Productivity Blocker(productivityblocker.com)
productivityblocker.com
Productivity Blocker
https://www.productivityblocker.com
157 comments
We used to do this in the firewall at my first job. Every weekend the founder of the company would get drunk and login to servers and mess things up. So every weekend it was my job as the junior to go into our FreeBSD firewall and uncomment or update an ipfw line that blocked his IP-address.
Sure it wasn't a weird grazing ritual? A cron script would've replaced you doing that, more efficiently and reliably.
When I did military service abroad, the new chefs rotating down was put on "sandwich alert" in which anyone on camp signal centers could call in the middle of the night, requesting a nice sandwich delivered. It was all fun and games, they were shortly let in on the thing and we all laughed at it afterwards. No-one abused it.
When I did military service abroad, the new chefs rotating down was put on "sandwich alert" in which anyone on camp signal centers could call in the middle of the night, requesting a nice sandwich delivered. It was all fun and games, they were shortly let in on the thing and we all laughed at it afterwards. No-one abused it.
> No-one abused it.
Honest question: how can you be 100% sure?
Honest question: how can you be 100% sure?
Well I can't really, just hearsay. We were just a battalion and most were out on diverse smaller camps or manning checkpoints and the like, so we weren't that many that even could abuse it. And, it's a kind of abuse in essence really, so we can probably reverse my statement.
Naw, I used to party with the founder. It got wild.
The problem back then in 2004-2005 was that his DSL could give him a new IP lease anytime so it couldn't really be automated away without having a dyndns script running on his computer, which would never work.
The problem back then in 2004-2005 was that his DSL could give him a new IP lease anytime so it couldn't really be automated away without having a dyndns script running on his computer, which would never work.
I assume you are really talking about your current job at Twitter...
I know you are joking but Tesla had an entire team devoted to making sure Elon does not fuck up important things.
I believe it is well documented that critical personnel were hidden when he was visiting the factories to avoid getting them rage-fired
I believe it is well documented that critical personnel were hidden when he was visiting the factories to avoid getting them rage-fired
I want to believe this but I can't find a source, can you share where you've read this?
These stories came from a former Tesla manager. But if you want a reputable source:
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-life-inside-giga...
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-life-inside-giga...
Thank you, that was a nice read.
Good day to you, kramerger.
Good day to you, kramerger.
> I want to believe this but I can't find a source
"Claims about Elon Musk since the Twitter takeover" in a nutshell.
"Claims about Elon Musk since the Twitter takeover" in a nutshell.
"In war, truth is the first casualty."
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Bold of you to assume Elon Musk would be able to use ssh.
I don't think so, considering how Twitter is somehow running better with 80 percent of personnel removed
> I don't think so, considering how Twitter is somehow running better with 80 percent of personnel removed
reply
I believe you are getting downvoted (and now flagged and removed from the thread) for not substantiating your comment. HN does not seem to like single-line comments that do not provide info.
But I have to ask. Do you have any info or stats that shows that Twitter is really running better? By what metrics is it running better? Honest question.
I believe you are getting downvoted (and now flagged and removed from the thread) for not substantiating your comment. HN does not seem to like single-line comments that do not provide info.
But I have to ask. Do you have any info or stats that shows that Twitter is really running better? By what metrics is it running better? Honest question.
You could be right, but it's not like a large software project instantly falls apart if people leave. It'll keep running for a while but cracks will start to develop and nobody will be around to patch them up.
Aha. And what if someone is there, from the remaining 20%, to patch them up?
Those people are going to have to work a lot of overtime I guess? We'll see :)
A drop of 75%-80% in revenue doesn't seem like its anyone's definition of "running better".
Something like this might actually be useful for the all-too-common productive procrastination breaks. Stuck on a hard problem? Better clean my desk. Waiting for a build? Better clean my files. Lacking momentum? Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay). I wonder which type of “break” kills more productivity, “fun” distraction or “productive” distraction. Anyone else?
