Comments on: How To Do What You Want: Akrasia and Self-Binding

By: The fallacy of personal choice | Science Pope

The fallacy of personal choice | Science Pope — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:20:32 +0000

[...] ago. Now when I want to affect change in my personal life, I rely on something called “self binding“. Self binding, in essence, is setting up systems in the present that encourage you to make [...]

By: Quantifying the Self « The Muse Garden

Quantifying the Self « The Muse Garden — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:58:18 +0000

[...] you claim you want to do. The phenomenon that causes us to put off things we want to do is called akrasia. It happens when you go to the store intending to buy vegetables and then you see your favorite ice [...]

By: Press Roundup: What’s the Buzz? | Beeminder Blog

Press Roundup: What’s the Buzz? | Beeminder Blog — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 06:49:29 +0000

[...] we’re aware of as of the halfway point of 2012: Frances Archer (from our Kibotzer days!), Messy Matters (if that counts), Quantified Self, O’Reilly Radar, Mark Forster, MakeUseOf (and again), Jake [...]

By: dreeves

dreeves — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:30:34 +0000

@Fephisto: Great question! My view is that you should set up a commitment contract (pure negative reinforcement, I agree) as an insurance policy. Then you should use other tools to try to make the commitment contract superfluous — create new habits, etc. Commitment contracts are kind of a sledge hammer. They’ll definitely work but it kind of sucks to need them. But even worse than needing them is needing them *yet not using them*.

By: Fephisto

Fephisto — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:56:07 +0000

I know positive reinforcements have been mentioned, but…I feel like it hasn’t been mentioned well enough.

What opinion do you have on the research of, say, B.F. Skinner himself on the narrow-minded application of negative reinforcement? There have been a _lot_ of behaviorists that have published about the long-term disincentives of punishment-based systems like these.

For that matter, what do you have to say about Alfie Kohn’s research on using what is essentially entirely extrinsic motivation?

By: How To Do What You Want: Akrasia and Self-Binding | Beeminder Blog

How To Do What You Want: Akrasia and Self-Binding | Beeminder Blog — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:47:28 +0000

[...] version of this article was originally published at Messy Matters by Daniel [...]

By: Quantified Self | Beeminder Blog

Quantified Self | Beeminder Blog — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:59:05 +0000

[...] Primarily that it works as a commitment device. Most goal-tracking sites don’t work that way (nor do they want to). A notable exception is [...]

By: Toolmaker Talk: Bethany Soule & Daniel Reeves (Beeminder) | Quantified Self

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:01:16 +0000

[...] Primarily that it works as a commitment device. Most goal-tracking sites don’t work that way (nor do they want to). A notable exception is [...]

By: dreeves

dreeves — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:04:53 +0000

Thanks Margot! I’m out of my depth on rebellion psychology. Maybe if that’s the underlying psychology then there’s a way to fix the root problem and no longer suffer akrasia. But if that fails I think commitment devices are the fallback solution. It doesn’t matter *why* you’re not doing the things you know you need to do, the important thing is to force yourself to do them!

PS: Speaking of StickK, there’s a new blog post on the beeminder blog related to open-ended goals: http://blog.beeminder.com/dial

PPS: The best invite code to jump the wait list currently is IWILLSELFBIND. Beeminder is pretty focused on the commitment device aspect right now.

By: Margot

Margot — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:47:34 +0000

Great article. Something I’ve been struggling with for a long while.
Do you, or others you know, have any thoughts on the link between akrasia and rebellion.
For example, when I was a kid, I rebelled often against behavioral rules imposed by
my parents. These were always looking toward the future (it will make you stronger, better,
faster, healthier, nicer). I notice that now for me akrasia does not seem so much a thing
of rewards now vs later, but more this ingrained rebellion, now against my own rules.
Of course, it will all be mixed up, but I wondered if other people had similar experiences.
I do understand that learned behavior, especially that consolidated over years when
growing up, is hard to break through.

In the meantime, I will try beeminder.
I’ve successfully done one or two things with StickK but the problem, as you say, is
that these are long term goals.