My ideas are shitty so I’m going on an internet diet

Aug 17 2011 Tags: , ,

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Lately we have seen a plague of Next Better Widget ™ startups and bright minds all over the world solving frivolous problems that ultimately contribute nothing to the betterment of humanity as a whole. There are a bunch of people out there right now solving #firstworldproblems.

A waste of talent!

By being in the same boat I feel like I am betraying my ten year old self who had much bigger plans for me. His ideas on what sort of problems I should be solving was much worthier than what I  have actually turned out to be working on.

The main difference between my ten year old self and me is the internet.

Back then I didn’t have it, or rather what I did have was at a friend’s house on a dial-up line if I asked really nicely. Sometimes even at the library!

The ideas I had back then might not have been world changing, or they might have been, it’s hard to say, but the ideas I have right now certainly don’t seem as grand.

This leads me to believe that the ideas we have reflect the kind of world we live in.

Spending a lot of time on the internet makes us see the problems that exist there. And they look like big important problems. But really, when you take a step or two back, they’re pretty lame ideas that are almost a waste of time to have anyone working on.

Thus I have decided to go offline for a month, starting tomorrow.

But because going completely dark would devastate my life, probably make it stop dead (how unlike an addict eh?), I am going to set some ground rules that won’t ban the internet completely; just make it a bit … less.

  • as a coding reference, the internet is ok
  • wikipedia is alright, but keep it down
  • I will continue writing my blog
  • using 750words.com every morning is good
  • there will be at most an hour every evening of HN/fb/twitter/email
  • if something absolutely spectacular happens you are allowed to tweet, no reading outside the hour!
  • checking in to foursquare is questionable … perhaps ban it?
  • skype is ok

To mak sure my slight addiction doesn’t get in the way I will likely use an /etc/hosts hack and make sure facebook.com and similar don’t load outside the allotted hour a day and I will turn off push notifications on everything on my phone. But I will try to rough it at first.

Right now I have no idea how this experiment will pan out. Most likely I’ll keep finding some sort of excuse for not doing it or I will break down in tears and cry in a fetal position in the corner. I might even start reading proper books again! That would be awesome.

Hopefully by the end of the 30 days I will have a less polluted perspective in the world.

Wish me luck!

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39 responses so far

  • http://twitter.com/gasper_k Gašper Kozak

    Good luck! :)

    Although I would allow you to tweet, an hour daily is missing its point. Except if you split that hour through the day.

  • http://finbarrtaylor.com/ Finbarr Taylor

    Yea so with all that time you have allocated to the internet, it seems like you are still going to be spending 20 – 30% of your waking hours online.

  • http://twitter.com/ian_goodall Ian Goodall

    Good luck. You are certainly going to need it. If I even tried to do without the internet for a weekend I think I would have a breakdown :D

  • Night

    +1

  • Homer

    If you use Firefox, you could use LeechBlock to block pages for you during set windows

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/

  • http://twitter.com/aledalgrande Alessandro DalGrande

    If you need perspective, just go to Kenya where there is a famine now. Then you can use Internet as much as you want.

  • Duber

    What you consider the minum is way too much in my opinion. You should, at most, use the wikipedia if you really need it. Other than that you should be perfectly fine.

    You sir are way too addticted to internet superfluous tools.

  • Duber

    What you consider the minum is way too much in my opinion. You should, at most, use the wikipedia if you really need it. Other than that you should be perfectly fine.

    You sir are way too addticted to internet superfluous tools.

  • http://twitter.com/esl_schools ESL Schools

    > Go offline for a month

    > Go on skype, twitter, blog, wikipedia, foursquare

    WTF

  • http://twitter.com/esl_schools ESL Schools

    > Go offline for a month

    > Go on skype, twitter, blog, wikipedia, foursquare

    WTF

  • GR9

    Lose HN, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook.  Trust me, I’ve been there. You will have no creativity and world changing abilities until you cut these huge time sinks + negativity sources + external NOISE. Even an hour a day is too much.

  • GR9

    Lose HN, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook.  Trust me, I’ve been there. You will have no creativity and world changing abilities until you cut these huge time sinks + negativity sources + external NOISE. Even an hour a day is too much.

