# that initial week of flat spot

**URL:** <https://forum.beeminder.com/t/that-initial-week-of-flat-spot/1334>\
**Category:** uncategorized\
**Created:** [August 31, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/that-initial-week-of-flat-spot/1334 "2011-08-31T16:15:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**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:** [August 31, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/that-initial-week-of-flat-spot/1334/1 "2011-08-31T16:15:40Z")

</div>

Minor epiphany: The imposed initial week of flat spot is a bad idea.  
First of all, most people don’t seem to want it. We don’t usually want  
it for our own goals. Typically you reset your graph upon saying to  
yourself “ok self, you little slacking $#!^, let’s start not sucking  
right the hell now”. And the only counterargument is the people who  
bite off more than they can chew and immediately drive off their  
roads. Which sucks, but those people know it was their own damn fault,  
and feel stupid and are probably going to be happy to risk the $5 to  
try again. [cf [bmndr.com/money](http://bmndr.com/money)]

There’s also the apparent confusion that that flat spot causes (and  
these were no idiots who expressed such confusion).

Finally, we’ve talked about an advanced feature for retro-ratcheting  
your road when you get too much safety buffer and want to throw it  
away, but that feature is a poor solution to the initial flat week  
because it doesn’t take away all of the safety buffer. If I  
retro-ratchet on the first day I still have 6 days of safety buffer  
remaining. The whole point is I want to throw away that safety  
buffer. I want to be bound, dammit.

So here’s the plan:

When you create the goal, whatever rate you specify (or implied rate  
if you specify goal and goal date) takes effect immediately. If you  
don’t specify anything the entire road is flat. No kinks in the road  
either way.  
Once your graph is created, the road dial has the same one-week delay  
as now. [1]

Keep an eye on [twitter.com/beemuvi](http://twitter.com/beemuvi) if you want to see when we deploy that.  
We’ve also started google-plussing things in a Beemindees circle. Add  
me if you want in on that: [profiles.google.com/dreeves](http://profiles.google.com/dreeves)

Footnote:

[1] The fully general way to deal with this is that you can always  
make your graph harder starting now but making it easier has a  
one-week delay. But I’m reluctant to do that because it makes it more  
complicated. Like what kind of window do you have to undo it if you  
accidentally make it too hard starting now? We could come up with an  
answer for that but it makes the interface seem inconsistent unless  
the user understands those rules.

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

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [September 23, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/that-initial-week-of-flat-spot/1334/2 "2011-09-23T20:09:48Z")

</div>

This is done now! Try creating a test goal if you want to try it.  
(Anyone on this list not have a Beeminder account? Please email us!)

The interesting part is the thing at the bottom where you can set 2  
out of 3 of {goal date, goal value, rate} and it infers the 3rd.  
It’s nice if you’re like, “I’d like to weigh 110 lbs by xmas” and then  
you see that that means losing 8 pounds per week, so you’re like “ok,  
maybe 3 pounds per week?” and then it shows that that will get you to  
110 pounds by next fall, so you’re like “ok, well, at 3 pounds per  
week, what will I weigh by this summer?” … etc.

Next we’ll be putting that same interface below your graph at all  
times, not just on goal creation.

Thanks everyone for all the feedback lately; it’s been an immense  
help, and seriously inspiring.

Danny and Bethany

PS: There’s also exciting new stuff announced on the blog:

> **[Beeminder blog](https://blog.beeminder.com)**
>
> Beeminder is goal-tracking with teeth. We plot your progress on a graph with a Bright Red Line (formerly Yellow Brick Road). If your datapoints cross that line, we take your money. The Beeminder blog is a hodgepodge of productivity nerdery and...

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 11:15, Daniel Reeves [dreeves@umich.edu](mailto:dreeves@umich.edu) wrote:

> Minor epiphany: The imposed initial week of flat spot is a bad idea.  
> First of all, most people don’t seem to want it. We don’t usually want  
> it for our own goals. Typically you reset your graph upon saying to  
> yourself “ok self, you little slacking $#!^, let’s start not sucking  
> right the hell now”. And the only counterargument is the people who  
> bite off more than they can chew and immediately drive off their  
> roads. Which sucks, but those people know it was their own damn fault,  
> and feel stupid and are probably going to be happy to risk the $5 to  
> try again. [cf [pricing – beeminder](http://bmndr.com/money)]
> 
> There’s also the apparent confusion that that flat spot causes (and  
> these were no idiots who expressed such confusion).
> 
> Finally, we’ve talked about an advanced feature for retro-ratcheting  
> your road when you get too much safety buffer and want to throw it  
> away, but that feature is a poor solution to the initial flat week  
> because it doesn’t take away all of the safety buffer. If I  
> retro-ratchet on the first day I still have 6 days of safety buffer  
> remaining. The whole point is I want to throw away that safety  
> buffer. I want to be bound, dammit.
> 
> So here’s the plan:
> 
> When you create the goal, whatever rate you specify (or implied rate  
> if you specify goal and goal date) takes effect immediately. If you  
> don’t specify anything the entire road is flat. No kinks in the road  
> either way.  
> Once your graph is created, the road dial has the same one-week delay  
> as now. [1]
> 
> Keep an eye on [twitter.com/beemuvi](http://twitter.com/beemuvi) if you want to see when we deploy that.  
> We’ve also started google-plussing things in a Beemindees circle. Add  
> me if you want in on that: [profiles.google.com/dreeves](http://profiles.google.com/dreeves)
> 
> Footnote:
> 
> [1] The fully general way to deal with this is that you can always  
> make your graph harder starting now but making it easier has a  
> one-week delay. But I’m reluctant to do that because it makes it more  
> complicated. Like what kind of window do you have to undo it if you  
> accidentally make it too hard starting now? We could come up with an  
> answer for that but it makes the interface seem inconsistent unless  
> the user understands those rules.
> 
> –  
> [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)