I had a slightly different reaction: I was very distracted by the visual artifacts (brain processing, not the actual image), especially around the edge of the circle.

I was as well - everytime I see one of these they also pause too briefly at the change over from inhale/exhale and back.

It's disconcerting because its not how I naturally breathe.

maybe this one works better?

https://lassebomh.github.io/box-breathing/

Indeed. I kept wondering if the circle was actually getting lighter as it got smaller or if that was just how I was perceiving it due to the afterimage and whatnot.

It does change color ... right?

This is a very HN exchange

task: stare at circle

HN, staring at the circle: they could use CSS for this instead of JS

Yes! In my periphery it looked like a polygon but when I focused on the edges it seemed like a properly antialiased circle.

Interesting, I saw the same!

Yeah I saw the same. A rounded-corner polygon.

good feedback! thanks

I enjoyed trying to tell if the circle had a 3d aspect to or not, and also trying to tell if it was completely black or actually dark dark gray. I'm not sure if I'm cognitively more focused but I'm going to try it again when I need that focus.

I use the browser extension Dark Reader and I found it a soothing low contrast.

I believe everyone who wants dark mode actually wants Dark Reader instead. Also, half of the "dark mode"-enabled sites are more toxic to my eyes than their bright versions. Dark Reader allows to set the desired brightness, contrast, grayscale, etc.

It's one of extensions that makes you instantly regret you didn't install it earlier.

Generally I prefer sites that actually implement their own dark mode.

Dark Mode Reader is good, but it's not perfect. And it makes a lot of map-based sites pretty weird.

I actually wanted reverse, dark page with pale white circle. it felt too bright.

Hover on top of page to choose bg/contrast