  • http://www.affenstunde.com James Barnes

    Good luck but yeah, forget HN, Twitter and Skype – quit everything that encourages you to write anything less than longform…like…er…comments on blogs

  • http://www.affenstunde.com James Barnes

    Good luck but yeah, forget HN, Twitter and Skype – quit everything that encourages you to write anything less than longform…like…er…comments on blogs

  • Anonymous

    Good luck but it might not work but u got to try not?, I’ve blame television and work long hours for what U said and slim some addictive habits down. None of it helped but I discovered something of my old self and that I try to regain back good luck finding yours.

  • R Tuna

    So you intend to “go offline for a month” while still accessing numerous websites, maintaining daily updates to your blog, using Skype and Wikipedia, etc… Something of an odd definition of ‘offline’.

    Why not do it for real? No Internet for a month. Keep a paper diary or journal. Send postcards to your friends. Make telephone calls. If you want to look something up, consult a library, etc.

  • R Tuna

    So you intend to “go offline for a month” while still accessing numerous websites, maintaining daily updates to your blog, using Skype and Wikipedia, etc… Something of an odd definition of ‘offline’.

    Why not do it for real? No Internet for a month. Keep a paper diary or journal. Send postcards to your friends. Make telephone calls. If you want to look something up, consult a library, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/anzeznidarsic Anze Znidarsic

    Awful.. in days of dial-up I was happy with 1 hour a day. It was luxury and in that hour single music file didn’t transfer through IRC.. :)

    Our kids will never know how hard our lives were. Before “Always-On” days :)

  • Charzilla

    I’ve decided to quit alcohol. But let me set some ground rules:
    - it’s okay to look at all the labels I want.
    - using diluted vodka a morning mouth rinse is a good thing!- there will be almost an hour every evening of jack, woodford reserve, and stoli’s
    - if some politician comes on tv and there is a drinking game for him or her, you are allowed to drink per the rules of that game
    - moonshine is questionable… ban it?
    - beer is ok

  • Charzilla

    I’ve decided to quit alcohol. But let me set some ground rules:
    - it’s okay to look at all the labels I want.
    - using diluted vodka a morning mouth rinse is a good thing!- there will be almost an hour every evening of jack, woodford reserve, and stoli’s
    - if some politician comes on tv and there is a drinking game for him or her, you are allowed to drink per the rules of that game
    - moonshine is questionable… ban it?
    - beer is ok

  • http://yoavgivati.com Yoav Givati

    I set rules for myself like this frequently. Usually works for a couple days until the freshness wears off and I slip into old habits. If you find yourself justifying deviation from the rules that’s the breaking point, if you deviate even a bit it’s all over.

  • http://yoavgivati.com Yoav Givati

    I set rules for myself like this frequently. Usually works for a couple days until the freshness wears off and I slip into old habits. If you find yourself justifying deviation from the rules that’s the breaking point, if you deviate even a bit it’s all over.

  • http://twitter.com/rhaphazard Juil Yoon

    Learn to speed read and cut your HN/fb/twitter/email time to 20 min.

  • http://twitter.com/rhaphazard Juil Yoon

    Learn to speed read and cut your HN/fb/twitter/email time to 20 min.

  • Bond

    Sounds like the food diet of donuts and ice cream.

  • Bond

    Sounds like the food diet of donuts and ice cream.

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrzej.danielewicz Andrzej Danielewicz

    where is the diet here?! 

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrzej.danielewicz Andrzej Danielewicz

    where is the diet here?! 

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  • http://swizec.com Swizec

    Haha good one. I see what you did there!

  • http://swizec.com Swizec

    I don’t use a phone, so I need the skype. And because I’m a web developer and even have some clients, I need to keep my email presence.
    Also this blog indirectly affects my bottom line, so I need to keep it up.

  • http://twitter.com/zidarsk8 Miha Zidar

    he never said “Go offline for a month”. All I saw up there was going on an internet diet. As far as I know, going on a diet (food wise) doesn’t mean you stop eating. It means you eat less, and stay away from junk food.

  • http://twitter.com/zidarsk8 Miha Zidar

    I am sorry, but where did he say he will go “offline?”

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  • Baub

    So how much time did you spend deciding on the font you post in, the font comments are posted in? :

  • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

    Silly. I took a 17 day vacation with no electricity, no phone and no running water. It didn’t change me much. All the time I was brainstorming on those big ideas that aren’t so big.

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