Mental Health and Downtime

The concept of 'Doom Coding' sparks a philosophical debate about work-life balance. Commenters question the healthiness of filling every moment of downtime with productivity, suggesting that time spent waiting or commuting might be better used for rest, observation, or 'micro-exercises.' There is criticism of the compulsion to code constantly, with some arguing that being present in social situations or relaxing is more valuable than 'vibe coding' on a phone.

The debate over "doom coding" pits the drive for constant productivity against the essential need for mental stillness, with many commenters warning that replacing social media scrolling with mobile development is merely a more "productive" form of brain rot. While some proponents argue that AI tools allow for meaningful progress during commutes or waiting rooms where a laptop is impractical, critics view the practice as a physically taxing and antisocial compulsion that erodes human connection. Many instead advocate for reclaiming "dead time" through "micro-exercises," deep reflection, or total phone-free living to restore the nervous system and prevent burnout. Ultimately, the discussion highlights a growing tension between the addictive allure of the digital grind and the high value of being fully present in one’s own head.

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That seems incompatible with the parallel tasks of cleaning and cooking (at least for me, especially with kids around).

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I am still trying to understand how installing Tailscale and Claude Code then connecting to your home network externally and opening a mobile terminal on your phone is a novel idea that requires a full Github writeup.

So, I do this when I am sitting on the couch and too lazy to boot up my laptop that I normally do work on, but it never gets much further than updating, pulling or pushing one or two containers, or more times than not trying to remember what port AI have something on so I can connect the companion app to it.

It's not a bad idea in full, but "death coding" is a ridiculous notion.

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Y'all I'm as shocked as you are it's on the home page!

I'm new to hacking (come from an electrical/nuclear engineering background but never did much with software). For reference, just learned what postgres was 2 months ago.

Took a lot of tinkering to figure out but that's more a skill rather than complexity issue. Working from a laptop is certainly better, but was able to get good amount done (like building v1 of a backend and setting up a cloudflare tunnel for a PC) on a long bus ride where I would've gotten side eyes for using a laptop.

I'm no doctor but I'll bet "Doom Coding" is still not healthy but it's better than doom scrolling on X.

Thank you for the comments! I've been learning from these threads (Like tmux or dropbox article lore)

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> Great for parties where you rather be home tinkering.

I know this is probably in jest, but when someone invites you to a party it's not because they just want your atoms in the same room as them.

In regards to doom coding: I would chop off my arms before coding/prompting on a phone. Also, think about your cervical, neck etc! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

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I host weekly friend-of-friend open events where some people show up most weeks, find a nice comfortable spot to doom scroll in for a couple hours, maybe take a nap, leave, sit in their car for a bit, scroll some more, then go home.

I am just hoping they actually took a break from doom scrolling while driving as then at least I can say I had some non zero positive impact on their lives.

5 years phone-free and I do not miss it. People use them as security blankets to avoid having to be present for more than 5 minutes at a time with other people or even just exist in their own heads. I now find this behavior immature and gross but avoiding it would mean not having friends.

A smartphone is like toilet paper. No one wants to watch you use it.

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Maybe host your event in a cave if you can, no cell coverage, no Wi-Fi.

There is a bar like that where I go sometimes, it is in a cave, some people got Wi-Fi from the staff, and you have some reception if you stand near the front door, but it is mostly a network-free zone and it is great.

Another thing we did from time to time at the restaurant is to put all our phones stacked in the middle of the table, anyone who picks up his phone before the end of the meal for any reason pays the bill for everyone. So far, no one did.

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Suddenly the one good use case for lead paint becomes clear.

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Very curious to hear how you went phone-free and what your setup looks like

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I have a mini PC hooked to screens in every room other than the bedroom and bathroom, and remote controls with built in air-mouse and keyboard (pepper jobs remotes). This way anyone can pick up a controller in any room and look something up on a shared communal screen as needed, which discourages use of private screens.

When I leave home for less than a day I pack no electronics of any kind and enjoy the peace in my own head to think about the next problems I want to solve in my universe.

I pay with cash exclusively in public so tap and pay is not an issue. If I ever need to be reachable for emergencies I can carry a pager but so far this has not been worth it.

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Did not expect that: I got rid of a small screen i can carry around by putting a lot of small screen all over my house.

I put that in the same bin as all the “Stop doomscrolling” apps. You can’t prevent doomscrolling by adding another app on your phone. Get rid of the phone (and all other screens), one does not need to be able to look up everything in a moments notice. Write it down on a paper and do it later.

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I'm with you... just with gesture input as it is, I hate using my phone for much beyond a quick comment or two. I can't imagine trying to do anything technical with a phone's onscreen keyboard. Even through an AI prompt... nope, just nope.

At worst, put your ideas into a notes app and then go back to where you are... this is just anti-social and borderline psychotic imo.

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Yes to the last two 100% - hence the "doom" in doom coding! I wrote the post more as a replacement to TikTok scrolling - it feels like a worse evil, but it's still not healthy.

