The author discovered that willpower alone doesn't work—he once overrode his own website blocker for 444 minutes just to scroll mindlessly. Rather than fighting his brain's cravings, he switched tactics entirely and started building friction instead. The problem wasn't obvious apps like Instagram or TikTok; it was YouTube and Reddit, the platforms he actually needed for work and genuine value. He couldn't quit them, so he decided to make them boring instead. His first moves were practical: he deleted native apps for social media and forced himself to use browsers, which are clunkier. YouTube on mobile browser is genuinely worse, so that helped. For his computer, he used LeechBlock NG to block YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and X entirely, with a 5-minute override option. But he kept clicking override. The real breakthrough came from grayscale mode on his phone—not a restriction that can be overridden, but a removal of visual appeal. He's used grayscale for over two years. He also clicks "Not interested" aggressively on feeds to make them progressively duller, and he uses Olauncher, a minimal launcher that strips distractions. When he switched to a computer that he couldn't easily put in grayscale, he wrote his own Tampermonkey userscript to deliberately wreck the UI of social sites. The script kills rounded corners, removes shadows, blurs images and videos, applies grayscale, and makes everything look like a brutalist black-and-white photocopy. The point wasn't to make these sites impossible to access—he could bypass any layer if he really wanted—but to make the default path annoying enough that he often doesn't bother. Each friction layer costs a little effort. Most of the time, when YouTube loads looking like a decrepit photocopy, he loses interest anyway. Willpower cracks, but friction holds.