Tag Archive

Beeminder ♥ Beeminder: Introducing the Meta Integration

Friday, December 30th, 2022
Beeminder ♥ Beeminder: Introducing the Meta Integration

Imagine if signing up for Beeminder meant committing to use Beeminder. As part of signing up, you’d create a meta goal measuring the number of total datapoints added on all your other goals. Now the clock would be ticking to get an object-level goal created and to start adding data to it! That vision may... »

Primum Non Amplifico

Thursday, September 1st, 2022
Primum Non Amplifico

Today’s post (content warning: weight loss) was inspired by Jacob Falkovich and David B. Clear. First, an update on my previous... »

Alliterative Alimentation

Wednesday, April 13th, 2022
Alliterative Alimentation

Want to hear my latest weirdo approach to diet? Probably you do, out of morbid curiosity at least. My goal in concocting this was to implement something a bit like intermittent fasting as a weight management strategy, and also to nudge my eating in a healthier direction. Also I like alliteration. More to the point, I really thrive on... »

What Not To Beemind

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
What Not To Beemind

What appalling apostasy is this? It’s not like that! Beeminder just isn’t quite perfect for absolutely everything. It’s *practically* perfect for absolutely everything. Practically perfect for a surprising breadth of things? This post just happens to be about the exceptions. It’s a sequel to both the previous post, about how “never do this thing ever” goals... »

Do-Zero Goals Considered Harmful

Wednesday, February 17th, 2021
Do-Zero Goals Considered Harmful

Look what we found in the attic! Our original Support Czar, Chelsea — known for such classics as “Beemind Easy Things” and “Weasel Heart-To-Heart” — wrote this screed in 2017. It was... »

Ice Cream Truck Loopholes

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Ice Cream Truck Loopholes

Sometimes Beeminder goals have loopholes, like you could dehydrate yourself to get your datapoint below the bright line on your weight-loss graph (please don’t!). There are plenty of things like that and I probably shouldn’t think too hard about more examples. Sometimes loopholes like that can ruin a goal. But other times, ironically, such loopholes... »

Death to Auto-Widening Yellow Brick Roads, Part 2

Monday, February 17th, 2020
Death to Auto-Widening Yellow Brick Roads, Part 2

If you’re just tuning in, and if you care about this for pragmatic rather than philosophical reasons, you’ll want to start with (or stick with) our announcement that we have fully killed off auto-widening yellow brick roads. This is the part where we philosophize about why... »

Feature Unannouncement: Auto-Widening Yellow Brick Roads Have Gone Manual

Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
Feature Unannouncement: Auto-Widening Yellow Brick Roads Have Gone Manual

In which we explain how a big feature of early Beeminder, auto-widening yellow brick roads, was wrong-headed and what we’re doing now instead. This is Part 1 with Just The Facts and the probably-very-safe-assumption that you don’t care about the convoluted... »

How To Technically Count As A Vegetarian While Eating Animals

Thursday, September 26th, 2019
How To Technically Count As A Vegetarian While Eating Animals

Ok, there’s “technically” and there’s “technically”. If your definition of a vegetarian is “someone who never eats meat” then I’m pretty stuck on making good on this title. But someone who ate meat in the past and doesn’t anymore counts, of course. So maybe there’s wiggle room here? Someone who eats meat only at Christmas dinner and never any... »

Feature Announcement: General Mercy

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018
Feature Announcement: General Mercy

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and derailing on a Beeminder goal meant getting a week of respite. That is still in fact the default. After derailing you get a week of safety buffer. It gives you »