It is hilarious that page shows how one replaces FB with HN... which is precisely what I did in 2019, and now I'm a total HN addict, spending more than a few minutes on it at least 5 times a day.
in case you don't know this only has limited effect, cause you can open it again in a private browser. besides the search works with the procast setting, and we're not talking external constraints, people, us, me,... lack at this point internal mental defenses against the negative impact of social media.
See, this is the problem with all these mindfulness tools. I, the human, can simply defeat every challenge the computer attempts. And i require the ability to do so in case i have a need that's only satisfied by searching reddit for textbook recommendations while I'm in half price books, or a youtube video to fix my broken zipper pocket before i head to the gym soon. The fact that they time wasting sites are also the "goldmine of knowledge" sites make me include a back door in any time minder tool. A backdoor which is only used when needed... until it slowly becomes muscle memory and the tool is defeated by my capacity to learn to fuck myself over again and again.
Instead you ought to pay someone $15/hr to sit next to you. Anytime you're distracted by a website for more than five minutes, they punch you in the arm.
They also have to know they don't get paid if you manage to convince them to go away and leave you alone for a while.
Someone should to invent an AI powered one that is utterly unpredictable and installs in the boot sector. You're browsing Hacker News one day and suddenly your smoke alarms goes off. You do it the next day and your Echo device starts playing death metal at highest volume. You do it the next day and your car alarm goes off.