Having read only a portion of the book so far (thanks for the pdf cousin_it and Alicorn!), I’ve noticed that the techniques and strategies Schelling goes over are applicable to my struggles with akrasia.
I’m sure it’s been said before on lesswrong that when there’s a conflict between immediate and delayed gratification, you can think of yourself as two agents: one rational, one emotional; one thinking in the present, one able to plan future moves and regret mistakes. These agents are obviously having a conflict, and I often find Rational Me (RM) losing ground to Irrational Me (IM) in situations that this book describes perfectly.
Say RM wants to work, and IM wants to watch TV online. If RM settles on “some” TV, IM can exploit the vagueness and non-natural settling point, and watch an entire season of a show. The two most stable negotiating points seem to be “no TV” and “unlimited amounts of TV”.
Other techniques people use to avoid akrasia map really well with Schelling’s conflict strategies, like breaking up commitments into small chunks (“fifteen minutes of work, then I can have a small reward”) and forming a commitment with a third party to force your hand (like using stickk.com or working with friends or classmates).
Having read only a portion of the book so far (thanks for the pdf cousin_it and Alicorn!), I’ve noticed that the techniques and strategies Schelling goes over are applicable to my struggles with akrasia.
I’m sure it’s been said before on lesswrong that when there’s a conflict between immediate and delayed gratification, you can think of yourself as two agents: one rational, one emotional; one thinking in the present, one able to plan future moves and regret mistakes. These agents are obviously having a conflict, and I often find Rational Me (RM) losing ground to Irrational Me (IM) in situations that this book describes perfectly.
Say RM wants to work, and IM wants to watch TV online. If RM settles on “some” TV, IM can exploit the vagueness and non-natural settling point, and watch an entire season of a show. The two most stable negotiating points seem to be “no TV” and “unlimited amounts of TV”.
Other techniques people use to avoid akrasia map really well with Schelling’s conflict strategies, like breaking up commitments into small chunks (“fifteen minutes of work, then I can have a small reward”) and forming a commitment with a third party to force your hand (like using stickk.com or working with friends or classmates).