rickyyean (u/rickyyean)

rickyyean commented on Explore Sutro Tower explore.sutrotower.com... · Posted by u/archagon

nielsbot · 6 months ago

Are there others think Sutro Tower is an eyesore or is it just me?

(Very cool app BTW)

rickyyean · 6 months ago

Even when it looks like a floating pirate ship when it's foggy?

rickyyean commented on Body Doubling bodydoubling.com/... · Posted by u/rzk

satvikpendem · 6 months ago

This is a concept primarily for people with ADHD by the way, if you're not in this target group you might not understand why it's needed, as we already see in this thread.

rickyyean · 6 months ago

If this concept resonates, https://www.flow.club/ is where you'll find people who practice this technique regularly. We use it to do everything from the work we care about and want to be even better at, to work we don't care for like taxes, bills and laundry but have some mental block or emotional resistance to.

I think people with ADHD are hyper attuned to the effort that goes into everything from the moment we wake up (related term: executive dysfunction), so we look for ways to facilitate "doing." Other people who have similar levels of awareness tend to be self-employed (your time costs you), working parents (limited time and energy) and graduate students (long-term dread), but not everyone. And no, I don't think this is a purely remote work issue.

With all the AI discussion I'll just take a moment to talk about humans. HN probably thinks anything having to do with other humans are yuck especially on the internet and would be proven right most of the time. But humans and internet-mediated humans can also be great if the product does a good and careful job to allow their best parts shine. That's why we love HN and admire dang, and we try to make https://www.flow.club/ another awesome human corner of the internet.

rickyyean commented on Task-Switching Experiment (2015) psytoolkit.org/experiment... · Posted by u/dang

dtran · a year ago

https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library/experiment_mul... for the actual runnable experiment. Shared my results below (I'm pretty tired at the moment so don't feel my sharpest)— super curious what others got.

I've been trying to eliminate multi-tasking as much as I can, but the nature of startups day-to-day and even what seems like a single/monotask when zoomed out now often involves context switching (For say, investigating and fixing a user-reported bug, I might have to toggle between VSCode, localhost in browser + the DOM inspector or console, our bug tracker, our support ticketing tool, Slack, and sometimes the Cody window in VS Code/ChatGPT/Claude:

  RT in pure trials: 448ms
  RT in mixed trials: 710ms
  Mixing cost: 262ms
  RT in task-repeat trials (in mixed blocks): 710ms
  RT in task-switching trials (in mixed blocks): 975ms
  Task-switch cost: 265ms

rickyyean · a year ago

Here's mine on first-try:

  RT in pure trials: 463ms
  RT in mixed trials: 833ms
  Mixing cost: 369ms

  RT in task-repeat trials (in mixed blocks): 833ms
  RT in task-switching trials (in mixed blocks): 1040ms
  Task-switch cost: 207ms

rickyyean commented on Show HN: Can you go an hour without touching your phone? phonefreehour.com/... · Posted by u/dtran

rickyyean · 2 years ago

I put my phone on permanent focus mode and specifically turn off even notifications from Messages, and I've found this to be super useful for keeping my focus. I see everyone else glancing at notifications all the time.

But even without notifications, I still pick up my phone on my own volition whenever I'm working on something slightly difficult. It's almost a reflex at this point. Something about wanting a little dopamine or even just something to touch and swipe around, which could provide some dopamine on its own.

This website is super useful because I don't even want to touch my phone because I don't want to end the timer. I love it!

rickyyean commented on WeWork’s once robust cash reserves have dwindled, raising chances of default wsj.com/articles/weworks-... · Posted by u/lxm

user3939382 · 3 years ago

At one point I was an independent tech consultant down the street from one of their spaces, basically their prime customer profile. It was way too expensive for what you got.

What some people may not realize is that "executive suites" have been around forever, however they were never looked at as a "hypergrowth" SV/hot startup. This is where you get a small office among many others and there's a shared receptionist.

When I looked at WeWork, sitting at a table all day with other people and no privacy was about the same price as executive suites. They've also apparently had a business model where they don't own the spaces, so the underlying landlords can squeeze them at any time.

Was this the company where the CEO owned the trademark and was leasing it back to the company?

In any case just a company that, with a cursory inspection, IMHO showed no promise from day 1.

rickyyean · 3 years ago

If you hired WeWork for a reliable context-switch to help you focus on work, a more affordable alternative could be virtual co-working spaces like https://www.flow.club/.

I know most of the time as an independent consultant, the physical space to get away from your house is the reason why you pay WeWork, but if it's about structuring your work day, more focus, more energy from other people around you, and potentially meeting a person or two, virtual co-working offers all of that.