0sn comments on Share Your Anti-Akrasia Tricks - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Vladimir_Golovin 15 May 2009 07:06PM

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Comment author: 0sn 16 May 2009 12:15:57AM 8 points [-]

Having someone watch me. Works four out of five times. From talking to other people it has a much higher success rate, but I'm still trying to figure out what's akrasia and what's an executive functioning deficit resulting from minor frontal lobe damage.

I have a friend who hires people to sit across from her at work. Pays for itself with the extra work she can get done.

Stepping back and watching the meat-I-am start to do stuff helps too, but not nearly as often, and I only learned that trick a few weeks ago -- from this site.

Comment author: Vladimir_Golovin 16 May 2009 07:40:00AM *  3 points [-]

I wonder if sticking a poster of a person looking at you to a nearby wall would help to trick the mind into believing that it's being watched.

I vaguely remember reading an article (or a book chapter? Freakonomics?) about a bagel experiment like this one, where putting a picture of a face on the bagel box has reduced the theft rate.

Comment author: scotherns 18 May 2009 09:02:10AM 5 points [-]

This certainly works for me. I find I can get a significant increase in performance at the gym when I use the machines that are facing towards the posters of attractive women, compared to the otherwise identical machines facing the windows. I know its a trick, and I know why it works, but that doesn't stop it from working :-)

Comment author: JGWeissman 16 May 2009 01:08:12AM 1 point [-]

Having someone watch me.

I find I can achieve this effect by publicly committing to a goal. Which is good, because having someone watch me would likely be counterproductive, as I need to feel free to explore an idea that might turn out not to work.

Comment author: [deleted] 16 May 2009 12:36:54AM *  3 points [-]

del

Comment author: Jack 16 May 2009 09:24:49PM 8 points [-]

Shouldn't this mean theists suffer less akrasia? (Not that that is impossible, it is just a very interesting conclusion!)

Comment author: [deleted] 17 May 2009 01:16:28PM *  0 points [-]

del