Tag Archive

Derailing It Is Nailing It

Friday, March 24th, 2023
Derailing It Is Nailing It

We’ve talked before about how paying is not punishment because derailing is not failing, but fellow workerbee Clive pointed out that we could flip that negative formulation around. Derailing isn’t... »

Psychological Pricing

Thursday, September 29th, 2022
Psychological Pricing

The other day (a Very Other day, because I’ve pulled this from the bottom of Quite A Pile of blog post drafts) we were musing idly amongst ourselves about what the psychological effect would be if Beeminder pledges were amounts like $4.99. The answer is it doesn’t matter because I can’t stand so-called »

Beeminder vs CBT

Thursday, September 15th, 2022
Beeminder vs CBT

Nathan Arthur (aka narthur, of TaskRatchet fame and who we’re now proud to also have on the Bee Team part-time) had such an amazing response to some Beeminder skepticism in a »

Is Beeminder Self-Blackmail?

Thursday, June 23rd, 2022
Is Beeminder Self-Blackmail?

Beeminder user Parrhesia recently told us about a failed attempt to proselytize Beeminder. The person he recommended it to said they knew about Beeminder and viewed it as self-blackmail. That it degrades trust in your future self. They advocated behavior change by bringing your present self... »

Troubleshooting My Toothbrush

Thursday, June 9th, 2022
Troubleshooting My Toothbrush

Working in Beeminder support, it’s hard to avoid noticing that folks sometimes feel a bit embarrassed about their goals. Or at least of the fact that they need to beemind learning how to juggle goslings when everyone else is born knowing how. So let me put it right out there: my most socially embarrassing goal is... »

Paying Is Not Punishment

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022
Paying Is Not Punishment

UPDATE: See follow-up post announcing No-Excuses Mode. An under-appreciated fact about Beeminder is that it doesn’t force you to do anything. It just puts prices on things and you continue to do whatever you feel like doing, factoring in those prices. Just like you might buy... »

Book Review: How To Change

Wednesday, December 15th, 2021
Book Review: How To Change

Earlier this year we completed a lovely Beeminder book club to read behavioral scientist Katy Milkman’s new book, »

Make A Plan To Forget

Thursday, August 26th, 2021
Make A Plan To Forget

This is going to sound painfully obvious at first — “Don’t assume you’ll remember things! Create reminders!” — but bear with me. There are two useful, nonobvious things here: Sometimes you think of something you need to remember while, say, driving, or talking to someone. You can’t always email yourself or write something down but you can still do something like... »

Is Beeminder A Crutch?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2021
Is Beeminder A Crutch?

Beeminder creates a series of intermediate daily deadlines, working towards some desired long-term goal. As you probably know, it does that with real-money commitment devices. It’s common to come down to the wire on those deadlines every dang day. It’s powerful motivation. But is it… too powerful? If you’re a strong believer in the concept of self-discipline then Beeminder may... »

Contra Positive Reinforcement: Why Beeminder Is A Glutton For Punishment

Friday, March 26th, 2021
Contra Positive Reinforcement: Why Beeminder Is A Glutton For Punishment

Previously on the Beeminder blog: debating negative vs positive reinforcement and, in case you care about using these psychology terms correctly, clarifying that »