The UI isn't as good as a laptop but maybe it's all my years of swiping, liking, and navigating between apps. In a very sad and concerning way, phone time feels like home.

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How do you avoid doom-coding while learning or experimenting? – Ask HN

Lately I have observed this algo in myself while learning something new. I constantly code for very short bursts sometimes on the phone or laptop at night, keep jumping between tools and end up consuming more than creating. It comes off as productive but seldom compounds.

A straightforward explanation that has provided me with a helpful point of thought is.

Make a mode selection.

Did conclusions actually occur?

Most doom-coding sessions are loaded with input, no closure.

There are 2 small changes that improved it for me.

Start sessions with a small, visible output goal (one function, one note, one commit).

Time-box input aggressively. I stop scrolling after 15-20 minutes of scrolling.

At the conclusion of every session, I would write what I would do next, even if I don’t do it. ~

Wanting to know how others do this.

Do you intentionally separate learning sessions and building sessions?

Do you have any heuristics to know when you have avoided input?

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I see the article is still on the front page, I'd ignored it yesterday so I took a quick read. I find, being older, trying to read the tiny fonts on a phone to be difficult after a few minutes, otherwise cool idea.

Or, I thought it was cool until this passage reminded me, "coded a prototype in my downtime" that down time is supposed to be down time.

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> down time is supposed to be down time.

Life doesn't have down time. Should we avoid learning new things because no one is paying us to learn?

One of my favorite uses of AI is to quickly make some simple 'hello world' level application that I can run using a given technology.

Don't know what an MCP server is? Boot up Kiro and tell it you want to make a sample MCP server and ask it for suggestions on what the MCP server should do. A relatively short while later, with a lot of that time being spent letting AI do it's thing, and you can have an MCP server running on your computer. You have an AI waiting for you to ask questions about why the MCP server does x y or z or how can you get the server to do a, b or c etc

As someone who learns a lot better from doing or seeing vs reading specs, this has been monumentally more efficient than searching the web for a good blog post explaining the concept.

And when I'm doing these learning exercises, I naturally lean towards the domain my company is in because it's easier to visualize how a concept could be implemented into a workflow when I understand the current pain points of that workflow.

I'm not going home and pulling in story's from my board and working on them (generally), I'm teaching myself new concepts in a way that also positions be to contribute better to my employer.

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I use Prompt, Ever Terminal, Whisper, EC2 and Claude Code.

I can build anything with it. Having Claude on top of a terraform repo lets me fully control my infra. Claude is so good at AWS and terraform, and it even found a $3k monthly accidental spend I had running (also sent a refund request to hopefully get some credit back).

Also have a Claude driven CI workflow in GitHub to help keep everything on track.

Having full access to the Claude Code TUI is so much better than the web or iOS interface, plus everything runs on your own setup.

And agree it has replaced doom scrolling / useless new reading.

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Because, obviously, you should be spending all of your waking time thinking about LLMs, agents, and how you can integrate them into every part of your life. If you have been living properly in the age of impending-AGI, you would have already been desperately seeking more opportunities to interact with these systems. That desperation would have led you to independently discover agents and all the ways you could couple yourself to them even when away from your computer. Are you a parent stuck at home experiencing life with your kids instead of sitting at your desk? Why not escape such a hellscape by whipping out your phone and building a SaaS from your phone while your offspring annoys you with requests for attention and meaningless affection?

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Really, this whole environment of 'coding from my phone with dozens of agents while I'm doing the laundry' feels like satire of the sorts of things we used to laugh at on Linkedin.

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I agree- I think there is a good opportunity for a more slow-paced, thoughtful UX on mobile.

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Early on in my programming life, I had very limited access to a computer. I did much of my coding in my head while walking around. In some cases, I'd literally write code in my head and dump it out when I had computer access, but abstract and creative problem solving were especially natural in a detached setting. I truly believe this time was more valuable than the time at the keyboard.

If anything, I want to do more of that: get away from the device to let my mind wander. "Doom" coding sounds apt.

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Why do you ever want to code while you are running? I run to getaway from daily grind to smell the fresh air.

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Thank you! My wife was concerned, I'm glad someone out there appreciates the humor

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I use Terminus with Zellij and keep about 8 sessions going with a combination of Claude and Codex, and once in a while, Gemini. It's great when you're sitting in a docotor's office lobby bored out of your skull and when you get back to your desk you just join the session and it's all right there.

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I genuinely did that a few times. Using an ssh client to fix a commit failing CI, for example. Even launching release builds remotely. Notably once when I was on vacation and half the Scala ecosystem was waiting for me.

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Does this approach work for anyone? For my life, I've found that if I'm not behind the computer then I'm not in a productive situation anyway, even with AI access. I don't have a setting where I can concentrate for a long time and think clearly. For examole when watching children, doing groceries, during transit (probably have to change train in 20m, or walking to next destination). No convenient access to a notepad and pen. On a phone it's also inconvenient to do research.

