roland comments on Fighting Akrasia: Incentivising Action - Less Wrong

8 Post author: gworley 29 April 2009 01:48PM

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Comment author: roland 26 July 2011 01:18:12AM 0 points [-]

You raise good points and I think I mostly agree.

From my own experience I know how much a good social environment can help. In my current job the support and inspiration from other group members has greatly helped me with getting things done(as opposed to doing them on my own). I think a lot of the problems with procrastination is that many of the tasks we do nowadays are no longer group tasks, instead we do them on our own like:

  • writing a report
  • programming
  • researching something etc...
Comment author: taryneast 26 July 2011 10:34:04AM 1 point [-]

Agreed, a supportive social environment is definitely a good thing. Especially if you surround yourself with peers who think it's normal to do what you're trying to achieve, for example - eat healthily and play sports, or who think rationally and get things done.

I think there's a big difference between "supportive friends" and "a drill-instructor whose job it is to motivate you". I think the latter is purely external motivation, whereas the former lets you set up an environment conducive to intrinsic motivation.