Perhaps Beeminder could be improved as a commitment device. Using
David Friedman’s terminology[1] of thinking about an individual as two
selves, a short term pleasure maximizer me (STM) and a long term utility
maximizer me (LTM), Beeminder is a tool which uses incentives to get
STM to accomplish LTM’s goals.
- Ideas: New Thoughts on the Gift Giving Puzzle
Beeminder currently does this punishing STM when it starts to fail in
meeting LTM’s goals. It does this rather bluntly by imposing a fee.
Unless you’re an ascetic, one of LTM’s goals is also wealth
accumulation so the cost is borne by both STM and LTM.
To get the incentives right, you really only want to punish STM, not
LTM too, when it fails. Things that STM cares about that LTM doesn’t
include good food, non-reproductive sex, and non-educational
entertainment. I can’t think of a good way that Beeminder would
impose these types of costs on STM. Perhaps Beeminder could issue a
credit card that declines charges for dining and entertainment when
STM gets off the Yellow Brick Road.
But I think there’s a better solution. Rather than punishing STM when
it fails, Beeminder could reward STM when it succeeds. As a Beeminder
customer, I could decide how I want to reward STM when it successfully
meets milestones towards meeting LTM’s goals. I could have Beeminder
send me tickets to the cinema or a gift card to a restaurant I like.
When setting a goal, I send Beeminder some amount of money that will
be used to buy these rewards.
LTM is paying STM to accomplish its goals. Beeminder makes money off
the float and the discount on gift cards purchased in bulk.
(Beeminder could also send physical rewards, either purchased when
earned or pre-purchased and warehoused, but that would make the
logistics more complicated.)
Christian
On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 10:38:46PM -0700, Daniel Reeves wrote:
We have so many responses to that objection by now that I don’t even
know where to begin, so I thought I’d see if you all had better ideas.
This comes up today because someone brought up Beeminder on a forum
about Duolingo and the reactions are sorta negative:
Reddit - Dive into anything
I imagine that’s down to the simple fact that for most people who
don’t self-identify as lifehackers, quantified-selfers, motivation
hackers, etc, the whole concept of commitment devices is just going to
seem stupid. (As I’ve said before, “most” might mean something like
2/3.) But we could also probably be doing a better job of disarming
the cynical reaction to Beeminder’s business model!
–
http://dreev.es – search://“Daniel Reeves”
Goal tracking + Commitment contracts == http://beeminder.com
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