Comment author:Bongo
16 July 2011 01:33:57AM
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7 points
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Consider the action of making a goal. I go to all my friends and say "Today I shall begin learning Swahili." This is easy to do. There is no chance of me intending to do so and failing; my speech is output by the same processes as my intentions, so I can "trust" it. But this is not just an output of my mental processes, but an input. One of the processes potentially reinforcing my behavior of learning Swahili is "If I don't do this, I'll look stupid in front of my friends."
I know it's only an example but it needs to be pointed out that maybe saying to all your friends that you're going to do it actually makes you lesslikelyto do it.
Comment author:BrianG
18 July 2011 03:20:10PM
2 points
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I was thinking about this myself, and was going to bring it up. I stopped telling people I was going to become a writer for that reason. But I think there's a difference between telling people you are going to do a thing at a vaguely determined time in the future, and telling someone you are going to commit to a task that same day.
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I know it's only an example but it needs to be pointed out that maybe saying to all your friends that you're going to do it actually makes you less likely to do it.
I was thinking about this myself, and was going to bring it up. I stopped telling people I was going to become a writer for that reason. But I think there's a difference between telling people you are going to do a thing at a vaguely determined time in the future, and telling someone you are going to commit to a task that same day.