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by m-i-l·2y ago·view on hn ↗
Today I learned that people pay money for an app that stops them from using a (probably expensive) phone. And not just a few people, but enough for the Freedom app to have 2 investment rounds and 11-50 employees[0]. Is it just me, or does that sound like something has gone horribly wrong somewhere? Why not just mute all notifications, or put the phone on silent or airplane mode, or switch it off, or even just replace it with a dumb phone?

And as an aside, I have a theory that the attention/distraction economy is not exclusively the fault of Big Tech spending billions working out how to "steal" people's attention, but also has an element of people being much more easily distracted nowadays thanks to rise of pointless jobs, unfulfilling personal lives, etc.

[0] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/freedom-2

11 comments
Desire and willpower are actually quite weak tools to affect behaviour. I definitely fall into the camp of people who find it more effective to alter my environment to introduce friction against behaviours I want to reduce, and reduce barriers to behaviour I would like to engage in more.
> Why not just

Anytime this phrase is used, you can bet it’s followed up with something fallacious.

Similar to the famous “why not just us rsync?” Comment about Dropbox.

With Dropbox (and most other cases) you are paying for something you don't already have, but what is unusual in this case is that you are paying to remove something you do already have. Not exactly the same I know, but the two wrongs doesn't make a right reminds me of Juicero (that expensive juicer which only worked with expensive packs of juice), where reasonable followup questions would be "why not just squeeze the juice packs yourself without the expensive juicer?" or even "why not just buy an ordinary juicer which works with pre-juiced fruit and veg?"

And that is leaving aside the whole question of whether an effective solution to an addiction problem is to pay someone to try to stop you from accessing what you are addicted to.

You’re making a choice to view it that way. Try and phrase it like “you’re paying for a tool to help moderate your behavior”.

Or as an example using your lens. Paying for coffee is paying to take away your tiredness. You already have tiredness, tiredness is useful, sleep is good, why would you want to take away tiredness?

> Anytime this phrase is used

Anytime this phrase is used, you can bet it’s followed up with some crazy generalization lol.

Much like how most replies that start with "So ..." are strawmen. :)
The best "why don't you just" talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_4EX4dPppA

I used one of these programs (a free one) to cold turkey quit Reddit after the API shenanigans.

Why not just mute notifications? I had already muted them, but found myself opening Reddit when I had downtime.

Why not just put the phone on silent mode? Because my job requires me to be reachable by phone, and I want some close family and friends to reach me. Also, I already muted the problem apps/sites- see above.

Why not just turn the phone off? See above.

Why not just replace it with a dumb phone? Because I still want email, general web browsing, music, podcasts, ebooks, maps, notes, password management, home automation, finance, and a good camera. Most of these things are either essential or enriching for my job and lifestyle.

I abolished the words "just" and "simply" from my vocabulary, because 80% of the times I used them, I sounded like a fool.

Well I "just" deleted the reddit app and it worked 100%
Oh, I never had the official app. I was using the website.
> being much more easily distracted nowadays thanks to rise of pointless jobs, unfulfilling personal lives, etc.

There's this guy, about 150 years ago, that had a theory about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation

> or even just replace it with a dumb phone?

They're not easily available anymore. My provider only has Android and IPhone, even the flip-phone that looks like a dumbphone is running Android.

Edit: Ah they do still have one brand of non-smartphone. It costs several times as much as the Android flip-phone, so I didn't see it at first.

Sonim sells "dumb" phones for professionals as well. As well as ruggedized Android smartphones with physical buttons.
Such apps are fighting a symptom and won't solve the underlying cause of their problems. It's a bit like the pomodoro technique. It can work for a short-term task but won't solve the problems in the long run.
> Why not just mute all notifications, or put the phone on silent or airplane mode, or switch it off, or even just replace it with a dumb phone?

Why indeed - apparently people are aware and choose something else ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

100% agree. It’s interesting that people purchase an app for what is already included on a phone for free. If they have an iPhone, they can also reduce the time an app or website has per day.
I’ve never used Freedom but even at a glance it’s clear that the functionality is significantly different than the screen time limits on iOS
"I'll buy another beer...that'll help my alcoholism".
> pointless jobs, unfulfilling personal lives, etc..

Basically distraction cycles in human nature are, imho, focused on as a natural byproduct of capitalism’s desire to keep workers from realizing they are distracted and therefore from realizing they are exploited.

Some people wants to consume being low tech and crying it out loud, not just being low tech.