Probably "productive" distractions, since you can do them a lot more before feeling bad and going back to work. Especially if you can silently get into the "fun" territory.
I've actually had this with HN in the last days; I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content and valuable discussions [0], but with the Twitter shitshow I've come to enjoy a lot of snarky, unproductive discussions again. Maybe it's time to enable noprocast.
[0] Actually, it was mostly ideological reasons, but having HN as a "drop-in" replacement/upgrade helped a lot.
I've actually had this with HN in the last days; I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content and valuable discussions [0], but with the Twitter shitshow I've come to enjoy a lot of snarky, unproductive discussions again. Maybe it's time to enable noprocast.
[0] Actually, it was mostly ideological reasons, but having HN as a "drop-in" replacement/upgrade helped a lot.
Yeah, HN is such a double edged sword. Great technical discussions as well as time sucking passive aggressive discussions about "divisive social issues", which I cannot help but click.
Wrote this script today, that just stops me seeing submissions from sites I know won't have good technical discussions. Might be useful for others.
Wrote this script today, that just stops me seeing submissions from sites I know won't have good technical discussions. Might be useful for others.
const boringDomains = ["twitter.com", "newyorker.com", "nytimes.com"]
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".titleline > a"))
.filter(elem => boringDomains.some(domain => elem.href.includes(domain)))
.map(elem => elem.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement)
.flatMap(elem => [
elem,
elem.nextElementSibling,
elem.nextElementSibling.nextElementSibling]
)
.forEach(elem => elem.remove())> I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content
I found that at least for myself, this was just a lie I kept telling myself. HN contains almost zero actionable content, and I've not been an epsilon better off for reading it. I come to see it as infotainment.
I found that at least for myself, this was just a lie I kept telling myself. HN contains almost zero actionable content, and I've not been an epsilon better off for reading it. I come to see it as infotainment.
It varies... I'll often see mention of interesting/useful tools/sites/applications mentioned in more technical discussion. I don't always find these things immediately useful, but often even a year later if I can remember enough to search and find what I was looking for. Sometimes just knowing something exists in extremely useful.
For me the benefit is honestly just less content. There is only so much that makes it to the front page here and the lack of infinite scroll means I rarely see beyond it. It helps me waste a lot less time. But reddit was also a real problem for me. Way too many hours each day and I had to quit it.
Some HNers believe the site is superior to Reddit, if you compare it to the smaller and high quality subs, there isn't any difference.
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there's been a few times where I read something that I was really glad I found out about through here, and probably wouldn't have found out otherwise. But yeah, easily >99% of it is just passing time
HN was my MBA back in 2010-2013, that’s where I learnt how to create a working startup. There were blogs like Kalzumeus or Joel On Software, people were still debating technical or business issues about startups.
Now it’s more a news aggregator. It’s my fault too, I don’t blog about the company I’ve created, and people can learn how to create proper startups in many places.
Now it’s more a news aggregator. It’s my fault too, I don’t blog about the company I’ve created, and people can learn how to create proper startups in many places.
HN is great for discovery but 90%+ of the comments have declined to ChatGPT levels.
HN comments are less sarcastic, cynical, info-free than Reddit comments.
They can be, but not always. For example, any subject even tangentially related to Twitter or Musk summons a spate of low-brow, boilerplate comments.
I’ve discovered a bunch of neat libraries and projects through it.
> Probably "productive" distractions, since you can do them a lot more before feeling bad and going back to work. Especially if you can silently get into the "fun" territory.
I feel like this is the case for a lot of productivity tools; every once in a while I find myself browsing the status-quo of the next generation of todo apps that have had far too much design work spent on their website for what it does. 9 times out of 10 it's a grift to sell a $15 / month subscription for syncing across devices and its added value is tiny compared to just using a text editor, lol.
