💾 Archived View for altesq.net › ~evenfire › posts › a-puller-computing-paradigm.gmi captured on 2023-09-08 at 16:05:16. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-03-20)
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The unrestricted flow of information towards our computing devices needs to be stopped because it makes us lose control of the level of information we want to see, resulting in an informational overload.
As I'm trying to switch to a more offline computing life style, I've found that once I go check for something (e.g. email, IRC ect.) I usually get blocked into that task and lose more time than I'd like to.
So one day, when I was looking at my email, I thought, why not apply the pull principle of email to everything, instead of the default push? You connect once to the internet, you sync everything, and you can go on with your life just fine, not requiring a constant internet connection that is prone to kill your attention.
Obviously, most new programs nowadays are not at all made for that kind of computing paradigm, instead they constantly fetch and deliver new shiny things for you to lose your time at. Email is one of the only ways of communication in which this principle can be applied, leaving time for thought, being able to respond at your own leisure.
I'm working on a set of scripts that apply this to various things, such as IRC, RSS, Gemini ect. They're run with a crond, so it's not aimed at being something complex. For IRC, I've found a hacky workaround of using the ii client, because it uses text files I can copy new messages in chunks.
Ploum's do-the-internet.sh has helped me in the beginning with my offline journey, and has inspired all of this. It's a very nifty script, I recommend checking it out if you're interested in adapting such a way of computing.
I hope to apply this to my full computing experience eventually, although I'm not progressing that well on it at the moment, for example I still check IRC with a normal client more often than not, rather than my script, or I stay connected.