Firstly, not studying, ignoring safety rules, or half-assing a task at work are behaviors, they don't necessarily reflect understanding or intelligence. Sometimes I get up late and have to rush in the morning, that doesn't mean I lack the intelligence to understand that time passes when I sleep.

Secondly, I don't think that most people fail to see the connection between not studying and failing a test. They might give other excuses for emotional or practical reasons, but I think you'll have a hard time finding anyone who genuinely claims that studying doesn't usually lead to better test scores. Same for ignoring safety rules or half-assing work.

Admittedly I have less experience with ChatGPT, but those experiences were equally bad.

One thing I found very helpful was to regularly practice mindfulness meditation, as it reduces my desire for entertainment and generally seems to improve my executive function a lot. It also caused other improvements to my well-being in general.

Regarding a technological solution to blocking, I did the following (on Android, I can handle myself on non-portable devices):

1: Use adguard to block the relevant addresses on DNS level. I chose adguard specifically because it allows setting regex-like patterns on what addresses to block, eliminating loop holes.

2: Use applock (I haven't informed if applock specifically is better or worse than alternatives) to require a passcode when opening settings, when opening adguard, and when opening applock itself. Store this passcode in a way that it's cumbersome but possible to reach. Ask a friend or relative to set and store it for you if necessary.

3: Remove the icons of adguard and applock from the home screen, so that they are only reachable through settings -> apps.

This has worked well for me. It's cumbersome enough to discourage me from deactivating it. It's not so cumbersome that I can't update the block list if necessary. It's flexible enough that I can very precisely choose what to block and what not. And it's specialized for (android) smartphones, which are the worst scrolling addiction drivers.

You could also throw in Google parental controls to stop yourself from downloading apps if necessary, but I found that DNS blocks are enough for me.

If you struggle with other devices as well, like TVs, consider whether you can get away with not owning these devices at all.

All that being said, professional psychological help for addiction and executive dysfunction exists. That would have been my last resort if the methods mentioned above hadn't turned out to be sufficient for me.

Good luck, don't give up.

What I'm trying to say is that blocking and working on the "deeper" issues are stronger when used synergistically, it doesn't have to be an either or.

Regarding NextDNS, can it be setup in a way that is difficult to disable? Or could I just disable the user application on my phone and use my unfiltered mobile internet? Same for accountability softwares, are there any that go below the user application level to stop me from simply disabling them?

Google parental controls seem cumbersome, as apparently I can only block domains in Chrome and will thus also need to block other browsers. But I will play around with it and see if I can make it work for me.

What worked somewhat okay for me was rooting the phone to edit the hosts file, but this was really cumbersome and left many loopholes that I only found afterwards. Then the root access suddenly disappeared, so I can no longer close these loopholes. I didn't really understand the rooting process (on Samsung Android), it was just patched together from various tutorials, so I can't explain why this happened or how to fix it.

Blocking directly in the router also worked a bit better than other methods, but can be bypassed by switching to mobile internet, and my current router doesn't support it anyway.

If anyone has any suggestions for me, it would be super helpful. So far my last resort would be to get a different phone for which it is easier to acquire root access, but I hope there is a better way.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43725626

Points: 1

# Comments: 3