I didn't do a good enough job articulating the feeling of seeing AI make all kinds of things for me but yet feeling slightly dreadful instead of more alive. I tried. Thanks for the comment
Claude tried to massively increase the scope of this essay after reviewing my first draft. In the editing process it also added a bunch of emdashes to my writing. It's very hard to resist.
Fun for me to see lots of people vibecoding things with their kid or for their partner. Also fun to see lots of people have a funner game or a better habit tracker or workout timer in them.
If this concept resonates, https://www.flow.club/ is where you'll find people who practice this technique regularly. We use it to do everything from the work we care about and want to be even better at, to work we don't care for like taxes, bills and laundry but have some mental block or emotional resistance to.
I think people with ADHD are hyper attuned to the effort that goes into everything from the moment we wake up (related term: executive dysfunction), so we look for ways to facilitate "doing." Other people who have similar levels of awareness tend to be self-employed (your time costs you), working parents (limited time and energy) and graduate students (long-term dread), but not everyone. And no, I don't think this is a purely remote work issue.
With all the AI discussion I'll just take a moment to talk about humans. HN probably thinks anything having to do with other humans are yuck especially on the internet and would be proven right most of the time. But humans and internet-mediated humans can also be great if the product does a good and careful job to allow their best parts shine. That's why we love HN and admire dang, and we try to make https://www.flow.club/ another awesome human corner of the internet.
RT in pure trials: 463ms
RT in mixed trials: 833ms
Mixing cost: 369ms
RT in task-repeat trials (in mixed blocks): 833ms
RT in task-switching trials (in mixed blocks): 1040ms
Task-switch cost: 207ms
I put my phone on permanent focus mode and specifically turn off even notifications from Messages, and I've found this to be super useful for keeping my focus. I see everyone else glancing at notifications all the time.
But even without notifications, I still pick up my phone on my own volition whenever I'm working on something slightly difficult. It's almost a reflex at this point. Something about wanting a little dopamine or even just something to touch and swipe around, which could provide some dopamine on its own.
This website is super useful because I don't even want to touch my phone because I don't want to end the timer. I love it!
If you hired WeWork for a reliable context-switch to help you focus on work, a more affordable alternative could be virtual co-working spaces like https://www.flow.club/.
I know most of the time as an independent consultant, the physical space to get away from your house is the reason why you pay WeWork, but if it's about structuring your work day, more focus, more energy from other people around you, and potentially meeting a person or two, virtual co-working offers all of that.
https://www.flow.club/ is another one that is worth trying if you like this method of working. Pomodoro is one of the simplest and most effective methods out there, and we've designed an entire social context around the Pomodoro to support you.
One of the things we’ve learned over at Flow Club is that working in the presence of others helps keep you motivated and accountable, especially when working alone. We made this version of a Lofi Cafe to create that feeling. Let me know what you think. Send me a high five (I'm Ricky Y).
Flow Club (YC S21) | Full-Stack and Front-end Engineers | SF or Remote (US only) | Full-Time | https://www.flow.club
Flow Club is a virtual co-working space where people work in high-intensity sprints designed to double their productivity. Our mission is to build the software that powers the most inspiring and productive work environment for knowledge workers. Our members love Flow Club (https://www.flow.club/wall-of-love).
We’re growing quickly, just presented at Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 Demo Day, raised $5M, and hiring our founding team. We are backed by Worklife Ventures, a firm investing in companies re-designing the way work gets done in the future, and 100 more of the world’s best investors and operators. Among our investors are Paul Graham and the founders of iconic companies like Dropbox, Mercury, Quora, Outschool, and Sendbird.
If this sounds interesting to you, send me an email. I’m ry (at) flow (dot) club. Or apply on our jobs page: https://bit.ly/fc-is-hiring
Flow Club | Software Engineers | SF or Remote (US only) | Full-Time | https://www.flow.club
Flow Club is a virtual co-working space where people work in high-intensity sprints designed to double their productivity. Our mission is to build the software that powers the most inspiring and productive work environment for knowledge workers. Our members love Flow Club (https://www.flow.club/wall-of-love).
We’re growing quickly, just presented at Y Combinator's Summer 2021 Demo Day, raised $5M, and hiring our founding team. We are backed by Worklife Ventures, a firm investing in companies re-designing the way work gets done in the future, and 100 more of the world's best investors and operators. Among our investors are Paul Graham and the founders of iconic companies like Dropbox, Mercury, Quora, Outschool, and Sendbird.
If this sounds interesting to you, send me an email. I'm ry (at) flow (dot) club. Or apply on our jobs page: https://bit.ly/fc-is-hiring
Many members are in your age group and older and I'd just say that we've been described as an "introvert-friendly" social network. Reason being that the focus of the sharing is mostly about priming yourself to do the work, and while you can pick up cues about other people from the video and the work they bring to Flow Club, that's secondary. Our hosts also do a good job putting the focus on the work.
We haven't had to do that. Each session has a host who facilitates and there are regulars who help reinforce the norm.
I led a Startup School cohort a few years ago when I was in-between projects. Yes, kind of like that in terms of the kind of people you'll get to meet in Flow Club, but the primary purpose of sharing in Flow Club is not to learn from each other but to prime yourself into focus.
I like how disciplined you are with only checking messages in the morning. It's just three of us here at Flow Club so I can't really do that yet. One day...
I think motivation is messier than just self-motivated vs not self-motivated. Could depend on the task you're tackling, time of day, other things in life that happened that day. Work is so personal and so varied. I'd say Flow Club members are very self-motivated, some are wildly successful by conventional standards, and yet there are still moments where Flow Club is a reliable environment to fall back on or to pick themselves up just a little.