Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#61

Post by laurencei » Sun, Apr 24, 2022, 11:00 PM UTC

mynameisvlad wrote: post #33

khromem wrote: post #2

For my whole life, I have been dealing with bursts of motivation where I am extremely productive for several days, followed by weeks-long slumps. This yo-yo behavior does not let a person develop their skills or build anything substantial. According to my observations, people usually start working towards a goal following a temporary spike in motivation. It lasts a few days at most. Usually, it is not enough for peop…

> Is this for me? / Who is this for? Half joking, but you could have simplified these entire sections to "you have ADHD". Speaking as someone who is diagnosed with it, you more or less described the dopamine ride of a person with ADHD. The "deadlines give you superpowers" bit definitely reminded me of this video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcHQDI8NYzF/

Can I ask a bit more about your experience with this? My son has ADHD, and I'm rapidly realising that many aspects of my life correlate with the symptoms, especially in adults.

But then I get worried I'm trying to make my square peg/round hole fit the the diagnose.

Are you medicated or having any other treatment? Did it have any meaningful impact/change to your adult life?

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#62

Post by calmdown13 » Sun, Apr 24, 2022, 11:55 PM UTC

For those interested in an alternative with no monthly fees check out Kommit (https://kommit.to). Disclaimer, I am creator of Kommit.

Here is Kommit's Show HN thread for anyone interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726228

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#63

Post by maeil » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 12:52 AM UTC

I was about to get a subscription when I spotted this

> Choose a deadline as short as 3 days or as long as a month!

Why the 3 days? Is it to lessen the burden on the support staff who do the daily check ups? If I'm eager to subscribe to a service like this it means I want to use it to get stuff done I need to do starting right now, today, not something I need to get done in three days.

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#64

Post by 1123581321 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 4:33 AM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #21

nemo1618 wrote: post #13

For all the people asking how this differs from Beeminder: my first reaction was "finally, a version of Beeminder that lets me pay $1000!" Beeminder is obviously amazing, but it really "loses its sting" when you can't set a penalty higher than $25 (give or take -- I don't know what the current limit is).

> Beeminder is obviously amazing, but it really "loses its sting" when you can't set a penalty higher than $25 (give or take -- I don't know what the current limit is). Beeminder's model is a bit different, in that the payment amount keeps going up if you keep falling off track. The current upper amount you can pay is $7290 (as in once you hit $7290, it will keep charging you that amount).

Even better, you can pay Beeminder money to jump to the big penalties right away. Very clever upsell since anyone who needs to lose thousands to be motivated won’t miss a fraction of that. :)

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#65

Post by itake » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 9:06 AM UTC

khromem wrote: post #2

For my whole life, I have been dealing with bursts of motivation where I am extremely productive for several days, followed by weeks-long slumps. This yo-yo behavior does not let a person develop their skills or build anything substantial. According to my observations, people usually start working towards a goal following a temporary spike in motivation. It lasts a few days at most. Usually, it is not enough for peop…

I think you are correctly identifying the problem, but implementing the wrong solution, by your own admission.

> People start appreciating the task. They finally see hints of progression in their abilities. Are able to work for longer stretches at a time before running into something frustrating.

This part hits the nail on the head. Appreciating the task and enjoying the progression.

To me, trying to make this experience happen earlier is the solution to the problem, not creating artificial constraints that dance around the problem.

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#66

Post by vaughan » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 7:38 PM UTC

I remember using a gym app with a similar thing 10 yrs ago. I said I would run 7 days a week. Cancelled app after first week. I met my commitment and I never stopped since then.

Re: Show HN: WorkOrPay – Set goals, form contracts, pay a penalty if you fail

#67

Post by mynameisvlad » Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 3:53 PM UTC

laurencei wrote: post #61

mynameisvlad wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this for me? / Who is this for? Half joking, but you could have simplified these entire sections to "you have ADHD". Speaking as someone who is diagnosed with it, you more or less described the dopamine ride of a person with ADHD. The "deadlines give you superpowers" bit definitely reminded me of this video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcHQDI8NYzF/

Can I ask a bit more about your experience with this? My son has ADHD, and I'm rapidly realising that many aspects of my life correlate with the symptoms, especially in adults. But then I get worried I'm trying to make my square peg/round hole fit the the diagnose. Are you medicated or having any other treatment? Did it have any meaningful impact/change to your adult life?

In classic ADHD fashion, I had definitely intended to reply, started to reply, and then failed to reply, sorry!

I would say as an adult, I have built coping mechanisms and excuses for what were clearly symptoms of undiagnosed ADHD. Hyperfocus was just "being really passionate about a project", I had a million unfinished projects, both software and physical (not that I've finished most of them, but I have gotten better at it!), and I still chase the dopamine like there's no tomorrow.

What really had sealed the deal was one of my good friends getting their diagnosis and talking about it, combined with a really well timed Twitter post that said something like "an ADHD person's worst nightmare -- a 4PM meeting". Coming out of a late afternoon meeting where I physically could do nothing the entire day except think about that one meeting really pushed it home.

I am on Adderall, and it helps to an extent. It definitely plateaus, and while I'm on a low dose I'm also not keen to increase it unless needed. Another piece of it is just learning more about what ADHD is, and figuring out what's happening and what you can do about it.

One surprisingly helpful resource has been a person on social media, Connor DeWolfe (https://www.instagram.com/connor.dewolfe/) who posts comical videos that both resonate and are just eye opening because they made me second guess things I've done all my life. Things like "out of sight, out of mind" and why people with ADHD tend to leave cabinet doors open, "chasing the dopamine", the intense amount of focus you get when you are right up against a deadline, etc. It really helped me to start pointing these out in my day to day life when before they'd just be things I did.