Tag Archive

To Break From Routine Is Human

Thursday, May 16th, 2013
To Break From Routine Is Human

This is crossposted on AndyBrett.com. The third James Bond movie, Goldfinger, opens with an amphibious mission to destroy an illicit chemical processing facility. After emerging from the water and planting the explosives, Bond strips off his drysuit to reveal a perfectly pressed white tuxedo and calmly affixes a red carnation... »

Auto-Canceling Subscriptions

Friday, May 3rd, 2013
Auto-Canceling Subscriptions

“Well I’ve already paid for Netflix this month, so I might as well watch another episode of ‘Say Yes To The Dress’. I’ll get around to canceling later. You know, when I’m less busy.” — A slightly caricatured version of me. When you sign up for some subscription services they make... »

Announcing Beeminder Premium Plans: Bee Lite, Plan Bee, Beemium, and Beekeeper

Friday, April 12th, 2013
Announcing Beeminder Premium Plans: Bee Lite, Plan Bee, Beemium, and Beekeeper

We’ve been improving Beeminder at a brisk pace lately. First, just as you can... »

Weasel-Proofing and the Definition of Legitimacy

Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Weasel-Proofing and the Definition of Legitimacy

Remember our elaborate SOS clause? It describes in excruciating detail what to do if unforeseen circumstances cause you to drive off your yellow brick road. Well, we’ve since realized it suffices to just believe people. If you don’t want us to “just believe you” — it does have the danger of... »

Intrafamily Bets and The Genius of the Exponential Pledge Schedule

Monday, March 25th, 2013
Intrafamily Bets and The Genius of the Exponential Pledge Schedule

My mom recently lost $5,000 to my brother in a commitment contract gone wild. That was started in part as an experiment early in Beeminder’s beta period before we’d thought of things like the exponential pledge schedule. Believe it or not, it was actually a pretty positive outcome: my mom gradually lost a tiny bit of... »

Beeminding Outside the Box

Friday, March 15th, 2013
Beeminding Outside the Box

Let’s talk about some novel ways to use Beeminder! Whenever we hear about one of these I want to slap up a big smiling picture of the user in our “new favorite Beeminder” frame. First though, this entire post is a thinly veiled excuse to point out that OHMYGODGUYS Fog Creek likes us, they really really... »

Socially Efficient Commitment Devices

Monday, March 4th, 2013
Socially Efficient Commitment Devices

StickK popularized the idea of the anti-charity as a commitment device. Another Beeminder competitor, Aherk, offers to publish embarrassing photos of you on Facebook to ensure you don’t fall prey to akrasia. Another clever idea — proposed by Jennifer Hamon on Akratics Anonymous — is to set up a... »

Precommit to Recommit: The Third Great Beeminder Epiphany

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Precommit to Recommit: The Third Great Beeminder Epiphany

The First Great Beeminder Epiphany was the Yellow Brick Road, for bringing long-term consequences as near possible. The Second Great Beeminder Epiphany was the Road Dial... »

Get the Jump on Your Resolutions

Thursday, December 20th, 2012
Get the Jump on Your Resolutions

This is a guest post by Philip Hellyer, who has done more in 2012 than he thought possible, with the help of Beeminder. He’s going to get a head start on 2013, and so could you. Here’s how. It’s approaching that time of year again. People will ask you about your resolutions... »

Pledge Short-Circuiting

Saturday, December 8th, 2012
Pledge Short-Circuiting

Until now you haven’t had much choice about how much to pledge (put at risk) on your Beeminder commitment contracts. It starts out free, then $5, then each subsequent time you derail from your yellow brick road you’re encouraged (though not forced) to jump to the next pledge level for your next... »