to give your brain that story is by personal experience: Do something and hit a jackpot[6] of unexpectedly rewarding info.
However, humans are social creatures so social rewards are more rewarding and tell a more motivating story. So you want to be able to picture a friend encouraging you to go down a particular path. This is easier if you have an actual social relationship with a therapist or caring friend. Scheduling can be hard. https://calendly.com/ is useful.
However what directly matters is the narrative in your head, so a character from literature can inspire you as long as they feel real. For example: I grew up with stories of a carpenter who reminds me to measure twice and cut once, to build jigs and tool to be forgiving of human fallibility, and to be personally forgiving of the errors of myself and others. I still find myself powerfully motivated to strive to do so.
E. Find a hobby away from screens, ideally a physical activity in nature.
F. Use website-blocking tools like https://selfcontrolapp.com/ to make things easier.
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Two warnings: If you take my advice, you will have no permanent accomplishments[7] and you will die[8].
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficien...
[2] Prof Huberman on sleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1TxQj9IsQ
[3] A fuller answer to your question: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Subtle-Art-of-Not-Giving-a-...
[4] CGP Grey on why Themes are better than resolutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE
[5] Reward Modelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYylPRX6z4Q
[6] https://deepmind.com/blog/article/Dopamine-and-temporal-diff...