Thank you for the reference, looks like a good book. I thought this part regarding motives for procrastination was interesting:
More recently, Sapadin and Maguire (1997) have also classified procrastinators into types: the “perfectionist” who dreads doing anything that is less than perfect, the “dreamer” who has great ideas but hates doing the details, the “worrier” who doesn’t think things are right but fears that changes will make them worse, the “defier” who resists doing anything suggested or expected by someone else, the “crisis-maker” who manages to find or make a big problem in any project (often by starting too late), and the “over-doer” who takes on way too many tasks.
Also there’s this bit on how to address the problem using college students’ studying as an example (p. 83):
Most people have to overcome procrastination gradually. Studying, like drinking, is usually in binges. Almost no one has trouble studying (a little) the night before a big exam. But without the pressure of an exam, many students find it easy to forget studying. I’d suggest breaking big jobs down into manageable tasks and working on “getting started,” perhaps by tricking yourself by saying “I’ll just do five minutes” and then finding out you don’t mind working longer than five minutes. This is called the “five minute plan.” The key is to learn the habit of getting started on a task early, i.e. the procrastinator needs to learn to initiate well in advance studying and preparing for papers and exams. Practice starting studying several times every day. As with exercising, getting in control of starting and making it a routine are the secrets.
While I see your point for the most part, I wouldn’t want to end my life rather than “suffer” 50 years of bliss prior to dying. The only horror there is the lack of economic productivity, human relationships, etc. in the meantime (which are also correlated with death) and the potentially high cost. I might prefer death over going deeply in debt or badly sapping social services (for reasons of pride), but if I was productive enough to save up all the necessary funding prior to the event I don’t see why there is a problem with spending it on 50 final years of chemical bliss.
Now, if there was a chance of reviving when those 50 years are over, or benefiting from additional cryonics and anti-aging progress, I’d be much more willing to go into debt for it or sap social services. Because in that event the probability would be significant that I could pay it back. Heck I’d be willing to put up with quite a bit of torture for the chance to extend my life thousands of years.