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michaelsullivan comments on Pain and gain motivation - Less Wrong
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This rings true in general, and yet I can see at least one or two negative hangups in my own life and the life of friends and family where there is a significant non-bogus threat associated with failure (or success) of a particular task.
Do you have techniques which address such situations? It would seem getting rid of the negative motivator completely could be impossible in such situations, short of delusion or intentional forgetfulness/detachment.
You need to remember that positive and negative motivation are managed by distinct brain subsystems. You can have a positive preference for something, without also having a negative preference for the lack of it.
For example, I can have a strong preference for health, without being in constant fear of getting sick.
It's also true, for instance, that failure to look both ways when you cross the street carries a "significant non-bogus threat", but for a normal person, this doesn't induce any negative motivation.
In short, removing the negative motivation is not the same as eliminating your preference -- the two motivational systems have a fairly high degree of redundancy.