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# The unbound potential of open tabs
- URL: https://www.elliotcsmith.com/the-unbound-potential-of-open-tabs/
- Published: 2026-02-18T08:25:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-18T08:25:16.000Z
- Author: Elliot Smith
- Tags: misc

I often go through a loop of visiting sites like hacker news or lobste.rs, opening half a dozen tabs in the background based on their name and then waiting days to read them. 

They sit in my list of open tabs and trigger a mild pang of guilt when I glance at them. Sometimes I save them to a 'read later list' but that just ends up moving where and when I see them. 

The odd thing is that when I do finally end up reading them, they often end up being very different from what I'd imagined.

Despite all of this the pattern continues. I know they'll sit for a while before being read. I know most of them will be mediocre but it's a habit that I can't quite break.

If I get mildly introspective there are three reasons I keep it up.

1. Sometimes, they meet expectations. This is probably just a slot machine effect but given how quickly you can close a tab, the risk is low.
2. Sometimes, what I thought the post would be about ends up being more interesting and triggers me to look into things myself.
3. Sometimes, the least frequent case, the topic isn't what I expected but there's some meta value in the style of writing that I end up enjoying.

I think there's also some value in random discovery. If I was slightly more cynical I could probably filter out most of the posts assuming I knew better. That would certainly free up a little time and likely a little RAM but I think the chance at finding something new and interesting is worth the cost.