Attic Greek, and my motivations are serious and professional: I can't get the job I want without learning Greek. But on an hour to hour basis, that's still not enough pressure. My experience with myself is that I have to find something pleasurable about an activity to do it reliably. I'm just not disciplined enough to do things I find really unpleasant. Fortunately, I don't have to do unpleasant things very often, but this is an exception.
What's the job you want?
Sorry about the repeated questioning. I'm just thinking along the following lines: If you are keen to get a particular job that requires knowing Attic Greek, then presumably there are things about that job that you're keen to do for their own sake[1]; it seems likely that some of them involve actually using Attic Greek, in which case aren't there fun things you can do more of as your knowledge of the language improves?
[1] I can't think of any jobs that (a) people do just because they want the money and (b) require skill in Attic Greek.
This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for March 16-31.
Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.
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