"We tend to be more scared of the emotions/feelings we might might experience rather than what would cause them"

You nailed it. Keeping it private allows the fear to grow, but shipping it makes it just a "thing" in the world. Here's my first prototype: https://seton.run

It's a very simple Pomodoro-ish timer, but designed to visualize your accumulated effort. Seeing the concrete data of "time spent" creates a positive feedback loop that helps me stick to the finish line.

I'll check out your list. It seems we are exploring the same problem space.

Im working at it from another angle, I live in a rural area, just cam in from putting the horse in her stall while we serinaded by a pack of coyotes in there full glorious madness, but there is no money out here, no nothing except even wilder stuff in walking distance, but now there is cellular internet, and the ability to sell my skills, and even buy stuff on line, and get good enough weather information to plan outdoor work and travel. But it's making money as an indipendent small business owner on line,that is for me making the off line, off the grid, off the radar life possible. So the idea is carry a coyote whacking stick when I am in the woods, and plug in to optimise whatever advatage I can gain* from the truely vast market online.

* a customer told me that when they asked grok where to get a custom shower curtain hanger, it sent them to me, through what must be a result of LLM's realy and actualy eating everything everybody says making the whole idea of bieng unplugged or plugged in sort of the same.

Spot on. Minimizing distractions is just one side of the coin. The other is maintaining momentum on the single task at hand.

That is actually the specific problem I'm trying to solve with my first prototype: https://seton.run

It's a very simple Pomodoro-ish timer, but designed to visualize your accumulated effort. Seeing the concrete data of "time spent" creates a positive feedback loop that helps me stick to the finish line.

You're right. We can always bypass a block if we try.

That is exactly why I'm exploring other approaches. Since willpower is a finite resource, I believe tools can help us preserve it without relying on brute-force restrictions.

I call it the “TV altar” when the whole living room is set up to face the TV. People don’t like that

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With doom scrolling for the comments. And cat pictures.

Fair point. This post is intended as a manifesto. I'm currently wrapping up the integration after selling my previous company, but I plan to release a prototype next month.