...is just us not wanting to admit, to others or to ourselves, what our actual desires are
That's definitely a possible mistake. Sort of reminds me of how people say, "everyone acts rationally because they always do what they want to do. It is impossible to be irrational!" This isn't true, however, if you're trying to maximize utility within your expected lifetime.
But I think most of us use the word to categories the the feeling that arises from wanting to (not) want something. Because, after all, we aren't just trying to maximize utility for the moment we are in.
People have been encouraging me to share my anti-akrasia tricks, but it feels inappropriate to dedicate a top-level post solely to unproven techniques that work for some person and may not work for others, so:
Go ahead and share your anti-akrasia tricks!
Let's make it an open thread where we just share what works and what doesn't, without worrying (yet) about having to explain tricks with deep theories, or designing proper experiments to verify them. However, if you happen to have a theory or a proposed experiment in mind, please share.
Bragging is fine, but please share the failures of your techniques as well – they are just as valuable, if not more.
Note to readers – before you read the comments and try the tricks, keep in mind that the techniques below are not yet
provensupported or explained by proper experiments, and are not yet backed by theory. They may work for their authors, but are not guaranteed to work for you, so try them at your own risk. It would be even better to read the following posts before rushing to try the tricks: