{"slug": "brick", "name": "Brick", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.648, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-11-22", "latest": "2026-06-02", "why": "I use Brick app to lock my phone out of social media, and even tho the physical unlocking device", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Brick app to lock my phone out of social media, and even tho the physical unlocking device", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "getbrick.app", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://getbrick.app", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Brick", "BRiCk"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 773902224, "item_id": 48368889, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368889", "by": "flobosg", "date": "2026-06-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "One of the things that helped me is Brick (https://getbrick.com/), which blocks and unblocks apps using a small device with an NFC tag.", "excerpt": "One of the things that helped me is Brick (https://getbrick.com/), which blocks and unblocks apps using a small device with an NFC tag.", "context": "", "use_case": "blocking apps with NFC tag", "switched_from": "", "story": "I made my phone slow on purpose"}, {"id": 750611376, "item_id": 46913211, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913211", "by": "gh0stcat", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Their product is great, not a subscription", "excerpt": "It's bad I can't say that I did it with willpower alone but Brick helped immensely. Their product is great, not a subscription, and even though there are competitors or you could build something like this for your phone, they're good with customer service and I would recommend their product. Also, Unhook for removing suggestions/comments/etc from Youtube, you can basically turn everything off until it becomes a searc", "context": "", "use_case": "App and website blocking", "switched_from": "", "story": "TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe"}, {"id": 747961808, "item_id": 46747613, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46747613", "by": "joomy", "date": "2026-01-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The closest project I know right now that comes close to a formalized model of C++ is the BRiCk project", "excerpt": "This is another reason we are being careful with the correctness claim. The closest project I know right now that comes close to a formalized model of C++ is the BRiCk project: https://skylabsai.github.io/BRiCk/index.html https://github.com/SkyLabsAI/BRiCk", "context": "", "use_case": "C++ formal semantics", "switched_from": "", "story": "Extracting verified C++ from the Rocq theorem prover at Bloomberg"}, {"id": 736314304, "item_id": 46019644, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46019644", "by": "ekropotin", "date": "2025-11-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Brick app to lock my phone out of social media, and even tho the physical unlocking device", "excerpt": "I\u2019d guess it\u2019s very different from how most of the people consume content. The problem with smartphone is that it\u2019s always on you wherever you go, and the temptation to use it for filling every second of boredom is just too strong. iPads/laptops on another hand are just too bulky for carrying them around - in a minute of boredom you have to take deliberate action to go and grab it from whatever place it\u2019s right now. ", "context": "", "use_case": "Blocking social media apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["blocking apps with nfc tag", "app and website blocking", "c++ spec verification", "c++ formal semantics", "blocking social media apps"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46689631", "title": "Extracting verified C++ from the Rocq theorem prover at Bloomberg", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48312443", "title": "I made my phone slow on purpose", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46911869", "title": "TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46018292", "title": "Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 773902224, "item_id": 48368889, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368889", "by": "flobosg", "date": "2026-06-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "One of the things that helped me is Brick (https://getbrick.com/), which blocks and unblocks apps using a small device with an NFC tag.", "excerpt": "One of the things that helped me is Brick (https://getbrick.com/), which blocks and unblocks apps using a small device with an NFC tag.", "context": "", "use_case": "blocking apps with NFC tag", "switched_from": "", "story": "I made my phone slow on purpose"}, {"id": 750611376, "item_id": 46913211, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913211", "by": "gh0stcat", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Their product is great, not a subscription", "excerpt": "It's bad I can't say that I did it with willpower alone but Brick helped immensely. Their product is great, not a subscription, and even though there are competitors or you could build something like this for your phone, they're good with customer service and I would recommend their product. Also, Unhook for removing suggestions/comments/etc from Youtube, you can basically turn everything off until it becomes a searc", "context": "", "use_case": "App and website blocking", "switched_from": "", "story": "TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe"}, {"id": 748277889, "item_id": 46767368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46767368", "by": "mzweav", "date": "2026-01-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "use BRiCk (https://skylabsai.github.io/BRiCk/index.html) to directly verify", "excerpt": "I'm the other dev of Crane. Our current plan is to use BRiCk (https://skylabsai.github.io/BRiCk/index.html) to directly verify that the C++ implementation our STM primitives are extracted to matches the functional specification of STM. Having done that, we can then axiomatize the functional specification over our monadic, interaction tree interface and reason directly over the functional code in Rocq without needing ", "context": "", "use_case": "C++ spec verification", "switched_from": "", "story": "Extracting verified C++ from the Rocq theorem prover at Bloomberg"}, {"id": 747961808, "item_id": 46747613, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46747613", "by": "joomy", "date": "2026-01-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The closest project I know right now that comes close to a formalized model of C++ is the BRiCk project", "excerpt": "This is another reason we are being careful with the correctness claim. The closest project I know right now that comes close to a formalized model of C++ is the BRiCk project: https://skylabsai.github.io/BRiCk/index.html https://github.com/SkyLabsAI/BRiCk", "context": "", "use_case": "C++ formal semantics", "switched_from": "", "story": "Extracting verified C++ from the Rocq theorem prover at Bloomberg"}, {"id": 736314304, "item_id": 46019644, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46019644", "by": "ekropotin", "date": "2025-11-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Brick app to lock my phone out of social media, and even tho the physical unlocking device", "excerpt": "I\u2019d guess it\u2019s very different from how most of the people consume content. The problem with smartphone is that it\u2019s always on you wherever you go, and the temptation to use it for filling every second of boredom is just too strong. iPads/laptops on another hand are just too bulky for carrying them around - in a minute of boredom you have to take deliberate action to go and grab it from whatever place it\u2019s right now. ", "context": "", "use_case": "Blocking social media apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study"}]}