I bought something called brick which lets me lock some apps with a Bluetooth app. I have to walk to a different room and touch my phone to the little cube magneted to my fridge in order to unlock them. Just this extra friction has halved my screen time. No phone in bed no phone while I’m working and no phone on weekends while I’m bored.
Instant improvement in mental clarity and quality of life.
I've also been receiving ads for this and I gotten tell ya... Getting a testimonial from a HN'er on a random thread is a huge vote of confidence. I've been toying around with the idea of getting one.
For what it's worth, the product demands $50 for what is essentially a < $1.00 3D printed case and a < $1.00 NFC tag. You could probably (not endorsing it!) find the NFC code online and just dump it to a tag of your own.
I think you’re way off - I don’t know people making that much, but I do know several people who are well capable of that, and have literally embedded NFC tags with their own data in 3D printed things they’ve made. They’re making <$100K (pre-tax)
making more than $100 per hour, post tax, puts you somewhere at $400k+ income per year. outside of FAANG this is nearly impossible. even within it it's not so easy lately.
I bought it because it did not require a subscription and because it sounded like a smallish business - told me I had to wait a few days for it to be 3D printed.
I love the simplicity of it, the fact that it’s driven by fulfilling a need and not by greed.
Not affiliated in any way. Wish I had given this to myself years ago.
Fascinating. I'm wondering how the app manages to control notification behaviour & gatekeeps other apps. Obviously the APIs to do it must be there, just surprised Apple (of all ...) let's a 3rd party app do that..
I feel like we're getting closer to the moment where all high quality discussion will be locked behind invite only forums. (anyone can read, need an invite to write)
I can't really think of any other solution to the prevalence of bots as it gets easier and cheaper to write human seeming content
What's going to stop advertisers and propagandists from paying off those forum gatekeepers? Unless they're already wealthy or monks, they're going to be trivial to corrupt and the content will be even more effective!
As the person who wrote the original reply I agree, and can ensure you that I have no skin in promoting a product - my intention is to promote the outcome.
If someone makes this happen with custom rfid chip I can tape to my fridge I’ll be happy enough.
I've also been using this and I think it's a great product. It's exactly as you describe it, just some extra friction makes a huge difference. I've even bought some for friends
Been seeing ads for a while, finally caved two weeks ago and bought one. I’ve been on vacation since it arrived but I’m honestly quite excited to get home tonight and set it up.
Instant improvement in mental clarity and quality of life.