The problem of self-control may be a ridiculous first world problem but it's the granddaddy of first world problems and I want to solve it. We live amidst a deluge of opportunities for instant gratification, especially in the form of food and entertainment, and most of us don't handle it well. The general problem, known as akrasia, is this: you understand your own best interests when you consider them dispassionately, but in the moment your decision-making is distorted. The best time for, say, a workout is always "tomorrow".... »
Archive for March, 2012
Flexible Self-Control
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Tags: akrasia,
beeminder,
commitment contracts,
commitment devices,
irrationality,
stickk
Posted in
Uncategorized
|
8 Comments »
About
Daniel Reeves is a co-founder of
Beeminder and
Sharad Goel is a Senior Researcher
at
Microsoft Research - New York City. They are both former members of the Microeconomics and Social
Systems (MESS) Group at Yahoo! Research.
Kelly Savage illustrates the
blog.
Archives
Tags
ai
akrasia
arrow's theorem
basketball
beeminder
calibration
commitment devices
crime
data
decision theory
economics
email
fallacies
flu
google
guest posts
homophily
insurance
investment
march madness
market
mechanism design
music
news
new york city
new york times
overconfidence
politics
prediction
psychology
rationality
real estate
rent
robots
social networks
sports
startups
sunk costs
vix
volatility
wagers
web search
wisdom of crowds
yahoo
yootles