Comment by Gecko4072
4 days ago
From my experience modified iPhones make the perfect dumb phones that you will actually end up sticking with and it's free if you already have one.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171200
I use this method ^ which lets you keep essential apps but otherwise have dumb phone (no browser, no App Store). Highly recommend.
On the other hand, I have turned my laptop into a dumb computer using cold turkey blocker. I've never seen anyone talking about this here. I'm a standard user (for hardening reasons). And set up so I haven't watched YouTube largely for years because it's blocked and not at all in the past few days. It's flexible to configure and then because it's literally impossible to bypass you never try and then just end up living a calm life. (No ai, no reddit, no crappy news sites, etc.)
> On the other hand, I have turned my laptop into a dumb computer using cold turkey blocker.
Very easily bypassed at least on MacOS unfortunately.
Not if you set up a separate admin account and demote yourself to standard user.
I don't think that would patch it. You want me to say what it is?
The only way I can see this working, is if you give your admin pass to a friend, and tell them "Never believe me when I say I need it, always act as if I'm lying".
And hope when you call at 2am needing a fix, they don't give in.
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Whereas I just don't go to websites I don't like. It has a very low maintenance overhead.
I have been using my Apple Watch as a dumb phone from time to time.
It's like 4-5 years old and still kicking.
It has Music, Maps and Telephone.
Also my significant other can follow me on Find My Friends to know when I'll arrive.
Came here to link this same thread. Have been following this approach for 6 months and its been great. The only non utility apps I have on my device are ChatGPT, Duolingo, and Spotify. I recently removed email.
I'm not nearly as disciplined with cold turkey though.