Have you tried putting your phone in "grayscale" mode? Works wonders for turning your smartphone back into a "tool" instead of a "toy".

I actually did try this for awhile, and it helped a bit. I tried several other methods as well, but none were really effective for me.

However, the thing that finally did the trick for me was something called "brick" (https://getbrick.app/). It's basically an nfc tag, that works with a tiny app that uses Apples screentime API to either allow/deny list specific apps or websites. Once "bricked" you have to physically scan the NFC tag device to unlock those apps/websites. I used it to block the things I found detrimental, but which were too difficult to completely remove from my life. Then I put the device in my car.

Keeping it in the car makes scanning it a bit of a chore. Which means I have time to stop and think about it on the way to the car. This forces me to make a conscious choice, rather than automatically reaching for the phone every time there's a dull moment.

I hear there's another similar device called Unpluq that has more features, and works on Android as well, but I think it comes with a subscription fee. Brick is more just a "thing you buy once".

Disabling or dialing back notifications for various apps also helps a bunch. I'm fine with a Slack popup notification, but I don't want a sound or vibration.

On Android I used to have an app that would just kill most notifications. If you got a notification, the app would put its own notification on the bar, and not turn the light on or ping you.

So even if I got 3 text messages, 2 missed calls, and other random notifications, the bar would show only one notification, and I would not get a sound/light. You'd have to click on it to see the actual notifications you missed.

You could, of course, have whitelists to let certain notifications through.

Best. App. Ever. It's great to be able to work or do whatever for hours, knowing that your phone can't interrupt you (unless someone calls, which they rarely do).

Sadly stopped working after some Android update. I'm sure there are similar apps, though.

At least apps have to ask permissions for notifications now, and you can deny it outright from the start. In years prior I remember trying to hack things with Tasker and extensions, but it's just not needed to nearly the same degree now.

And if the app is good, it will categorize it's notification types in a user-centric way and allow you to enable only specific categories.

That doesn’t do much about the “echo” problem that the article is pointing out, it only affects the “direct” distraction.

I've never been able to type on a touch screen as efficiently as my blackberry 9000 keyboard. RIP

I understand the point you're trying to make, but this entire thread misses the forest for the trees. Rules & regulations don't exist to create equality or fairness, it's to foster competition. We don't watch competitions for how equal and fair they are. By separating competition by gender, we have increased the opportunities to witness competitiveness. How, going forward, can we maximize that metric? That will be the future of sport.

Might it be overly generous to attribute these outcomes to recent actions by people in these instituions vs. the USD still being the world reserve currency?

The Fed deserves a lot of the credit.

Biden deserves credit for not screwing things up. "First do no harm", "a steady hand at the tiller". Trump has promised to meddle a lot more -- massive border tariffs, taking political control of the Fed, taking political control of the bureaucracy, etc.

It's sad that not screwing things up is high praise, but it is.

You also, perhaps intentionally, described all of motorsports.

Life before death brother.

You may be thinking of the Stormfather?

Journey before destination, Radiant.

> We really don’t like solid foundations do we.

Isn't it all built (run?) on sand?

1 week: no planning, just reaction

2 weeks: minimal planning effort, not a long enough period to agitate stakeholders when you say "next sprint"

4 weeks: it's MY request and I NEED IT NOW!

> Mostly you look at things for what "they are" or "how they look" but not "how they work" or "their potential uses"

Say more. I feel I'm the exact opposite if I understand you correctly.

The actual quote, from the OP, is "Pirsig proposes that to become expert at keeping anything in good repair, you need to understand it in two ways—how it works and how it’s made"

This seems intuitively sensible for mechanical / physical objects, although I'm not sure how well it applies where the broken thing is software, with deep complexity and multiple layers of abstraction.

I read the book long before I went to work in tech. In my mind, it really helps with troubleshooting software issues as I feel better qualified to "fix the thing that's wrong" if I have a complete understanding of all the moving parts. So many people i work with freeze if a restart doesn't work. They don't consider at all the overall design of "the thing"

I think the more macro point is that these are all different, equally valid, and differentially useful ways to slice the world. It's good to have a lot of different ways to slice the universe and to use them consciously and explicitly for what they're each good at.

I.e. ontologies exist in consciousnesses, not in the universe, and they're really powerful tools

That sounds like an argument for banning WhatsApp in favor of transparency...

> The UK government will never pass legislation to increase transparency to their own conduct (I doubt any government would)

Lots of governments do.

Can you share more? I'm interested in both success stories and failed attempts.

The whole set of overlapping classes of “freedom of information”, “open meeting”, and “sunshine”/“digital sunshine” laws are all laws adopted by various jurisdictions directed at the transparency of government operations and official conduct within certain bounds.