I feel like this is the case for a lot of productivity tools; every once in a while I find myself browsing the status-quo of the next generation of todo apps that have had far too much design work spent on their website for what it does. 9 times out of 10 it's a grift to sell a $15 / month subscription for syncing across devices and its added value is tiny compared to just using a text editor, lol.
Have to admit, the change to Twitter in terms of personality the past few months has been as fun as Twitter around a decade ago... I mean, a lot more snark, memes and generally fun. Not perfect, but definitely more entertaining than when people were getting banned for parody accounts.
I made a resolution to just close my eyes instead of going on Reddit/HN. Went well for about 20 mins...
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"oh I need to structurally modify these 20 lines, might as well craft a regex to do it"
30 minutes later... well got to keep my regex skills up to date else i'll lose them
30 minutes later... well got to keep my regex skills up to date else i'll lose them
There's probably an argument to be made that at least those tasks might help push you out of a rut if you've spent hours banging your head against a wall. God knows cleaning my desk is probably a better use of my time right now than commenting yet again on HN.
Yeah I’ve certainly heard that doing something small can help get the engine going, but anecdotally, it totally goes both ways. I’ve had afternoons where I clean something or what have you and get right back to it and others where I clean something and end up changing the capitalization of symbols for no reason.
When I'm working on a hard problem and I identify that I actually do need to stop and just think about it more indirectly I find going for a walk to be pretty useful.
> Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay)
I don’t have social media on my work computer except LinkedIn. I can’t tell you how many times a day I quickly open a new tab and head to LinkedIn (where I’m not even that personally active, mind you) to just get a quick hit of a distraction.
I don’t have social media on my work computer except LinkedIn. I can’t tell you how many times a day I quickly open a new tab and head to LinkedIn (where I’m not even that personally active, mind you) to just get a quick hit of a distraction.
Yeah I moved the LinkedIn app to the front page of my home screen when I went to a conference a couple months ago. I check it much more when it's right there. Thanks to your comment, I'm going to move it back to where it was before, buried in a folder on the fourth page.
LinkedIn and other medias are not at all distracting, if your job is on those platforms. Or you get your traffic through those platforms.
Whenever I feel too tired to focus on something "productive" is when I clean the house, because most of my productive work involves thinking and most of the tidying/cleaning is a set of repetitive tasks that I can do on "autopilot" and so ironically I find it easier to carry them out when I'm too tired to get caught up thinking about software projects.
But the tricky part is remembering to nudge myself into starting tidying etc..
But the tricky part is remembering to nudge myself into starting tidying etc..
I'm similar, but replace the answer to all of those questions with "make a coffee".
I feel sorry for my kidneys.
I feel sorry for my kidneys.
The kind where you start reading code you wrote more than 3 years ago and obsessively changing it...
Yes ofcourse, that side project I haven't touched for 3 years now obviously needs a full rewrite in the new language/framework I've been learning.
Reddit may be the all time king in productivity blockers...
I'm somewhat disappointed that there is no Firefox version. However, given that the author most likely uses his extension, I can see what might have happened.
I always thought firefox and chrome share a standard where you could build one extension and use them on both platforms?
Here's a discussion of doing that for V2:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
To your point, the Orion webkit-based browser for MacOS supports both:
https://browser.kagi.com/
AFAIK, the only webkit browser to do so.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
To your point, the Orion webkit-based browser for MacOS supports both:
https://browser.kagi.com/
AFAIK, the only webkit browser to do so.
AFAIK WebExtensions APIs are mostly compatible but the developer still has to do some setup to make them work on both
There's leechblock
I use leechblock. It's pretty great. It's extremely feature rich. The UI is a little ugly but "ugly" in the style that a hackernewser would likely appreciate.
