# simpler akrasia horizon

**URL:** <https://forum.beeminder.com/t/simpler-akrasia-horizon/1315>\
**Category:** uncategorized\
**Created:** [July 19, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/simpler-akrasia-horizon/1315 "2011-07-19T19:16:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daniel\_Reeves](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.beeminder.com/daniel_reeves/32/707_2.png) [@Daniel\_Reeves](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/Daniel_Reeves)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/simpler-akrasia-horizon/1315/1 "2011-07-19T19:16:17Z")

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From: Daniel Reeves [dreeves@umich.edu](mailto:dreeves@umich.edu)  
Date: Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 16:51  
Subject: simpler akrasia horizon

Simplification for the akrasia horizon [1]: No changes ever take  
effect in the upcoming week. Want to start working harder now? Just do  
it and you’ll get a safety buffer. Make it that much harder in a week  
if you don’t want to be able to coast on the safety buffer too long.

I’m trying to clear away all the mental hurdles to taking the plunge  
and self-binding. Ideally there are no decisions to make other than,  
“yes, I’m akratic about this (here’s my credit card)”. Everything else  
happens as you go along, and you trust us to not let you be  
over-ambitious.

Thanks for all the ideas you all have been sending! Feel free to chime  
in here as well.

Since if you’re reading this you are arguably a rabid fan, you might  
find our twitter firehose of Beeminder improvements interesting:  
[http://twitter.com/beemuvi](http://twitter.com/beemuvi)  
Important stuff is tweeted, much less frequently, at [http://twitter.com/bmndr](http://twitter.com/bmndr)

Thanks everyone!  
Danny

[1] Recap for those just tuning in: Your akrasia horizon (typically  
one week) is the amount of time beyond which you can make decisions  
rationally, uninfluenced by immediate consequences (the undue  
influence of immediate consequences being the sine qua non of akrasia,  
as discussed here: [http://blog.beeminder.com/akrasia](http://blog.beeminder.com/akrasia) ). Said another  
way: the akrasia horizon is the answer to – or an upper bound on the  
answer to – the question “what does the ‘immediate’ in ‘immediate  
consequences’ mean?” So the actual idea: allow any changes to your  
yellow brick road whatsoever at any time _except_ that within the  
akrasia horizon you can’t make it any easier.

–  
[http://dreev.es](http://dreev.es) – search://"Daniel Reeves"  
Follow the Yellow Brick Road – [http://beeminder.com](http://beeminder.com)

–  
[http://dreev.es](http://dreev.es) – search://"Daniel Reeves"  
Follow the Yellow Brick Road – [http://beeminder.com](http://beeminder.com)