Tag Archive

Trusting Your Divided Self

Wednesday, August 19th, 2015
Trusting Your Divided Self

This is a post by Philip Hellyer, which he wrote before Chelsea Miller’s recent Weasel Heart-To-Heart but which... »

Cranial Silicosis and Paths of Least Resistance

Thursday, July 16th, 2015
Cranial Silicosis and Paths of Least Resistance

For those just tuning in, let’s review the Three Great Beeminder Epiphanies. The Yellow Brick Road — bringing long-term consequences near (and using the graphs as the basis for... »

Smoking Sticks and Carrots

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015
Smoking Sticks and Carrots

This is crossposted on Messy Matters. Let’s talk about science! Beehavioral science. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week has been all over the news. It’s much better than... »

What To Mind: Picking a Metric

Saturday, September 13th, 2014
What To Mind: Picking a Metric

We use the word “goal” a lot but, ironically, we agree with Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) who argues that goals are for losers. He points out that the most... »

New Feature: Supporters

Saturday, May 3rd, 2014
New Feature: Supporters

Technically we deployed this feature over two months ago, but not very well so we didn’t have much fanfare. It was one of our »

Get Things Done (Or Else!) With Beeminder and GTBee

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014
Get Things Done (Or Else!) With Beeminder and GTBee

At its core, Beeminder is a tool for getting yourself to do things using money as an incentive. Most goals on Beeminder focus on making steady progress over time. But some goals, and some people, work better with a different model. Let’s say you have to call someone by the end of the day today, and... »

1000 Days of User-Visible Improvements

Thursday, November 21st, 2013
1000 Days of User-Visible Improvements

UPDATE: A revised and updated version of this article is now on Messy Matters. It’s amazing where one trivial user-visible improvement per day will eventually get you to. We’ve made 1000 user-visible improvements (UVIs) to »

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... »

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... »

Getting Back On The Wagon

Friday, May 25th, 2012
Getting Back On The Wagon

This is a guest post by Philip Hellyer who can walk on water and outrun bullets, with the help of Beeminder. He eloquently describes what we think is currently the single biggest pain point (though there are many) with Beeminder right now — how to keep from procrastinating indefinitely on... »

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