The theory sounds good, but I think it important to test ideas before believing them. One way of testing your hypothesis—that it is really hard to over-ride the immediate discomfort of an unpleasant decision—is to look at whether aversions of comparable or greater magnitude are hard to override. I think the answer in general is ‘no.’ Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
One answer I’d anticipate is that the procrastination effect (for work but not swimming) is “nearly impossible to get your brain to remember.” But what about the fact that when we do remember, it doesn’t solve the problem. (If it solves yours, I’ll concede this point.)
Another way of testing your hypothesis is to determine how adaptive or unadaptive if, as you suggest, the bare fact of making a decision is inherently very difficult. Much of the adaptive advantage of thought is insulating the organism from the effects of carrying out the act, including, one should think, from the emotional effects. An adaptive design would compensate for any hyperbolic discounting by making the decision much less aversive or, why not, even pleasurable—which is my experience of the deciding process.
A different explanation for procrastination—one which can help overcome it—is that when we procrastinate we’re self-deceived about our preparedness for the task; we inarticulately perceive that doing the tasks out of order would harm the product. The solution, obviously, would then be to figure out what preparatory work you’re neglecting and do it instead. I only claim validity for procrastination in writing: there’s something to be said for starting small. Here’s my series in defense, “On the irreversibility of writing: Procrastination and writer’s block—Part 1. Premature composition limits thought and weakens style.” It’s in three parts, starting here: http://tinyurl.com/37skhks
Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
Well, no, it predicts the momentary pain as you stand by the pool, and you stand by the pool hesitating for ages. Eventually your brain starts to predict standing by the pool feeling awkward before you leave the house.
Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
I usually wind up standing by the pool for a good ten minutes, or until one of my brothers shoves me in...
A different explanation for procrastination—one which can help overcome it—is that when we procrastinate we’re self-deceived about our preparedness for the task; we inarticulately perceive that doing the tasks out of order would harm the product.
Yes!Yes, yes, yes.
This is exactly what I’ve experienced myself. When I’m procrastinating on a major piece of code I need to write it’s almost always because I am uncertain that the structure of the code I’ve decided on is correct, or, worse, that the subsystem the code is for is itself an unneeded or misguided component of the final project.
When I have a laundry list of things to code and I am confident that all the items are necessary and properly thought out I am more motivated the longer the list!
A similar phenomenon can occur in programming. I’ve learned not to worry too much about procrastination in writing code, because when I think I should be coding and yet somehow can’t motivate myself to get started, nine times out of ten I realize next day that my understanding of the problem was inadequate, and any code I had forced myself to write would have had to be thrown away and redone.
When I’m procrastinating about chores, by contrast, it is indeed a matter of flinching away from the small pain of getting started, and once I do manage to get moving, it’s less painful to keep moving than it was to procrastinate.
I think the answer in general is ‘no.’ Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
hypothesis—that it is really hard to over-ride the immediate discomfort of an unpleasant decision—is to look at whether aversions of comparable or greater magnitude are hard to override. I think the answer in general is ‘no.’ Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
I can’t agree with you—it most definitely does produce a problematic hesitation. If you’re bringing this example, then I’d say that it is evidence that the general answer is ‘yes’, at least for a certain subpopulation of homo sapiens.
I am most definitely a member of that subpopulation. At a swimming pool, peer pressure quickly kicks in. But at a shallow beach, I can procrastinate in waist-high water for minutes.
The theory sounds good, but I think it important to test ideas before believing them. One way of testing your hypothesis—that it is really hard to over-ride the immediate discomfort of an unpleasant decision—is to look at whether aversions of comparable or greater magnitude are hard to override. I think the answer in general is ‘no.’ Consider going swimming and having to overcome the pain of entering water colder than surrounding. This pain, less momentary than the one in question and (more or less) equally discounted, doesn’t produce problematic hesitation.
One answer I’d anticipate is that the procrastination effect (for work but not swimming) is “nearly impossible to get your brain to remember.” But what about the fact that when we do remember, it doesn’t solve the problem. (If it solves yours, I’ll concede this point.)
Another way of testing your hypothesis is to determine how adaptive or unadaptive if, as you suggest, the bare fact of making a decision is inherently very difficult. Much of the adaptive advantage of thought is insulating the organism from the effects of carrying out the act, including, one should think, from the emotional effects. An adaptive design would compensate for any hyperbolic discounting by making the decision much less aversive or, why not, even pleasurable—which is my experience of the deciding process.
A different explanation for procrastination—one which can help overcome it—is that when we procrastinate we’re self-deceived about our preparedness for the task; we inarticulately perceive that doing the tasks out of order would harm the product. The solution, obviously, would then be to figure out what preparatory work you’re neglecting and do it instead. I only claim validity for procrastination in writing: there’s something to be said for starting small. Here’s my series in defense, “On the irreversibility of writing: Procrastination and writer’s block—Part 1. Premature composition limits thought and weakens style.” It’s in three parts, starting here: http://tinyurl.com/37skhks
...I just realized why I so rarely go swimming.
I really don’t think your brain predicts the momentary pain of entering cold water before you even leave the house.
Well, no, it predicts the momentary pain as you stand by the pool, and you stand by the pool hesitating for ages. Eventually your brain starts to predict standing by the pool feeling awkward before you leave the house.
I usually wind up standing by the pool for a good ten minutes, or until one of my brothers shoves me in...
A different explanation for procrastination—one which can help overcome it—is that when we procrastinate we’re self-deceived about our preparedness for the task; we inarticulately perceive that doing the tasks out of order would harm the product.
Yes! Yes, yes, yes.
This is exactly what I’ve experienced myself. When I’m procrastinating on a major piece of code I need to write it’s almost always because I am uncertain that the structure of the code I’ve decided on is correct, or, worse, that the subsystem the code is for is itself an unneeded or misguided component of the final project.
When I have a laundry list of things to code and I am confident that all the items are necessary and properly thought out I am more motivated the longer the list!
A similar phenomenon can occur in programming. I’ve learned not to worry too much about procrastination in writing code, because when I think I should be coding and yet somehow can’t motivate myself to get started, nine times out of ten I realize next day that my understanding of the problem was inadequate, and any code I had forced myself to write would have had to be thrown away and redone.
When I’m procrastinating about chores, by contrast, it is indeed a matter of flinching away from the small pain of getting started, and once I do manage to get moving, it’s less painful to keep moving than it was to procrastinate.
I was under the impression that most people hesitated considerably dealing with that barrier. Perhaps I paid more attention to people whose behavior resembled my own.
I can’t agree with you—it most definitely does produce a problematic hesitation. If you’re bringing this example, then I’d say that it is evidence that the general answer is ‘yes’, at least for a certain subpopulation of homo sapiens.
I am most definitely a member of that subpopulation. At a swimming pool, peer pressure quickly kicks in. But at a shallow beach, I can procrastinate in waist-high water for minutes.