Dumbing down your smartphone

Jul 6, 2018

Phone addiction is real, it has a detrimental effect on your quality of life and you should take back control. (If you want to read more on how the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember I highly recommend a book by Nicolas Carr called The Shallows). This post explains my past and current efforts in this undertaking and suggests changes that worked for me and would probably work for you.

An app to block distractions

My first step in taking back control was downloading an application (can you spot the irony?) called freedom on my iphone. Using this application you can block access to distracting sites on your phone and your mac, it costs $2.42 dollars per month. Generally, the app works well but it has some limitations (for instance it can not block Instagram on your iPhone, but there is a way around that if you like this idea). After some testing so I was willing to try something else.

Going old school

My next step was to get rid of my iPhone altogether for a simple dumb phone with basic functionality. After some investigation, I ordered a Nokia 216 from Amazon for £25.

The phone arrived on time, seemed promising, with a simple email and facebook functionality but crucially did not support whatsup which was a deal breaker for me (I live abroad, and contact my family mainly via Whatsup or Viber) so I returned it.

“Semi-dumb” smart-phone

After the failed dumb phone attempt I decided I should try to “dumb down” my iPhone instead. A semi-dumb phone would mean I can keep all the smart-phone characteristics i.e. nice camera, task managers with internet synchronization, good email interface, while also getting rid of the addictive aspects.

So how do you do it?

The main idea is to keep them all the basic apps (clock, calendar, etc), delete internet browsing capabilities (google chrome and safari) as well as app store capabilities so you can not re-download apps when your undergo your withdrawal symptoms.

Step 1: Edit restrictions

The idea is to restrict iPhone functionality with a password that is going to be set by a friend you can trust. Start by deleting all the apps that keep you connected. Ideally, you want just a single home page with all the apps in a single screen. Below is how my phone home screen. I have my calendar, weather app, emails, task manager (NotePlan), calculator etc. I deleted facebook but kept the messenger, deleted Instagram, chrome and hide away app store and safari (because you can not delete those really)

So you need to go to:

settings>general>restrictions> turn on (and have a friend set a 4 digit password that he/she will not reveal to you)> in the restrictions turn on the download from app store, and safari.

This would not allow you to download new apps or surf the web via safari unless you know the 4 digit password.

Once you go back to your home screen, safari and app store would disappear and you can not bring them back unless you know the 4 digit password, nor you can download chrome or whatever. Note that this password is different to the one iphone asks every time you restart your phone and this small detail is what makes this method viable.

Step 2: Going further

If you are feeling going all the way, you can even apply a grey filter on your phone so the whole ecosystem and idea of using your phone would seem less appealing. (trust me this works).

To do this go to settings>accessibility>display accommodations>colour filters>turn on>then select greyscale.

You can revert this change back, without your friend’s password.

Are you ready to take #theSemiDumbchallenge ? Good luck in taking back control.

✎ Edit post

Free Core Temperature Logger for your mac

I have a late 2011 mac that nowadays gets really hot, especially on a warm day. I thought about some potential cooling methods/hacks I could use, but in order to know if they work or not I need to have an “average” temperature during normal operation averaged over a 10 day period that I can compare against whatever hack I end up doing. It seems there are a few software that tells you your mac’s temperate like Temp Monitor or Monit which are easy to use but you have to pay and they do not provide a log.

Motivating yourself to be productive. Disclaimer-Monsters Involved

So let’s say you go to class and your professor gives you a new assignment due in a month. If you are anything like me, you just go home, carry on with your life as normal until 28 days from now. That is when you “remember” that you have a paper due in 2 days. If you can relate with what I am describing then I’m sure that when this happened for the 100th time, during one of your all-nighters you promised yourself never let this happen again (Until the next paper due of course). But how can we really break this loop of misery and under accomplishment? Is there a way around it? To properly answer this we first need to understand how the mind of a procrastinator works and how is it different from a “rational” person mind.

How to build a webpage -for free- in 5 min or less*

I thought that the first post of this web-page should reflect the nature of the universe i.e. always moves to increase entropy. Moving from order to to chaos (if your are interested about this concept watch this Brian Cox video). I will begin by explaining how this web-page was build. Then I will blame the universe for all the chaos that will follow.

* Disclaimer: This web-page was build using git-hub pages, Jekyll, and posts are written in markdown. Only continue if that is what that gets you on. 5 Min time frame is true if you have the tools used pre-installed, or if you are an Ninja.FYI the wonderer above is on a mac uses iTerm, and sublime.