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Comment by bheadmaster | Hacker News Reader

My worst productivity killer is getting into an argument early in the morning with someone on HN or a similar site. Even if I stop visiting the site, my mind keeps thinking about the argument for a couple of hours instead of whatever it is supposed to do.

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The two things that help are a) if it isn't too deep, like 4 nested comment threads deep on a three day old thread, then someone may chime in while I'm away and make a similar enough point that when I come back later, I don't anything to say/add, and b) even if no one does say anything, readers aren't dumb. if I say water is wet, but someone responds, calling me an an idiot and that water isn't wet. even if no one chimes in to further respond yes it is and here's why, readers can determine for themselves and decide water is or isn't wet.

“Am I arguing with someone I do not know?”

Asking myself that question when I reply to someone who replied to me helps cut that off.

I also picture that meme-ably smug fellow sitting behind a card table with some provoking statement, and the sentence “Prove me wrong.” No, I don’t owe you my time and energy to try changing a mind not interested in changing, but in attracting attention.

"Arguing on Hacker News isn't real arguing. Prove me wrong." (sips coffee cup)

I wish I didn’t identify completely with this comment.

NO IT ISN'T YOU FOOL! ;)

Reminds me of the good old XKCD, "someone is wrong on the internet!" [0]. I also enjoy commenting here and in other places, but lately I've been tapering back, and it's nice waking up without notifications from anyone telling you you're wrong. :)

[0] https://xkcd.com/386/

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