The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do

Post by tryitnow » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #72

whack wrote: post #71

I have a pet theory than the reason people procrastinate, is because they don't concretely identify their future selves, as being the "same person" as their present self. Rather, they view their future self as an abstract person, more akin to a friend, than self. This level of relatedness varies with time as well. People identify very strongly with their future self from tomorrow, perhaps akin to their best friend. B…

I doubt it's that complex. Occam's razor suggests a simpler explanation: there is discomfort in starting a task, therefore people delay starting that task. It's a pain avoidance strategy, which sounds much more likely than some self-referential, future-self theory.

Post by jpindar » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #75

whack wrote: post #71

I have a pet theory than the reason people procrastinate, is because they don't concretely identify their future selves, as being the "same person" as their present self. Rather, they view their future self as an abstract person, more akin to a friend, than self. This level of relatedness varies with time as well. People identify very strongly with their future self from tomorrow, perhaps akin to their best friend. B…

I've heard of one technique to fight akrasia which relies on your theory. It's an exercise where you contemplate you future self as a friend, whose is immediately benefits from your actions. So if you're trying to not eat an extra serving of cake you imagine your future self as a friend who gets fat when you eat that extra serving.

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 9:36 PM UTC

bernardino wrote: post #23

What helped me get down to deep work was doing away with the nonessentials, i.e. a lot of physical material things, all forms of entertainment, the internet especially, inner clutter like comparing myself to others, etc. Seneca once noted in his Moral letters to Lucilius , “Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but…

Post by cwkoss » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #74

olooney wrote: post #3

"Reduce friction to start" is a huge one for me. Especially if "starting" is a bunch of busywork like writing a Dockerfile, initializing a git repo, creating package metadata files, etc. I've found it helpful to just dive in and start writing the "fun" part first and turn it into a "real" project later. Usually after an hour of coding or less I feel I've created something of value that I want to save and reuse so the…

That has always been the biggest turn off for me as well. Setting up everything takes too long and I like just jumping straight into the project. My gym is right behind my desk, I have 0 excuses to workout almost everyday

Post by benchaney » Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 10:54 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #72

whack wrote: post #71

I have a pet theory than the reason people procrastinate, is because they don't concretely identify their future selves, as being the "same person" as their present self. Rather, they view their future self as an abstract person, more akin to a friend, than self. This level of relatedness varies with time as well. People identify very strongly with their future self from tomorrow, perhaps akin to their best friend. B…

I doubt it's that complex. Occam's razor suggests a simpler explanation: there is discomfort in starting a task, therefore people delay starting that task. It's a pain avoidance strategy, which sounds much more likely than some self-referential, future-self theory.