In this post, Nate Soares outlines a thing he calls “Moving Towards the Goal”, which feels incredibly relevant to this conversation.
This leads us to my second trick for avoiding akrasia: I am not Trying Really Hard. People who are Trying Really Hard give themselves rewards for progress or punishments for failure. They incentivize the behavior that they want to have. They keep on deciding to continue doing what they’re doing, and they engage in valiant battle against akrasia. I don’t do any of that.
Instead, I simply Move Towards the Goal.
I’d highly recommend Nate’s Replacing Guilt sequence. In a very concrete, “traditional LW” way, he lays out how you can still do cool stuff, yet not think in terms of shoulds, guilt, or intrinsically good or bad.
In this post, Nate Soares outlines a thing he calls “Moving Towards the Goal”, which feels incredibly relevant to this conversation.
I’d highly recommend Nate’s Replacing Guilt sequence. In a very concrete, “traditional LW” way, he lays out how you can still do cool stuff, yet not think in terms of shoulds, guilt, or intrinsically good or bad.