I recently decided to stop using social media. Since then, my online downtime is pretty much spent on reading HN. But it can only go so far. So I'm looking for other fun yet informative places to kill some downtime.<p>Where do you spend your online downtime?
Marginal Revolution[0] is like HN for economics. It's another community where the value of the posts is derived from the comments they generate and the community that develops around them.<p>The Financial Times, too.[1] People will leave borderline inside information in the comments section of articles. The readership is predominantly British and the understated humor and jabs can be hilarious.<p>Non-profit article aggregators with open comments and persistent users seems to be the sweet spot for an entertaining and mentally stimulating time on the centralized web. I don't use any for profit social media platforms because the psychoengineering is too strong for me. Anytime I reinstall Reddit or Twitter I'll remove it in disgust a week later after realizing the amount of time I've sunk without enough benefit.<p>[0] marginalrevolution.com
[1] ft.com
Sinking a lot of time into Netflix and YouTube lately.<p>For a more productive downtime, I like going through...<p>- <a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.joelonsoftware.com/</a><p>- <a href="https://www.heavybit.com/library/" rel="nofollow">https://www.heavybit.com/library/</a><p>- <a href="https://softwareengineeringdaily.com" rel="nofollow">https://softwareengineeringdaily.com</a><p>Sometimes I find myself day-dreaming, jotting down ideas in my notebook (read: Sublime text) for future projects and things I wanna do.<p>PS: Hello ex-APIMatician.
FS blog and podcast have some really interesting material.<p>I like their weekly newsletter. It gives me a good recap. To be honest, I have grown tired of the news under the stay at home order.<p>Most of my free time now has been back out in the garden now that Spring is in full boom. I build a replacement raised bed last year.
> So I'm looking for other fun yet informative places to kill some downtime.<p>I usually try to use my downtime for personal development. In particular, I read books about programming/cs topics that interest me. Recently that has been Forth. I also try to exercise at least four times a week for an hour or more each session. Beyond that, I try to indulge my hobbies. This week I have been scanning my old film negatives.
> stop using social media<p>>downtime is pretty much spent on reading HN<p>I know what you mean, but you can see the irony here, right?<p>It's a matter of scale, but still. I guess a city of 2 million is a bit different from a town of 200 thousand, or 20 for that matter.
I get an interesting article emailed to me every day from Thinking About Things [0], so I use that to go down some rabbit hole.<p>[0] www.thinking-about-things.com