My only complaint is the way it does this thing when you're out of time and it redirects you (either to their block page or a custom page you set up). Not sure how it does it but the original url you tried to reach doesn't get saved in your history. If I try to manually disable the extension it'll also automatically close the page with the leechblock message so it's gone forever. Kind of annoying if it's a link I'd like to revisit after work
Other than it's pretty neat
My only complaint is the way it does this thing when you're out of time and it redirects you (either to their block page or a custom page you set up). Not sure how it does it but the original url you tried to reach doesn't get saved in your history. If I try to manually disable the extension it'll also automatically close the page with the leechblock message so it's gone forever. Kind of annoying if it's a link I'd like to revisit after work
Other than it's pretty neat
Who needs a productivity blocker if you have Microsoft Windows?
Good news! Your computer is ready for Windows 11! And how about a nice game of Solitude Candy Smackers (TM)? Have you tried the new Microsoft Edge web browser? It's not a browser, it's a WOWser!
...And then let me bother you with the lated MSNBS celebrity nonsense in your start menu when you're trying to find an application
Narrator: It's still Chrome.Honestly, I'm not even sure if this is a parody or not.
I got mid 90s (80s?) Steve Ballmer vibes
"Got it!"
> It's not a browser, it's a WOWser!
I just died a little inside; well done :D
I just died a little inside; well done :D
Actually, it's real. I started getting spam emails from some new browser vendor, a contact of mine apparently had shared their contacts with them. They used that line, "it's a WOWser".
edit: Rock Melt, anno pre-2012, perhaps 2010.
edit: Rock Melt, anno pre-2012, perhaps 2010.
This is turning into an interesting test case of how many HN readers actually read (properly) the page before commenting...
The comments here give us a good idea on how many people leave a comment without actually opening/reading the page :')
LOL. I did read it but thought it was suggesting slack etc were blocking productivity hence helped focus.
Same. it has pages like TEDx and Fiverr which I don't typically consider productivity sites...
Love the sentiment here. Whoever is reading this should try disabling all notifications ever.
There really isn’t a need to know when someone messages you or you get news.
Doing this helps you focus more both for work but also for chill time.
There really isn’t a need to know when someone messages you or you get news.
Doing this helps you focus more both for work but also for chill time.
Totally agree with this. I have been advocating this since 2014 and points to my article whenever someone asks me. It needs an update but the general idea is still valid. I do have notifications for some key specific events such as Health, timed events in the calendar, and selected people who can call, etc but otherwise it is pretty quite almost all the time.
https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi...
https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi...
Since using productivity blocker I've consistently done less than I used to before. Can't recommend it enough is enough.
I have found Leechblock useful in Firefox - it allows blocking or a delay before showing a page with a reminder this is a time waster site....
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng...
Leechblock is incredibly helpful and has saved my innumerable amount of unproductive hours. It is highly customisable.
I love this addon!
In a bout of blasphemy, I’d like to be slightly productive and learn something:
The page header renders the “Y” in “Productivity” on a new line because mobile. Is there a reliable CSS method to say, “pick whatever font size fills the parent width without wrapping”?
The page header renders the “Y” in “Productivity” on a new line because mobile. Is there a reliable CSS method to say, “pick whatever font size fills the parent width without wrapping”?
Assuming the container is some percentage of the viewport you can use viewport units. Otherwise no you need JS sadly. Or a SVG.
I can’t believe it’s 2022, we getting closer to fusion power, but we still need JS for something like this. Crazy!
Hopefully the spirit of future christmas shows the w3c how to do this :)
Hopefully the spirit of future christmas shows the w3c how to do this :)
Will it block Hacker News?, cause god knows this is a huge productivity block... like right now
HN supports this natively! Enable noprocrast in your profile
TIL. Information on this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814695
If HN is a productivity block it should be promoted when using this, not blocked. The point of this extension is to block everything making you productive, so that you can procrastinate and slack off more.
I think they need to redirect those sites to HN for maximum effect.
It took a full ten seconds for my eyes to see normal color again. They can use that as a testimonial if they like.
yes! same with me :). Funny effect.
