I suppose rather than just asking a rhetorical question, I should advocate for publicizing one’s plans. So:
It is far too easy to let oneself off the hook, and accept excuses from oneself that one would not want to offer to others. For instance, if one plans to work out three times a week, they might fail, and let themselves off the hook because they were relatively busy that week, even though they would not be willing to offer “It was a moderately busy week” as an excuse when another person asked why they didn’t exercise three times that week. On the other hand, the genuinely good excuses are the ones that we are willing to offer up. “I broke my leg”, “A family member fell ill”, etc. So, for whatever reason, the excuses we are willing to publicly rely on do a better job of tracking legitimate reasons to alter plans. Thus, whenever one is trying to effect a change in their lives, it seems good to rely on one’s own desire not to be embarrassed in front of their peers, as it will give them more motivation to stick to their plans. This motivation seems to be, if anything, heightened when the group is one that is specifically attending to whether you are making progress on the goal in question (for instance, if the project is about rationality, this community will be especially attuned to the progress of its members).
So, our rationality “to do” lists should be public (and, to echo something I imagine Robin Hanson would point out) so should our track-records at accomplishing the items on the list.
Why not determine publicly to fix it?
I suppose rather than just asking a rhetorical question, I should advocate for publicizing one’s plans. So:
It is far too easy to let oneself off the hook, and accept excuses from oneself that one would not want to offer to others. For instance, if one plans to work out three times a week, they might fail, and let themselves off the hook because they were relatively busy that week, even though they would not be willing to offer “It was a moderately busy week” as an excuse when another person asked why they didn’t exercise three times that week. On the other hand, the genuinely good excuses are the ones that we are willing to offer up. “I broke my leg”, “A family member fell ill”, etc. So, for whatever reason, the excuses we are willing to publicly rely on do a better job of tracking legitimate reasons to alter plans. Thus, whenever one is trying to effect a change in their lives, it seems good to rely on one’s own desire not to be embarrassed in front of their peers, as it will give them more motivation to stick to their plans. This motivation seems to be, if anything, heightened when the group is one that is specifically attending to whether you are making progress on the goal in question (for instance, if the project is about rationality, this community will be especially attuned to the progress of its members).
So, our rationality “to do” lists should be public (and, to echo something I imagine Robin Hanson would point out) so should our track-records at accomplishing the items on the list.
Any suggestions as to where we should post them? I tried posting mine to my Drafts, but I cannot access it without being logged in.
someone could start a thread, I guess.
See my answer here.
What makes it a crutch?