I have certainly felt that before. I was just recently wondering if it would still bother me.

I think it only would because I’ve been enjoying giving @grayruby endless shit for being behind me. That’s a more positive and communal reason, right?

Of course, have no idea what it’s like to have such a glorious streak as you’ve maintained.

Literally just read this article this morning. Something in the virtual air about streaks, I guess.

I do like having my (small) cowboy streak. And I do appreciate that it's effectively value-less (losing the streak or hat doesn't mean you gain daily rewards at a slower pace when you come back, for instance, unlike the login streaks used in some games). But it does have the ability for those of us with any tendency towards the dopamine fix (which is a lot of folks) to create the sort of feelings you're feeling right now (and that I'd likely be experiencing if I were about to be offline).

Anyway, I hope you get the mental reset you need (whether or not the cowboy hat is involved).

I have this sense frequently when I spend too much time on SN. I equate it to experiences I have had in a corporate employment setting, where something trivial that has no real meaning beyond the culture of the organization can affect me profoundly.

Taking a break whilst still retaining your streak, is definitely a positive and just requires a little discipline. Provided you are still connected, I would encourage you to take the necessary steps to maintain it each and every morning, not let your day start without investing those few minutes.

Yours is similarly timed to mine, after going ham Q4 and into Q1 this year. Hope to be back and fully recharged in the months to come. Whilst hopefully not losing my ragged sun-bleached hat in the process.

I hope you return after this mental reset because your posts and comments add much value to SN.

I finally surpassed my longest streak of around ~150 which I lost by accident. It definitely is on my mind

I think there is room to care even more about the streak.

I floated an idea early on in my @sn journey to make the hat part of the dress code required to enter the stacker saloon. It was abruptly shut down by @natalia.

Yet it lingers in my mind, conceptually, as a compelling way to reward streakers. I am coming back to this idea with a more nuanced approach: If the streak length is a parameter that can be used for admission to a territory that is impassable until 10, 100, 200, <insert parameter> days, it seems that this would add to the mystique and value of maintaining the hat and gate keep the space to the more dedicated. In the eventuality that @sn scales and becomes wildly successful, an idea like this may gain more traction to reduce the noise. Who knows, making the hat the key to hidden treasures might play its role in helping @sn scale. It would certainly support the economics of it. Thoughts?

Yeah, that's why I stopped doing my hat. I don't like being dependent on something.

It was a small thing in the back of my mind every day.

Cognitive load should be protected!

However I'm quite young here. I would love holding it for SN community rather SN platform. The Cowboy Hat gives me a sense of unity for one purpose.

In my initial days, I maintained it for a few days then lost it for I had a minor accident. I've again started to maintain this streak. And, you can say, I'm in much love with the hat.

Amazing post! I always wonder how do writers make a simple topic so interesting!

BTW, I'm not running behind the cap, to be clear. I like it but you're right "its tapping jngo a different vibe". Maintaining the streak depends on a lot of things.. Whenever I go to my village which is a little cut off from network coverage. Inside of Mt house there we can't even call someone. So, if o go there, which I do once in a month for 2 to 4 days stay.. I will be losing the hat for this reason. Also, I go there for some of agriculture work, I become busy in those work.

I'm going there tomorrow. So, may be I lose the hat. But what's amazing about it that you can get it once again. What you don't get is just a number.

I have been thinking of this lately, too. Is it worth the effort to keep the hat? I like having it, dont get me wrong, but I also feel like I am keeping it for the wrong reasons. I have to do a bit of self reflection to figure this out.

Hello, thinking about this topic is an interesting idea, especially for people like me who use sleep so irregularly that they write here every few days, but they wear a cowboy hat for one day, like me. I wish you to regenerate your strength and produce high-quality new thoughts, experiences and pass them on to us in a helpful way, we are only human and some will find similar problems and here are the solutions to them. Returning to the main topic, it is true that programs with various counters give us a psychological effect of maintaining the results we have achieved, which motivates us to further self-discipline. I hope that you will have time to fill this space with substantive texts in a way that will not tire you out.

I had a similar experience with losing a streak not too long ago and wrote about it here and here.

For me, learning to not obsess over a streak and instead zoom out has helped me to I guess liberate myself from the negative feeling that begins to creep in when something becomes all about the streak instead of it's underlying and meaningful purpose. I've lost my streak of writing a post everyday on SN, but this pause in writing has allowed me to step back and write when I truly have something of value to share, and also has shifted my focus to commenting more instead of just posting on the days I don't have the inspiration or ideas to write my own.

There will be discomfort whenever you stray away from a habit that your brain has become accustomed to, but I think it's important that we intermittently break away from our routines for a 'mental reset' as you mentioned. Enjoy your reset!

I remember an engineer chiding Fold for their spin streaks, when a designer from Fold presented them: "those of us well versed in psychology know this is designed to create behavior and those of us are repulsed by the effort." The designer's response was that they've tested it and it's a mixed bag in favor of the streaks - more people report liking the streak more than they report hating it, at least when asked.

I think part of what makes streaks fun is that they create negative feelings (feelings of virtual loss to be specific) that we have the power to trivially resolve. I think of it in contrast to a video game that you can't lose - what joy is there in winning or can a game without the possibility of losing even be won?

I know you're only bringing this up because it's interesting. For anyone that doesn't like the extraness of the game, we made it so it can be turned off in settings. In general, I think people enjoy being able to win something trivial more than they hate losing something trivial. I also think it's worth viewing these things cynically, but it's better to be able to separate a zero sum game from a positive sum one.

Sort of related, but I recall someone I respect saying around the time SN launched that "you are the product on social media so why would you be someone else's product." I don't know if they were thinking of SN when they said that, but it rings the same to me as the engineer's rejection of Fold's streaks. Not all behavior games are nefarious nor are all social media companies, even if all behavior games and social media companies will trigger a poorly adjusted fight or flight response (which I'm certainly guilty of myself tbh).

Ever since I have gotten a streak I want to do everything in my power to maintain & grow it! What I recommend if you want to maintain it, is maybe right out 14 days of content, and simply post each day. Obiously, the posts won't be up to date with current events.

How exactly do these streaks work? I posted my travel journal every day for 8 days straight, but my longest streak on SN is three days

Hedonistic adaptation has applied its effect on me, n I’m confident that if I were to lose my cowboy hat tomorrow, I won’t be as devastated as I would be at the beginning stages of my streak.

174 days. I have a good run.

Though I don’t want to intentionally lose my cowboy hat.

So I post and comment even on days when I feel like giving myself a digital detox. I went four days without posting once, so I know I’m not that addicted lol.

On days when I feel motivated, I regard the cowboy hat as symbolic of something bigger: that I have the discipline to write something for 174 consecutive days, be it a post or a comment. And since I cross-post my stuff here on my blog, keeping the cowboy hat means that I’m keeping my dream of earning from Google Adsense alive. I’m a go-getter!

I hated losing my cowboy hat streak last November but I found ending my daily sports post streak quite liberating.