I've found just using ScreenTime on macOS during the time where I need to get stuff done is very useful. It is a bit hidden, because you have to enable "Limit Adult Websites", but then you can configure sites you want to block. My list is:
ycombinator.com
guardian.co.uk
theguardian.com
nytimes.com
spiegel.de
Works wonders! It really helps for these little breaks where you automatically go to a site subconsciously. And none of these sites are useful for what I do, except HN sometimes to look up information and pointers about technical topics.
ycombinator.com
guardian.co.uk
theguardian.com
nytimes.com
spiegel.de
Works wonders! It really helps for these little breaks where you automatically go to a site subconsciously. And none of these sites are useful for what I do, except HN sometimes to look up information and pointers about technical topics.
Looks like you didn't actually look at the link :)
> The greatest trick that javascript ever pulled was to convince the latest generation of programmers that it was fast...
By the way, JavaScript IS quite fast. I ported some code from Swift to Typescript recently, and its runtime went down from 15 seconds to 2 seconds. It wasn't a 1-1 port because I improved things, so it is not a fair comparison, but I was very positively surprised.
By the way, JavaScript IS quite fast. I ported some code from Swift to Typescript recently, and its runtime went down from 15 seconds to 2 seconds. It wasn't a 1-1 port because I improved things, so it is not a fair comparison, but I was very positively surprised.
> It wasn't a 1-1 port because I improved things
Hmm, I think we found the reason....
Hmm, I think we found the reason....
I don't think you did! Doing the same improvements in Swift I wouldn't expect an over seven time speedup. I suspect that the time difference has to do with data structures like hashmaps, which in Swift are defacto immutable, and in JavaScript are not.
I actually did. Clicked on it once, looked at it for about 3 seconds, decided it would be a waste of my time to check it out more.
Which means you didn't actually understand what it was about, which was the point of the comment ;)
I don't disagree. Understanding things takes time, and most things are not worth understanding them.
And then you feel it's not a waste of time to write a comment on an article you took 3sec to understand and skip?
No, as I just wanted to share my anti-procrastination tool. I also like chatting with HNers (some more than others)!
Spent more time writing these pointless comments
Love the idea of TEDx somehow being productive in a professional sense.
I've been using Freedom for this for some time. I would recommend using these tools.
When you site down and want to get something done you just block out a few hours where you can't access the sites that distract you. It is really good for focus. I thought I could do this with will power alone but these sorts of tools really do help.
When you site down and want to get something done you just block out a few hours where you can't access the sites that distract you. It is really good for focus. I thought I could do this with will power alone but these sorts of tools really do help.
I agree, I have been using https://freedom.io for a few years and like it. I also enjoy their podcasts.
Does freedom allow you to block apps? I have it and it works nicely for safari and my Mac. I haven't been successful in trying to have it block apps. Maybe because I have an ancient iPhone.
It allows you to install a vpn on iOS that blocks traffic to domains on your blocklist, effectively blocking apps (unless you download things offline like YouTube videos or Podcasts).
Apple added official app blocking APIs in iOS 16, so you don't need to use someone's sketchy VPN anymore. Burnout Buddy is an app that uses this.
(disclaimer: self-promotion, I made it)
(disclaimer: self-promotion, I made it)
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I love that Slack is the first icon on the list :D it's kind of true though, It's probably the worst offender.
Worst offender as in making you the most productive? I'm pretty sure that's not the case. I'm not even sure it qualifies to be on the list. If anything it's a distraction making you less productive.
I agree. I somehow inverted the purpose of this plugin in my head. Feels weird to be upvoted because people disagree with you.
