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There's another counter to this. If you announce your plans but put a penalty on it for non-accomplishment it acts as a commitment device. You should read abo

There's another counter to this. If you announce your plans but put a penalty on it for non-accomplishment it acts as a commitment device. You should read about commitment devices in general but the idea is they FORCE you to do something you know you're probably not going to do. A good example is to tell your friend you're going to run a marathon and if you don't you'll give her $1000.

wool_gather 7y ago
The way you phrased that kind of makes it sound like just another commitment to be avoided. Wouldn't you need to do something more like "give your friend $1000 in escrow and tell her she should only give it back to you if you run the marathon"?
- yebyen 7y ago
  This depends how trustworthy you are in general, and is definitely an interesting question. Would Gandhi take a pill which made him 1% less likely to not commit any murders, if it meant receiving a million dollars with no other strings attached? The answer seems to be, "he would use a Schelling Fence" if that was an option. https://blog.beeminder.com/schelling/ https://blog.beeminder.com/schelling/ https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SdkAesHBt4tsivEKe/gandhi-murder-pills-and-mental-illness https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SdkAesHBt4tsivEKe/gandhi-mur...
gadders 7y ago
You can go to a website like https://www.stickk.com/ https://www.stickk.com/ and set up your commitment contract there.
- BeetleB 7y ago
  Or Beeminder: https://www.beeminder.com https://www.beeminder.com
  - yebyen 7y ago
    Here's the Beeminder twitter account, earlier this month giving a link to their response to this exact question: https://twitter.com/bmndr/status/1169303739657682944 https://twitter.com/bmndr/status/1169303739657682944 (tl;dr: they don't agree that announcing your goals makes you less likely to accomplish them. Which should not be surprising, to anyone who has already heard of Beeminder.)

wool_gather 7y ago

The way you phrased that kind of makes it sound like just another commitment to be avoided. Wouldn't you need to do something more like "give your friend $1000 in escrow and tell her she should only give it back to you if you run the marathon"?

yebyen 7y ago
This depends how trustworthy you are in general, and is definitely an interesting question. Would Gandhi take a pill which made him 1% less likely to not commit any murders, if it meant receiving a million dollars with no other strings attached? The answer seems to be, "he would use a Schelling Fence" if that was an option. https://blog.beeminder.com/schelling/ https://blog.beeminder.com/schelling/ https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SdkAesHBt4tsivEKe/gandhi-murder-pills-and-mental-illness https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SdkAesHBt4tsivEKe/gandhi-mur...

gadders 7y ago

You can go to a website like https://www.stickk.com/ https://www.stickk.com/ and set up your commitment contract there.

BeetleB 7y ago
Or Beeminder: https://www.beeminder.com https://www.beeminder.com
- yebyen 7y ago
  Here's the Beeminder twitter account, earlier this month giving a link to their response to this exact question: https://twitter.com/bmndr/status/1169303739657682944 https://twitter.com/bmndr/status/1169303739657682944 (tl;dr: they don't agree that announcing your goals makes you less likely to accomplish them. Which should not be surprising, to anyone who has already heard of Beeminder.)