Recommendations you can check.
Engineer and writer; CTO of Wave, later at Anthropic, blogging on focus, management and engineering at benkuhn.net.
8 things
CompliceSoftware
(Complice is my favorite app for making lists of what I want to do today.) This helps me recover quickly from unintentionally going down rabbit holes.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
uBlock OriginSoftware Raymond Hill
I block distracting parts of websites with uBlock Origin’s amazing “element blocker,” which lets you select and remove any part of the page. As a fan of minimalism in web design, I really enjoy being able to adversarially enforce it on any rogue webpage.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
FocusSoftware
For websites that are habit-forming but still feel useful on net, like Twitter or Hacker News, Focus lets me restrict my usage to certain times of day. It’s the only website blocker I’ve used that lets me fully automate blocking things in the exact way I want.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
WitchSoftware
Witch can display separate app windows separately, only display windows from the current workspace, and supports text search on window titles so that you can search directly for the window you want without having to skip over.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
Kindle4RSSService
I do most of my Internet reading on my Kindle via Kindle4RSS.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
nativefierSoftware
For the rest (e.g., oddly, most Google web apps), I use a command-line tool called nativefier to turn them into desktop apps.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
Cree 100W-equivalent 5000K LED bulbsHardware Cree
Update 2020-11-16: For my home, I ended up switching from the corncob bulb to three 7-way splitters and 21 100W equivalent 5000K Cree bulbs from Home Depot. I found the Cree bulbs on sale so they were about the same price, the light was more diffused and they have a higher color-rendering index.
His post on lighting a room to daylight brightness; this line is his 2020-11-16 update on what he switched to. Post dated only "November 2019"; day set to the 1st.
2019-11-01·benkuhn.net ↗
SlackSoftware Salesforce
A special dishonorable mention goes to Slack, which can easily suck away a quarter of your time without you noticing. If you use Slack and you haven’t disabled the “unread messages” badge, stop reading this post and do it now.
His round-up of the tools and settings he uses to protect his attention. The post is dated only "August 2020"; day set to the 1st.
2020-08-01·benkuhn.net ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.