Wanted to share this with the team, but I noticed the social cards aren't loading (at least not on slack). It's probably due to the fact that your social images are not on HTTPS:
```html <meta property="og:site_name" content="Productivity Blocker"/> (...) <meta property="og:image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... (...) <meta itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... <link rel="image_src" href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2..." /> <meta itemprop="image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... (...) <meta name="twitter:image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... ```
Love it though! :)
```html <meta property="og:site_name" content="Productivity Blocker"/> (...) <meta property="og:image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... (...) <meta itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... <link rel="image_src" href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2..." /> <meta itemprop="image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... (...) <meta name="twitter:image" content="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2... ```
![http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da2...](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e76afa9e2d33114d3da29d/t/621a45c6107e855cd4c57109/1645888966833/banner-m-2.jpeg?format=1500w"/>){kind=link}
Love it though! :)
Whoever wrote the copy for this is brilliant
Links at the bottom of the page, the creators are accomplished advising creatives and copywriters.
Reddit still takes the crown - cross browser and no extensions needed.
I enjoy the humour in this. Well done.
Unfortunately, my dopamine seeking monkey brain would just open another browser and successfully procrastinate if the only thing stopping me were a chrome extension. That's why I use selfcontrol: https://selfcontrolapp.com/
This is the opposite- it's for blocking access to productive sites thereby helping you procrastinate.
Looks like a “fun” one but in all seriousness: self-control2 do the same thing except you have to feed it the list of blocked website.
Then technically it’s harder to circonvent. ( it’s at the /host file level I think. I don’t really wanna know so i cannot work around it.
Then technically it’s harder to circonvent. ( it’s at the /host file level I think. I don’t really wanna know so i cannot work around it.
Brilliant, I feel like many could benefit from this on the weekends.
In the same vein, "Do nothing" by self-help Singh: https://youtu.be/8An2SxNFvmU
In the same vein, "Do nothing" by self-help Singh: https://youtu.be/8An2SxNFvmU
This will save Christmas.
Personally, I don’t use any of those websites at all as it is.
So even if I were to be a Chrome user, this extension would actually do nothing for me.
So even if I were to be a Chrome user, this extension would actually do nothing for me.
Rather than blocking things, I've found it more efficient to use the pomodoro technique and commit to no interruptions during working sessions. A 25-minute session is short enough, so that's a realistic commitment.
I try to do at least one session in the morning, no matter how bad I feel. Usually it's sufficient to put me back into the zone, after which I don't need any tools or frameworks to keep me going.
I try to do at least one session in the morning, no matter how bad I feel. Usually it's sufficient to put me back into the zone, after which I don't need any tools or frameworks to keep me going.
I want an unproductivity blocker
"first Chrome extension for blocking any website that makes you productive. "
Gotta tip my hat to this. Someone actually spends time to do all these
I always end up on GitHub opening tiny PRs when I’m trying to relax.
This better keep me off GitHub, my leisure time is at risk here!
I thought it has something in common with the Spotify.
Love the reviews.
It is my brain in Chrome extension form :P
[deleted]
yeah, whatever. did chuckle at "wish it worked on Safari" though...
Heidegger would approve.
this basically a federal job simulator
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There seems to be an error in the first paragraph.
Introducing productivity blocker, The first Chrome extension for blocking any website that make you productive.
should the word "productive" be unproductive?
That's the joke. You can scroll down below to see the reviews talking about how unproductive they are while using the extension.
But good you at least opened the link and raised the question, there a lot of people here supposing it is a blocker to be more productive.
But good you at least opened the link and raised the question, there a lot of people here supposing it is a blocker to be more productive.
thanks, i never got to the bottom part of page.
Neither did I. I stopped at the fake star ratings. Looks to me that they kinda failed.
Edit: Oh wait. It looks like i read the whole page. But didn't pay attention because I skimmed through the text and I never even looked at the icons. Not that I can recognize most of them.
I'm really not the target audience for this kind of product page...
Edit: Oh wait. It looks like i read the whole page. But didn't pay attention because I skimmed through the text and I never even looked at the icons. Not that I can recognize most of them.
I'm really not the target audience for this kind of product page...
No.
before you can be productive you need to be unproductive first.