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by welder 620 days ago
Yes, I created a leaderboard for programmers and recently found some people using it as motivation to sleep less, spending 18 hour energy drink fueled days coding for up to a month at a time. [0]

> How do you feel about its impact

Even though it's not healthy, I let it happen to a point. I reach out by email about the health impacts. Some people say, "I plan to stop at the end of the month".

> have you taken steps, like focus groups or educational initiatives, to address the issue?

I set limits to how long they can be on the leaderboard, and I reach out personally to those who overdo it.

My next project is wonderful.dev [1], where I promise to never email any dev users (we don't even store your email) and have a focus on usability even if it means slower growth. This is in contrast to most apps these days trying to hook users with addictive patterns, always competing for your attention.

[0] https://wakatime.com/leaders

[1] https://wonderful.dev

2 comments

That's amazing! It's a really healthy approach, and even though it could easily be automated, it's impressive that you take the time to personally connect with them. By the way, I love your new venture and have already signed up. Wishing you all the best!
I used Wakatime, had to uninstall after I had the opposite problem, I realized I didn't really care about how much time I spent coding, and it had somewhat constant notifications if I recall correctly.