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Show HN: I made a site that lets you punish yourself
- worldsavior 3y agoUmm. lol.
- MarkVenison 3y agoHaha
- 8organicbits 3y agoI remember a site that would donate your money to a political charity you hated if you didn't complete your goal. That approach may have more sting, but this site is clearly better at funding itself.
- dreeves 3y agoThat's our (Beeminder's) esteemed, if now somewhat moribund, competitor, StickK. See https://blog.beeminder.com/anticharity https://blog.beeminder.com/anticharity for our argument against anti-charities like that.
- deadbabe 3y agoThe money should be destroyed. Then, it will benefit everyone a little bit.
- agilob 3y agoCentral Banks print money faster than we could destroy :(
- matheusmoreira 3y agoDestroying money is illegal though.
- bogwog 3y agoSomeone has to take one for the team
- MarkVenison 3y agoI didn't know this.
- mattl 3y agoIs this a Nathan for You episode?
- kevinyew 3y agoI didn't know Typeform offered payment processing, huh.
- julienreszka 3y agoIt's in the paid plan
- landgenoot 3y agoFor 100$, I'd expect some kind of validation of the accomplishment of my goal while the amount is reserved on my credit card. But this app seems very low effort get rich quick to me, powered by typeform.
- spacemadness 3y agoThe $100 goes right to the web dev? What a joke.
- julienreszka 3y agoThe idea is humorous. However, - The incentives are misaligned. - Meta studies in behavioural psychology show you learn from success not mistakes. Good luck
- Waterluvian 3y agoI feel like my entire life experience invalidates that second point.
- julienreszka 3y agoThat's probably just a coping mechanism
- Waterluvian 3y agoWe need to commission more scientific studies so that I can know what I think.
- axoltl 3y agoI wonder if this is a very narrow definition of failure. Perhaps few things are ever truly a failure, but more a partial success?
- Waterluvian 3y agoYeah perhaps. To the point it’s just an unhelpful study on semantics? On the weekend our high school robotics team learned three ways not to bend 1/4” lexan and then one way how to, that combined learnings from the failures. I’m not sure what meaning or value that bullet point can have if we just redefine “oh well all those snapped and bubbled pieces were just partial successes.”
- j000 3y ago[flagged]
- 3y ago
- NateEag 3y agoThis is an interesting concept. Congrats on launching - that's an achievement! Are you familiar with beeminder? It uses the same concept, but is perhaps more complicated than your straightforward pitch. Any thoughts on how they compare?
- Retr0id 3y agoIt would be more interesting if you pre-approved the transaction for some set date in the future (the task due date), which you cancel on completion of the task. This also guarantees "punishment" in the event that you forget about it. I would genuinely consider using something like this iff ~90% of the money went to a charity of my choice (with the rest as a platform/transaction fee)
- landgenoot 3y agoSo just schedule a bank transfer to your charity? 100% will go to them if you don't cancel.
- Retr0id 3y agoSetting up a scheduled bank transfer is exactly the sort of task that would spend too long on my todo list in the first place.
- Volundr 3y agoI think there's an interesting bit of human psychology on display here, where signing up for this service wouldn't be lost in the depths of a to-do list, but scheduling an equivalent bank transfer would.
- 8organicbits 3y agoI wonder if it's mostly the ease of use of credit card payment versus the scheduled payment system of a bank website. The latter being more complex as you need to specify the destination vs a payment where you just enter your details.
- threesevenths 3y agoThere is a time window for how long you can hold an authorization on cards otherwise it’ll expire. IIRC, 30 days is standard for most payment processors. Longer term goals would require a charge and a refund, and most processors still charge fees even if the amount is refunded.
- 0xAFFFF 3y agoImpressive feat to remove the gym part out of a gym membership.
- yurishimo 3y agoI'm literally doing this same idea currently but I pay a friend instead. They are under no obligation to give me my money back at a later date and I'm not expecting them to. The key is that I have to give them cash, so every time I check in with them and have not completed my goal, I have to take out my wallet, grab the money, and hand it to them. My first check in for the year is coming up this weekend and I'm not looking forward to even going to the ATM, much less paying them if I didn't meet my goal!
- andersonmvd 3y agoDoes it impact your friendship? I'd guess you may resent them if they kept a lot of money, especially when you need the money. Or you may start avoiding them completely when you're aware that you didn't achieve a given goal, no? I guess for small amounts it may work but on the long run it seems like a trap.
- MarkVenison 3y agoin my experience (I did pay a few hundred bucks to a friend back in the day) it worked because I felt very bad about giving money like this to someone.
- yurishimo 3y agoI just started, so can't really comment on that. So far, it seems fine? We're not talking about life changing amounts of money here; 50 bucks a month at most. The point for me is to accomplish my goal so I don't have to pay them because I'm a cheapskate.
- MarkVenison 3y agoThis is exactly where I got the idea from. I was doing the same thing with a friend many years ago.
- gtirloni 3y agoMore?
- srijan4 3y agoA much better alternative for this is: https://www.beeminder.com/ https://www.beeminder.com/
- czbond 3y agoEveryone has to start somewhere, right?
- jdawg777 3y agoI like this, but I feel like the money should go to charity with a transaction fee going to Beeminder.
- dreeves 3y agoHi! Beeminder cofounder here. We do have a charity option but only in our most expensive premium plan. My own feeling is that a commitment contract with a charity as a beneficiary is less effective because what kind of jerk is motivated to avoid donating to charity? Unless you set the stakes so high that you can't really afford it, I guess?
- andersonmvd 3y agoRelated thread: Boss as a Service – Hire a boss, get stuff done (bossasaservice.life) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18512197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18512197
- maxverse 3y agoClassic Pieter Levels project: https://www.gofuckingdoit.com https://www.gofuckingdoit.com
- 8organicbits 3y agoButton seems broken on firefox/android. What does this one do?
- dewey 3y agoThis type of app has been built so many times now.
- MarkVenison 3y agoI noticed as well actually :)
- maxverse 3y agoCongrats on launching; it's a big step that a lot of people shy away from. And congrats on the traction and comments you're getting! I think there's nothing wrong with entering a crowded market or building an alternative to similar existing products - but I also think you need something to differentiate your offering! I'm not sure what that is for this product, but I think it's great that you launched and hopefully v the experience will help you design your next offering.
- joshmit 3y agohttps://www.forfeit.app/ https://www.forfeit.app/ is a similar one (YC W23)