For me personally I've found two better uses of in-between time:

1. Micro exercises. Really important for health and longevity, especially when it's hard to find dedicated time for exercise.

2. Resting. This means no phone. Yeah hard to resist doom scrolling. Just relaxing muscles and breathing exercises, calming down the nervous system. Increases long term resillience and reduces stress.

So I'm a bit puzzled. If you are in a situation where you can concentrate, why not just pull out a laptop? Typing on phone is really annoying. Even complex conversations with AI I prefer doing on a laptop.

Perhaps there are coding tasks where the prompt is not too complex and it's more about writing code. But you still have to review the result. That's even more annoying on a phone than writing text.

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I feel similarly. I am happiest and healthiest all round when I focus on the one thing I have chosen to do at any given time rather than figuring out ways to multi-task.

I do however enjoy choosing to do math/coding adjacent activities for leisure or learning sometimes when I'm away from the computer. I've found that it was a net positive in my life to add in puzzles/exercises that I can do with pen and paper in those circumstances.

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Yeah, even if I'm on a plane or a train I probably wouldn't pull out my laptop.

Lack of space, vibrations etc. even though I can do a lot of work offline if the internet is spotty. It's just not enjoyable.

I prefer to read or chill out.

I kind of envy people who are like oh yeah I coded the feature on the flight... I can't really get in the zone in that environment.

Saying that, I assumed this post was a joke. ssh to a work machine or a personal machine through a VPN is not new, even if you happen to run claude code in that terminal.

I'm interested in these "micro exercises".

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Micro exercises: It's nothing fancy. While walking in the park, watching the kids play, waiting in a queue or in the train or something, when you have a minute to spare, you can do wall push ups, isometrics, leg raises, step jacks, squats, row pull with your jacket against a pole, etc. Exercises that don't require equipment. If you get an exercise band then you can carry it with you (very light and compact) and then there will be more types of exercises you can do. This will raise some looks, but they tend not to be negative, some people even praise me for staying active in unusual contexts.

Another thing I can recommend is Chinese style radio calisthenics (guang bo ti cao, look it up on Youtube, all Chinese people learn it in primary school and do them daily at school). Full body cardio like and stretching exercises that you can do while staying in one place (you just need space around you). Takes 5-10m, better warming up than just walking and swinging arms and covers a lot of basic things. The entire approach seems virtually unknown in the west.

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It worked for me for finishing my app (vps+shellfish+gemini-cli), I've done a lot of coding like this on the train and in between sets in the gym, picking up on the more complicated stuff when at home.

But also all of the changes I made from the phone were incremental.

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^^ I probably rely on AI slop than most people on this thread. I've found with the gaps with waiting on Claude Code output match the frequency I'm already checking my phone out of addiction. By no means the healthiest way to spend my time, but if I wanted to spin up a simple website or build out the framework for a project doom coding works for me!

Agreed 100% there are healthier uses of my time!

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In between sets!? I've found that if I do any activity in between sets (like watching Twitter) I'll just end up spending way too much and then make the exercise session super long. Also I can't focus and write a serious prompt or review serious results in just or 3 minutes. But maybe it works if the app is sonething you've recently worked on and you already have very clearly in your mind what you want, it just needs to be done.

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For incremental changes 1-2 sentences are usually enough. Also, since the program itself is a workout app with live reload, I can actually fix bugs while I’m using it.

As for too long of a wait I agree, it makes the sessions longer. Ideal window is after a heavy superset where waiting for 3-5 minutes is not a waste.

(Note that I’m not doing this for my real job, just for my personal project)

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I think the problem you are having is that you are actually thinking clearly and rationally and are not suffering from this incessant brain rot that is the new normal.

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I like to "doom read" books.

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I already doom code! I’ve always found coding a highly addictive activity and struggle to stop when I should. So for me it’s a hard no thanks :-)

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This is very relatable - hence keeping "doom" in the moniker. Stay strong my friend

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How do I use a laptop while standing on a train each day? It sounds like a laptop is sufficient for you, but I suspect (based on myself and other responses in this thread) that a laptop is not always viable for many people; this tutorial appears targeted toward those people.

I’ve actually considered a neck/shoulder support for a laptop in the past but decided against it because it’d be cumbersome and make me a theft target.

As for AI, personally speaking I use AI coding tools to allow me to continue enjoying some hobby side projects with less free time available with a kid. It’s been a massive boost to my happiness in a generally low stakes area. I’m curious to see if I can get a similar unlock on my short and interrupted commute times as well, which is why I (personally) find this article interesting.

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dont try to code while standing on a train. one of many antpatterns a wise engineer should learn to avoid, as part of polishing our craft. also: dont juggle chainsaws, etc ;-)

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Guys hear me out. If you ssh into your raspberry pi or any PC you could open console and run nano text.md file. Then you can manage your todo list from any device remotely. Stop doom scrolling and start disrupting todo subscription services. /s

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