I got Questioner, but I also questioned the validity of the test/taxonomy. I would say that Questioner slightly fits me better than the others, but I have shades of Upholders and Obligers. One reason I am a Questioner, not an Upholder or an Obliger, is that I fail to meet some outer expectations as well as some inner expectations. That would seem to rule me out as both an Upholder and an Obliger, but not as a Questioner, who internalizes expectations but also doesn’t always uphold them. On the other hand, I don’t get less likely to do something the more someone expects me to do it like a Rebel would.
It’s interesting to note that this taxonomy leaves no room for people who don’t respond to outer expectations but meet their inner expectations. That is, someone who intrinsically resists outer expectations (vs. questioners who are selective, but objective). Yet I know some people like that. In fact, I think the label of “Rebels” would better fit this type of person than someone who resists all expectations.
I’m curious to hear how many Obligers you have ever known in your life. I can only think of a handful, and that’s being a little broad and including some people who fit the criteria but still suffer from akrasia and lack of willpower.
Besides the taxonomy, here’s how being a Questioner affects how I beemind:
-
I tend to first think of a potential goal to beemind, mull over whether it’s worth it and how to track it in Beeminder, then start tracking it as an experimental goal.I don’t feel guilty if I later decide I don’t care enough about the goal or have trouble keeping up.
-
For the goals that survive the initial test phase, I generally have no problem keeping way in the green. I have 20 active goals, and only 5 are under 7 days of safety buffer (one very tough goal, one hard goal, and three goals that ordinarily would be over 7d in safety buffer). As an aside, I have a feature request: Tweak the “Amounts due by day” sidebar table so that instead of simply showing the next 7 days, it shows the next 7 days where some progress is needed.
-
Part of the reason most of my goals are way in the green is that I don’t use Beeminder to impose a strict external accountability as an Obliger might, but rather use Beeminder to simply track my adherence to my inner expectations. As such, I typically set a relatively easy rate. Instead of using a high rate to motivate me to do more (or do less), I set the rate to the base rate at which I think is the minimum level of adherence I think I should have. Any extra is bonus (although I do occasionally retro-ractchet, but only ever manually and after a large safety buffer has developed and I am in a position to work on that goal more in the coming few days; never automatically). In other words, I use Beeminder as a signpost of my progress or a warning sign or alert/reminder that I’ve been neglecting a goal, not as a stick.
-
Similarly, I don’t get any value from social accountability like the declaration of goals in the 2016 Planning (aka Resolutions) thread.
-
I occasionally indulge myself by taking an extended break from making progress on a goal or splurging on a “do less” goal. I don’t feel guilty about this at all and see it as natural. Perhaps Upholders would be uncomfortable with this and I would think Obligers would rarely have the high safety buffer to “spend” (since they rely on the fear of impending derailment).
-
As a consequence of the above factors, I tend not to pay much money to Beeminder in the form of penalties, but I do create lots of new goals (at 10 cents a pop). I’m also planning on upgrading to at least Plan Bee soon, partially to take advantage of the custom autosum methods for some goals I have planned, but also just to express my thanks for the value Beeminder has provided me.