How I Lost 260 hours and $10,000 by watching Netflix

In my post, Netflix can be replaced with any other "vice" that takes your time: Other streaming services, News, Youtube, Social Media, etc. All of them are not bad when used moderately. But when they become a drug habit things need to change, or at least for me, they must.

Netflix doesn't provide the total watch time. It gives you a watch history to view each title, but not the actual duration of every show watched. I created a script to extract all the data. The results spanked me in the face 🥴

That's $5,872 per year. Don't forget to add the $60 yearly Netflix subscription (that's how much it is in my country).

The long-term math is even scarier. Over a decade with a 7% compound interest, this would cost me $93,628 (as per my friend Claude). That's a down payment on an expensive house or a new car, gone because I need to know what happened in Stranger Things.

Ok, let's assume money means nothing 🤨 But I guess time should mean something?! It's not like I only lost 261 hours. It's more of what I could have done with that time. Some examples:

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