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Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate

I don't use any social media. After reading "Mindf*ck" I decided to quit all of them. Surprisingly if you cut off all facebooks, instagrams and reddits, it turns out the Internet is quite boring place.

What are your favourite sites where you procrastinate? Sites without political trolls are preferred.

( 22 comments | 18 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by maxbaines on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @06:10AM (#27128601)
https://news.ycombinator.com/ but guess you know that.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by codingdave on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @06:55AM (#27128834)
Wikipedia. You can go down some fun rabbit-holes there, and when a topic intrigues you, search engines will take you even farther.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by pknerd on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @11:06AM (#27131212)
How to find interesting wiki links? I am interested in science and philosophy.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by jmiskovic on Saturday May 15, 2021 @05:08AM (#27163618)
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by mikewarot on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:47AM (#27129185)
Newspapers.com is fascinating if you get the full membership for 6 months, you'll never run out of things to read.

It is amazing how everyone's address was part of the story until about 1970. The stories of people who lived in our house before us would bring you to tears, along with joy.

If you're into genealogy, it is a good resource to tie threads together with. Turns out my grandparents were the first ones married in a new church, back in the day, for example.

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by 600frogs on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @08:02AM (#27129284)
Agreed with matt_s - if you're looking to be distracted, just accept that and do something genuinely entertaining e.g. video games, YouTube, rather than finding some other forum with half-baked opinions to idly browse. And yes, I'm being hypocritical by posting here, but I count HN as part of my keeping-up-to-date-with-tech diet, which makes me feel a bit better about myself.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by BlameKaneda on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @04:19PM (#27134661)
Depends on what you're into.

Articles: - This site - https://sadlunchbreak.com/

Quizzes: - Sporcle: https://www.sporcle.com/ - Geoguessr: https://www.geoguessr.com/ (1 quiz per day if you're on the free tier)

Wikis and rabbit holes: - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - TVTropes: https://tvtropes.org/

YouTube: - Search "documentary, long" in the searchbar and see what turns up. The "long" part will find videos that are longer than 20 minutes.

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by radicalriddler on Thursday May 13, 2021 @01:08AM (#27138629)
Wow Geoguessr limits to 1 go for free these days. Google really killed off that game by increasing their prices.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by emmap21 on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @10:17AM (#27130607)
Immersed in the physical world. However, it is not the best option now. You might want to write or play some thing new. Language, Music, Art, Math, etc. This used to work for me though I look very un-fancy on the internet.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by hackermailman on Saturday May 15, 2021 @04:43PM (#27168827)
This guy is a bush pilot in PG, he records all his flights and provides simulator data to try it yourself. https://youtube.com/channel/UCt0m3zjCj_oC6d-kUkk6zmw

Sort of learning video game procrastination I guess trying not to crash on those crazy runways in your spare time he even does intl flights somehow in that ac

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by spamalot159 on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @05:55AM (#27128527)
As a kid I killed all my time with random flash games. Even though flash is gone you can still access virtually every good flash game with flashpoint - https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by matt_s on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:12AM (#27128956)
If your goal is procrastination, lean into it and open up Netflix and watch something. Or Youtube.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by anongoesprivate on Saturday May 15, 2021 @11:49PM (#27171053)
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by tldrthelaw on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:45PM (#27168310)
HistoricAerials.com -- look up satellite photos of your area, or any area of interest, as far back as the 30s.
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by crazypython on Friday May 14, 2021 @07:46AM (#27153174)
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by ElectricMind on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @06:53AM (#27128817)
//reading "Mindf*ck"//

Could you tell more. Maybe gist of the book. Thanks

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by robsun on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:00AM (#27128857)
Sure. Here is a link to GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck

The story tells story of Cambridge Analytica. Author describes how it all started, how they gathered data and influenced people. Also he describes how it affected politics. It is very well written and feels like really good political-fiction. Unfortunately his descriptions match how last two political campaigns run in my country. Same approaches were used to get people votes. I rarely used my social media accounts but after reading this piece I decided it is the right time to leave all of them.

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by Srisha on Monday May 17, 2021 @02:11AM (#27180508)
Youtube, github, 4chan
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by markus_zhang on Thursday May 13, 2021 @11:37AM (#27143315)
CRPG Addict
Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by cpach on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @09:02AM (#27129831)
Hacker News :-p

The Economist. (I prefer to read it on paper though.)

Metafilter is also quite good.

Or subscribe to one or more newspapers.

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by tailspin2019 on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @01:06PM (#27132592)
> The Economist

I wish they’d bring out a monthly edition. I too like the paper based format but I just can’t keep up with weekly editions.

I have subscribed and then cancelled a couple of subscriptions with them over the years as I’d just end up with a stack of unread issues each time.

Re:Ask HN: Best Sites to Procrastinate by cpach on Thursday May 13, 2021 @07:16AM (#27140822)
It’s a very dense publication indeed.

I have also canceled my subscription. These days I just go to the newsstand from time to time and get an issue when I feel like it.