Bongo comments on Approving reinforces low-effort behaviors - Less Wrong

91 Post author: Yvain 17 July 2011 08:43PM

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Comment author: Bongo 16 July 2011 01:33:57AM *  7 points [-]

Consider the action of making a goal. I go to all my friends and say "Today I shall begin learning Swahili." This is easy to do. There is no chance of me intending to do so and failing; my speech is output by the same processes as my intentions, so I can "trust" it. But this is not just an output of my mental processes, but an input. One of the processes potentially reinforcing my behavior of learning Swahili is "If I don't do this, I'll look stupid in front of my friends."

I know it's only an example but it needs to be pointed out that maybe saying to all your friends that you're going to do it actually makes you less likely to do it.

Comment author: Yvain 18 July 2011 11:50:55PM 7 points [-]

I bet it depends on the condition. I'd anticipate that something very vague like "I will become a writer" would do worse when told to your friends; something very specific like "I'm going to be writing this evening" would do better, especially if the alternative is going out for drinks this evening with your friends and having them ask "Why aren't you writing?"

Comment author: BrianG 18 July 2011 03:20:10PM 2 points [-]

I was thinking about this myself, and was going to bring it up. I stopped telling people I was going to become a writer for that reason. But I think there's a difference between telling people you are going to do a thing at a vaguely determined time in the future, and telling someone you are going to commit to a task that same day.

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