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

jamesclear.com

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

#151

Post by scotty79 »

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 have a pet theory that procrastination is mostly caused by fear of failure and having two sets of valuations. One overt, reasonable that makes us create plans and one internal, emotional, that makes us not following them because the thing we won't to achieve is worth barely anything in that system.

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

#152

Post by kentrado »

dang wrote: post #150
kentrado wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You started off by misrepresenting Nietzsche's views and now you say that she effectively criticized him but dare not mention what that criticism was. I was trying to extract some substance from you, but now I see that will not be possible.

Personal swipes will get you banned here. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What personal swipe?

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

#153

Post by kentrado »

beat wrote: post #142
kentrado wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You started off by misrepresenting Nietzsche's views and now you say that she effectively criticized him but dare not mention what that criticism was. I was trying to extract some substance from you, but now I see that will not be possible.

Borderline ad hominem is not a strong argument. But I'll try to respond. First, note that any response will be necessarily shallow and inadequate. I don't know what your level of familiarity is with Nietzsche, but since you didn't know who Simone de Beauvoir is, I assume you know nothing of mid-20th century French existentialism (Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir). My own understanding of Nietzsche is admittedly shallow, bu…

What bordeline ad hominem?

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

#154

Post by solipsism »

toyg wrote: post #124
solipsism wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy (or at least easier) to be open and honest about our faults and failures when no one is telling us we'll burn in eternal damnation for them.

I despise religions as the next man, but they are as popular as they are for a reason: they usually include collections of practical strategies to achieve your goals in life, which actually work very well for a lot of people. The most skilful ones have accumulated millennia of empirical testing and refinements. There is a lot of top-notch “self-help” advice buried in religious teachings, if you can ignore the superst…

These norms and best practices don't spawn from religion. They come from human civilization. Many happen to be encoded in religions, but they're not "only" encoded in religions.

Most (all?) of the useful "self help" is available elsewhere, as common knowledge or encoded into social norms or pushed by other organizations (e.g. sports or boy/girl scouts or whatever).

My point is that there's no special knowledge to be found in religions and I'm happy to recommend ignoring them, since they tend to be full of more bad than good.

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

#155

Post by dang »

kentrado wrote: post #152
dang wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal swipes will get you banned here. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What personal swipe?

"I was trying to extract some substance from you, but now I see that will not be possible."

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

#156

Post by kentrado »

dang wrote: post #155
kentrado wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What personal swipe?

"I was trying to extract some substance from you, but now I see that will not be possible."

How is that an insult? He was being ambiguous. Explain to me in detail how is that an insult.

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

#157

Post by cbau »

bernardino wrote: post #64
cbau wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually stop paying for internet? It's something I've been thinking about. Were any parts surprising difficult?

No, I have not. But that's definitely something to think about. It would certainly be nice. You ever hear about how it's better to study at a library rather than at home? That's certainly a good case with work but may also be a good case with using the internet - you know, do everything we have to do internet-related elsewhere (like at a dedicated WeWork desk). Then our home is more like an actual home, I think. If t…

No, same vein. I think I would waste much less time if I had no access to Internet at home, mostly because when I'm bored or tired, instead of turning to Netflix/Youtube/Reddit/etc I'd have to find something else to entertain myself. It could turn out I'd end up finding something equally mindless, but my suspicion is I'd read more books. As you said, for when I do the internet, I could simply find a library or cafe.

What's hard for me to anticipate though is how much harder it would be to do things like shopping, or the occasional video call into a meeting.

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