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Bounty Ended with 50 reputation awarded by gnat
replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/
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I think some of the answers here that suggest "Have some self control!" miss the point.

  • Given: Seeing an interesting question automatically makes some brains trigger "work on that question" (umm, citation - you know if this describes you)
  • Given: Intentionally avoiding looking at that area, or even harder, stopping the "work on that question" process, once started, requires some quantity of mental resources
  • Given: mental resources are limited (for all of us) and very valuable (for many of us)

"Have more self control" is another way of saying "use some of your limited and valuable mental resources to do X".

Soo...why would you argue that StackExchange (StackOverflow is what I am on most often), that great boon to productivity everywhere (see StackOverflow aboutabout, which says: "Ask questions, get answers, no distractions") should force this distraction on all its users? If I want to be distracted, I'll go to Buzzfeed (I don't).

I guess the question comes down to: does SE want to prioritize the interests of its users, or prioritize "get more questions answered, even if it means being a parasite of mental resources like Buzzfeed"? It's a free site so I have no standing to argue that SE should prioritize my interests, but it's a question that needs to be answered.

(In closing: please allow users to choose to hide it.)

I think some of the answers here that suggest "Have some self control!" miss the point.

  • Given: Seeing an interesting question automatically makes some brains trigger "work on that question" (umm, citation - you know if this describes you)
  • Given: Intentionally avoiding looking at that area, or even harder, stopping the "work on that question" process, once started, requires some quantity of mental resources
  • Given: mental resources are limited (for all of us) and very valuable (for many of us)

"Have more self control" is another way of saying "use some of your limited and valuable mental resources to do X".

Soo...why would you argue that StackExchange (StackOverflow is what I am on most often), that great boon to productivity everywhere (see StackOverflow about, which says: "Ask questions, get answers, no distractions") should force this distraction on all its users? If I want to be distracted, I'll go to Buzzfeed (I don't).

I guess the question comes down to: does SE want to prioritize the interests of its users, or prioritize "get more questions answered, even if it means being a parasite of mental resources like Buzzfeed"? It's a free site so I have no standing to argue that SE should prioritize my interests, but it's a question that needs to be answered.

(In closing: please allow users to choose to hide it.)

I think some of the answers here that suggest "Have some self control!" miss the point.

  • Given: Seeing an interesting question automatically makes some brains trigger "work on that question" (umm, citation - you know if this describes you)
  • Given: Intentionally avoiding looking at that area, or even harder, stopping the "work on that question" process, once started, requires some quantity of mental resources
  • Given: mental resources are limited (for all of us) and very valuable (for many of us)

"Have more self control" is another way of saying "use some of your limited and valuable mental resources to do X".

Soo...why would you argue that StackExchange (StackOverflow is what I am on most often), that great boon to productivity everywhere (see StackOverflow about, which says: "Ask questions, get answers, no distractions") should force this distraction on all its users? If I want to be distracted, I'll go to Buzzfeed (I don't).

I guess the question comes down to: does SE want to prioritize the interests of its users, or prioritize "get more questions answered, even if it means being a parasite of mental resources like Buzzfeed"? It's a free site so I have no standing to argue that SE should prioritize my interests, but it's a question that needs to be answered.

(In closing: please allow users to choose to hide it.)

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andy
andy
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I think some of the answers here that suggest "Have some self control!" miss the point.

  • Given: Seeing an interesting question automatically makes some brains trigger "work on that question" (umm, citation - you know if this describes you)
  • Given: Intentionally avoiding looking at that area, or even harder, stopping the "work on that question" process, once started, requires some quantity of mental resources
  • Given: mental resources are limited (for all of us) and very valuable (for many of us)

"Have more self control" is another way of saying "use some of your limited and valuable mental resources to do X".

Soo...why would you argue that StackExchange (StackOverflow is what I am on most often), that great boon to productivity everywhere (see StackOverflow about, which says: "Ask questions, get answers, no distractions") should force this distraction on all its users? If I want to be distracted, I'll go to Buzzfeed (I don't).

I guess the question comes down to: does SE want to prioritize the interests of its users, or prioritize "get more questions answered, even if it means being a parasite of mental resources like Buzzfeed"? It's a free site so I have no standing to argue that SE should prioritize my interests, but it's a question that needs to be answered.

(In closing: please allow users to choose to hide it.)