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Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

gymbully.fit

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Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#1

Post by paul_brook »

I don't go to the gym as much as I should or want to. To give myself some financial motivation I made this website.

First you set a goal for how many days you'll hit the gym. To prove you're at the gym, you will verify each visit by pressing a button on your phone (with location sharing on). You stake $10 as motivation and if you hit your target, you get the money back. If you fail, your $10 goes to the "Save The Children" charity with a donation receipt emailed to you.

Obviously you could visit the gym and then just go home without working out - but getting to the gym is half the battle!

It's simple to use with a Google sign-in and hopefully it will encourage some people to workout (or give to charity)!

Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake
gymbully.fit

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#3

Post by paul_brook »

marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

Haha I take your point. I was originally going to make it so that you could choose your own amount, but I decided to keep it simple for version 1.

If people are interested in using it of course, I will let people stake what they like :)

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#4

Post by rob74 »

marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

So, on top of paying for a gym membership and not using it, you're paying an additional $10 for each time you should go but don't, and it's... still a good deal?

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#5

Post by kzrdude »

marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

That reminds me of a fallacy that was described somewhere (is it in freakonomics?). A daycare place wanted parents to not be late for pickup so they instituted a small fine ($5-10) if you pick up late. The result was: more late pickups, because it now had a price, the perception changed to make it less shameful and more like the price of a service.

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#7

Post by marssaxman »

rob74 wrote: post #4
marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

So, on top of paying for a gym membership and not using it, you're paying an additional $10 for each time you should go but don't, and it's... still a good deal?

But of course! Since when are human beings perfectly self-consistent? The part of me who wants to sign up for a gym membership is concerned with long-term planning, and thinks it would be a good idea to remain healthy into older age; the part of me who actually has to go to the gym, here and now, feels far more concerned about the fact that working out sucks, and would very much rather do just about anything else.

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#8

Post by paul_brook »

pythonguython wrote: post #6

If the money went to a bad cause instead of a good cause, the incentive to go to the gym would be higher

Haha yeah I thought about this. But I guess everyone has a different idea about a bad cause. But yes a next version of this would let you select from a few different organisations.

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#9

Post by paul_brook »

kzrdude wrote: post #5
marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

That reminds me of a fallacy that was described somewhere (is it in freakonomics?). A daycare place wanted parents to not be late for pickup so they instituted a small fine ($5-10) if you pick up late. The result was: more late pickups, because it now had a price, the perception changed to make it less shameful and more like the price of a service.

Interesting. That definitely makes sense.

Re: Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

#10

Post by paul_brook »

rob74 wrote: post #4
marssaxman wrote: post #2

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

So, on top of paying for a gym membership and not using it, you're paying an additional $10 for each time you should go but don't, and it's... still a good deal?

Just to be clear, it's not necessarily $10 each time you don't go. You set yourself a target like "4 times this week" or "10 times this month" and it's when you fail to hit your own target that you lose the money.
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