I really enjoyed this, but to be honest I didn’t understand the part about the models. I’m not sure if there was a message I should take on board there or if it was just for fun.
I have thought about a little about the dynamics of “I’ll do a bad thing if you do a bad thing”. When I was trying to stop myself from engaging in a habit I was trying to cut out, I promised myself I’d donate $10 to Donald Trump’s election campaign (bad, from my perspective) each time I did the thing. I never did, but I wonder if I would have if it cam to it. I think maybe yes I would/should have, because then that would really make me not want to do the thing again. In this case I’m representing both actors in the above short story, and convincing myself I’d follow through.
Another time I was trying to stop drinking alcohol to save money, and promised myself I’d donate $10 to a good charity every night I was out but didn’t drink. This worked really well—I was net saving money and also donating money to good causes.
In both of these cases, I had no public accountability. I have taken a public giving pledge and posted it on my website, which gives me some accountability, though I guess the only cost to not following through on this is a hit to my credibility(?).
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had heard of people making promises similar to your Trump-donation one. The idea for this story came from applying that idea to the context of suicide prevention. The part about models is my attempt to explain my (extremely incomplete grasp of) Functional Decision Theory in the context of a story.
https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/functional-decision-theory
I really enjoyed this, but to be honest I didn’t understand the part about the models. I’m not sure if there was a message I should take on board there or if it was just for fun.
I have thought about a little about the dynamics of “I’ll do a bad thing if you do a bad thing”. When I was trying to stop myself from engaging in a habit I was trying to cut out, I promised myself I’d donate $10 to Donald Trump’s election campaign (bad, from my perspective) each time I did the thing. I never did, but I wonder if I would have if it cam to it. I think maybe yes I would/should have, because then that would really make me not want to do the thing again. In this case I’m representing both actors in the above short story, and convincing myself I’d follow through.
Another time I was trying to stop drinking alcohol to save money, and promised myself I’d donate $10 to a good charity every night I was out but didn’t drink. This worked really well—I was net saving money and also donating money to good causes.
In both of these cases, I had no public accountability. I have taken a public giving pledge and posted it on my website, which gives me some accountability, though I guess the only cost to not following through on this is a hit to my credibility(?).
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had heard of people making promises similar to your Trump-donation one. The idea for this story came from applying that idea to the context of suicide prevention. The part about models is my attempt to explain my (extremely incomplete grasp of) Functional Decision Theory in the context of a story. https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/functional-decision-theory