= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Emile comments on Me and M&Ms - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (12)
Can I ask a silly question? My understanding of your situation is that you want to get your work done, but sometimes you don't have the willpower, so you use your M&M system for motivation. But then you are faced with the possibility of just eating a bunch of M&M's without doing anything. And there is no meta-M&M system to motivate you to keep from eating M&M's. So I don't see how this can actually help you. Empirically, it clearly does, but I have trouble understanding how. Why is it easier to keep from eating M&M's "on your own" and leverage that ability to motivate you to do work, than it is to keep doing work "on your own" in the first place?
If I have just ruined the effect, I sincerely apologize...
I'm assuming because "don't eat undeserved M&Ms" is a clear, simple and binary rule - breaches are obvious, so there's not much of a temptation to rationalize them. "Work on my stuff" is broad and fuzzy and has plenty of room for excuses like "I'm a bit tired today", "I deserve to rest", "I'll do it tomorrow', etc.
That makes sense.