Dunno; gym membership also feels like a form of blackmail (although preferable to the alternative forms of blackmail), while home gym reduces the inconvenience of exercising.
I’m not sure what differentiates these in your mind. They both reduce the inconvenience of exercising, presumably? Also, in my post I’m pretty clear that it’s not meant as a punishment type incentive:
And it’s prudent to take into account the chance of not exercising in the future, making the investment useless: my advised decision process counts this as a negative, not a useful self-motivating punishment.
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Generally, it seems like the problem is signaling. You buy the gym membership to signal your strong commitment to yourself. Then you feel good about sending a strong signal. And then the next day you feel just as lazy as previously, and the fact that you already paid for the membership probably feels bad.
That’s part of why I’m thinking an important step is checking whether one expects the action to happen if the initial steps are taken. If not then it’s less likely to be a good idea.
There is some positive function of the signaling / hyperstition, but it can lead people to be unnecessarily miscalibrated.
I’m not sure what differentiates these in your mind. They both reduce the inconvenience of exercising, presumably? Also, in my post I’m pretty clear that it’s not meant as a punishment type incentive:
...
That’s part of why I’m thinking an important step is checking whether one expects the action to happen if the initial steps are taken. If not then it’s less likely to be a good idea.
There is some positive function of the signaling / hyperstition, but it can lead people to be unnecessarily miscalibrated.