As a peer[1] in the habit-building space, there are so many things I love about this:
* No self-reporting. I can attest this a huge source of friction for users.
* Aligned business model. I also donate 100% of penalties to charity. It's shocking how many accountability apps are incentivized for you to fail.
* External accountability. It's an underrated tool and I'm glad it's gaining more recognition.
However, I think there's also such a thing as too much accountability. Life comes in the way and people won't always hit their goals. When you penalize failure, you penalize trying. Instead, it's better to encourage learning from failure.
That's why I impose compassionate accountability. You're only required to check in on your goals, not succeed at them. This way, you can fight through the problem instead of giving up the moment you fail.
Here's a recent example from Habit Gym that illustrates this quite well. It's a user trying to quit smoking - they start off slow, but pick up momentum quickly because they learned from their mistakes. https://i.imgur.com/1eiZEMy.png
Exactly! It's the digital equivalent of placing the milk at the back of the grocery store. It's meant to distract you from why you're there in the first place.
I highly recommend Vipassana [0]. It's similarly free from commercialism - there is no cost for teaching, lodging and food. At the end, you can pay if you found it beneficial and want to pay it forward. They also only accept contributions from people who have completed the program. Despite this policy, they've grown to 200+ centers across the world.
I was so inspired [1] by it that I adopted a lot of their principles in my business [2].
Consistent reflection is a huge force multiplier, but it's sadly underrepresented in self-improvement because it's not sexy or fast. Yet it's the only sustainable solution.
You can't fix what you don't know. Once you find out what's holding you back, you can put a plan in place to address it. This is a slow , iterative process - but it works.
Creator here. The Moai is a platform that enables habit change through social support groups.
The idea was born out of my frustration with "productivity porn" on the internet. People would just consume motivational content, but not act on it. This is by design - the attention economy incentivizes consumption over action. The Moai aims to fix this at the root, by providing content creators an aligned business model that makes money only when their audience succeeds.
How we achieve this:
* Financial accountability: Registration is free, but requires a credit card. If students don't complete the program, their stake is donated to charity (not us).
* Social accountability: Students are divided into intimate cohorts of 4 peers. They are each other's source of motivation, accountability and shared learning.
* Tighten the feedback loop: Every week, students are given "challenges" and associated self-reflection prompts. Success is not required, but submitting the "check-in" is.
* Experiential understanding: Upon completion, students pay what they want and only if they see results. We only make money if they succeed.
The Intentional Technology Moai is an example of a program built using the platform - the goal is to help people use technology more intentionally - less as an escape, more as a tool.
I would love your feedback on whether you would consider joining such a program or general thoughts on the platform.
Social media by itself isn't all bad - if used correctly, it's an amazing way to connect.
The problem can be isolated to algorithmic feeds [0]. They encourage consumption over action, take you in unwanted directions and induce FOMO through overchoice and unrealistic standards. If you can eliminate them, these services magically become tools rather than escapes.
Exactly. We tend to underestimate the power of compounding wrt learning from your mistakes. Two things that are important here: honesty (you can't fix what you don't know) and consistency (tight feedback loop = faster compounding).
This extends far beyond software programming. It applies to any form of self-development. I actually developed a habit formation program framework [0] built off of these principles (and a couple others, e.g aligned incentives, bias towards action, writing is thinking).
That's the problem with self-help today - inspiration/consumption is overrepresented and action is underrepresented. The problem stems from misaligned incentives - creators make money through engagement, regardless of actual change created.
I created a platform [0] to solve this problem - for creators to develop programs (example [1]) that are aligned with their audience's best interests.
While I agree that completely "unplugging" is not the ideal solution, doing so occasionally helps you understand how to use technology intentionally (i.e as a tool, not an escape). You realize what you miss and what you don't, which allows you to reallocate your usage.
What's missing for most people is some structured way to reflect about this, so I created a free* accountability group program [0] that helps them do this alongside others who want to use technology in a healthy way. (Very open to feedback!)
* Free to join, but requires a credit card to enforce financial accountability - we donate money to charity (not us) on your behalf if you don't complete the program. Time commitment is only 15 min/week.
I've tried Unhook and DF YouTube, but I replaced them both with Undistracted [0]. It's more versatile - it has better configuration, supports more sites (Reddit, Facebook, etc) and allows an arbitrary block list.
The internet would be a better place with the ability to hide recommended feeds [1]. They can be useful sometimes, but mostly they're used to distract you from your goal. It's the digital equivalent of placing milk in the back of the grocery store. The ideal home page of a service to me is an empty page with a search bar.
