4 ms·

On the goodness of Beeminder

21 points by MikeCapone 14y ago

MikeCapone 14y ago
First time I hear about this startup -- sorry if it's been mentioned a lot before here. It seems like they designed their product well to counter known cognitive biases. I'll be giving it a try with some things I'd like to do more of and form habits around.
- dreeves 14y ago
  You may remember us from such recent Hacker News hits as... (Troy McClure voice) http://weusethat.com http://weusethat.com -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357348 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357348 http://gmailzero.com http://gmailzero.com -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107004 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107004 Portland Seed Fund -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2447641 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2447641 Seriously though, excited to have you try us out! We're still pretty new and eager for feedback. We know we have a long way to go in terms of friendliness of the site.
borplk 14y ago
"If you go off track, you pledge money to stay on the road the next time. If you go off track again, we charge you." I don't like this idea. Doesn't it encourage them to get you off-track? It becomes an incentive for the company to move against the very goal that it was created for.
- dreeves 14y ago
  Funny you should ask! We just blogged about that tonight: http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse
  - tkahn6 14y ago
    Does the money go all to Beeminder or primarily to a charity (with a cut to Beeminder)?
    - thomie 14y ago
      From https://www.beeminder.com/runkeeper https://www.beeminder.com/runkeeper [?] What happens to the money when you derail? Beeminder gets it. We hope you'll view it as a fair fee for the service, that happens to be waived if you never go off track. If you'd rather the money go to charity we highly recommend RunOrElse. From http://runorelse.com/index.php/public/faq?id=6&q=Where+does+my+money+go%3F http://runorelse.com/index.php/public/faq?id=6&q=Where+d... If you feel more motivated knowing that a greater percentage of your money would go to charity you might try Stickk.com, if you would be more motivated with none of your money going to charity at all you should check out Beeminder.com
- naner 14y ago
  Doesn't it encourage them to get you off-track? Sure, but if they actually did so they would quickly lose customers. You have to trust that the system is helping before you would buy into it. The service is based on the pain of losing being a more powerful motivator than the pleasure of gaining something new (when the reward and loss are of equal value). When I first learned of the bias (it is listed with a few similar motivational tricks in The 4-Hour Body) a very basic version of this type of service immediately popped into my head, I'm glad to see someone ran with it. I hope they're very successful, it is a cool project and kind of turns traditional income techniques on their head.
chetan51 14y ago
Sounds great! Is there a mobile version by any chance?
- dreeves 14y ago
  We're working on Android and iOS apps! The Android version is actually far enough along that we don't feel too embarrassed pointing more hardcore folks to it. APK at http://dreev.es/ba http://dreev.es/ba
erez 14y ago
Any connection with Hiveminder (hiveminder.com)? Both are ToDo lists with reminders etc, both have a bee icon, and the names are all but identical.
- dreeves 14y ago
  Danny of Beeminder here. Surprisingly this is the first time I've heard that question. No, no connection. Beeminder actually doesn't have a ToDo list aspect (despite having reminders).

21 points by MikeCapone 14y ago

First time I hear about this startup -- sorry if it's been mentioned a lot before here. It seems like they designed their product well to counter known cognitive biases. I'll be giving it a try with some things I'd like to do more of and form habits around.

dreeves 14y ago
You may remember us from such recent Hacker News hits as... (Troy McClure voice) http://weusethat.com http://weusethat.com -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357348 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357348 http://gmailzero.com http://gmailzero.com -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107004 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4107004 Portland Seed Fund -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2447641 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2447641 Seriously though, excited to have you try us out! We're still pretty new and eager for feedback. We know we have a long way to go in terms of friendliness of the site.

borplk 14y ago

"If you go off track, you pledge money to stay on the road the next time. If you go off track again, we charge you." I don't like this idea. Doesn't it encourage them to get you off-track? It becomes an incentive for the company to move against the very goal that it was created for.

dreeves 14y ago
Funny you should ask! We just blogged about that tonight: http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse http://blog.beeminder.com/perverse
- tkahn6 14y ago
  Does the money go all to Beeminder or primarily to a charity (with a cut to Beeminder)?
  - thomie 14y ago
    From https://www.beeminder.com/runkeeper https://www.beeminder.com/runkeeper [?] What happens to the money when you derail? Beeminder gets it. We hope you'll view it as a fair fee for the service, that happens to be waived if you never go off track. If you'd rather the money go to charity we highly recommend RunOrElse. From http://runorelse.com/index.php/public/faq?id=6&q=Where+does+my+money+go%3F http://runorelse.com/index.php/public/faq?id=6&q=Where+d... If you feel more motivated knowing that a greater percentage of your money would go to charity you might try Stickk.com, if you would be more motivated with none of your money going to charity at all you should check out Beeminder.com
naner 14y ago
Doesn't it encourage them to get you off-track? Sure, but if they actually did so they would quickly lose customers. You have to trust that the system is helping before you would buy into it. The service is based on the pain of losing being a more powerful motivator than the pleasure of gaining something new (when the reward and loss are of equal value). When I first learned of the bias (it is listed with a few similar motivational tricks in The 4-Hour Body) a very basic version of this type of service immediately popped into my head, I'm glad to see someone ran with it. I hope they're very successful, it is a cool project and kind of turns traditional income techniques on their head.

chetan51 14y ago

Sounds great! Is there a mobile version by any chance?

dreeves 14y ago
We're working on Android and iOS apps! The Android version is actually far enough along that we don't feel too embarrassed pointing more hardcore folks to it. APK at http://dreev.es/ba http://dreev.es/ba

erez 14y ago

Any connection with Hiveminder (hiveminder.com)? Both are ToDo lists with reminders etc, both have a bee icon, and the names are all but identical.

dreeves 14y ago
Danny of Beeminder here. Surprisingly this is the first time I've heard that question. No, no connection. Beeminder actually doesn't have a ToDo list aspect (despite having reminders).