Good point. I’ve had months of my life which felt like I had no akrasia, because I didn’t care. The moment I thought to myself “I really need to get this [project that will take a ton of work] done”, it feels like I’m some ridiculous non-agent who can’t make decisions, trapped, unable to remove my hands from the keys, unable to stop reading Reddit, unable to go to sleep so I can wake up early.
I’ve met a thousand people who say they have no motivation issues, but then I notice they’re not exactly doing much in their life that causes akrasia problems. Akrasia is a misfiring of our hardware that happens when you try to do certain tasks; if you don’t do those tasks then you’ve got no akrasia. Doesn’t mean you’re very productive.
I’m reminded of a time when I felt like I had overcome procrastination. Kind of. It still didn’t mean that I would have done everything right away: it just meant that when I was putting off something, I was able to do so without feeling constantly guilty about it. I didn’t get any more done, but I don’t think I got any less done either, and I did feel happier.
Good point. I’ve had months of my life which felt like I had no akrasia, because I didn’t care. The moment I thought to myself “I really need to get this [project that will take a ton of work] done”, it feels like I’m some ridiculous non-agent who can’t make decisions, trapped, unable to remove my hands from the keys, unable to stop reading Reddit, unable to go to sleep so I can wake up early.
I’ve met a thousand people who say they have no motivation issues, but then I notice they’re not exactly doing much in their life that causes akrasia problems. Akrasia is a misfiring of our hardware that happens when you try to do certain tasks; if you don’t do those tasks then you’ve got no akrasia. Doesn’t mean you’re very productive.
I’m reminded of a time when I felt like I had overcome procrastination. Kind of. It still didn’t mean that I would have done everything right away: it just meant that when I was putting off something, I was able to do so without feeling constantly guilty about it. I didn’t get any more done, but I don’t think I got any less done either, and I did feel happier.