It's super hard to quit addicting apps. Existing solutions are non-binding, and therefore, require constant self-discipline and vigilance to be effective. Which is ironic, considering the problem we are trying to solve, is a lack of self-discipline.
There exists a physical solution to this problem, in the form of a time-locked safe[1]. It’s effective for reducing app usage, but it's cumbersome and inconvenient.
Fundamentally, what these lock-boxes do is impose a real-world cost on breaking your commitment. It’s not impossible to break your commitment, but it would require destroying the lock-box, and that incurs a cost.
I created a digital version of this, as an app (Android-only). Commitment’s are backed with cash deposits, and the phone API’s are used to detect violations and enforce compliance. No self-reporting required. And it even works if the monitoring app is uninstalled, or its background service disabled.
An example commitment: Stop using Tinder, for the next week, or forfeit $20 to the Red Cross charity.
The solution also generalizes to other types of commitments:
- Commit to using an app more (e.g. meditation)
- Commit to visiting a location (e.g. gym)
- Commit to making a phone call (e.g. mom)
A key difference also is, by requiring the deposit before resolving the commitment, it removes the escape hatch of just canceling your credit-card. It also generalizes to any app on the platform.
I was considering supporting anti-charities (e.g. NRA, DNC etc..), but I thought that was unnecessarily distracting.
As for the escape hatch: true, but the counterargument by Beeminder people is that you basically cheat yourself then, so what would the point be? In fact, I have many "goals" on Beeminder where I enter data manually, so it's based on a honor system – and I don't think I'm the only one.
As for the anti-charities: this is a terrible, terrible idea from moral point of view. Much worse than just "distracting". If I agree (even conditionally) to donate money to an evil cause, I am just committing evil right now. Why would I want to do it?
That's hilarious, but could be really dark & depressing!
They're dancing with perversity but they make so much more money if their system works for you for a long time.
Hmm, maybe there is something to say about the addiction capitalism??
You cannot place the blame on individual here. This is a societal level problem. This is a failure of democracy to recognize and address the problem. Greed and bad incentives are the problems, again. They are causing massive destruction, again.
Your work definitely has a part to play, to help people get rid of the addiction. So I'm definitely supportive - let's just keep the blame where it belongs, so it can be fixed at the core. :)
* 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
Just my two cents! Good luck with your app!
Anyway, good luck to all trying to fight distractions!
I'm not an expert or anything at this but I have appreciated the Atomic Habits book where switching your brain's focus to trying something for 5 minutes eventually overcomes the barrier to not doing it.
I was considering supporting anti-charities (e.g. NRA, DNC etc..), but I thought that was unnecessarily distracting.
iE1 (body recomp): calorie counting app, tracking everything that goes in, including hydration + sleep, go into an optimized sports programme and give it all I got, keep an eye on optimal macro/micro, applying social pressure on myself... and so on, everything that might have an impact + preplanned schedules and optimized convenience factors to do the right thing, right from the start. After a few weeks, I just stop it. Doing unhealthy stuff again, ignoring all tracking/notes/plans/appointments and even handwaive the social pressure. Also initial investment (sometimes quite significant) = money factor is just something I shrug off in that mood.
iE2 (building software): I have a good enough idea, sometimes even things I really desperately want for myself. I have a vast toolset of mastered tech stacks at my hands I can use right away, can setup good implementation plans, start with shipping "hello world" to production first (me being a devops many years) and iterate quickly. Also include customer journeys and marketing key points right off the gate. Code written to my personal high standards including full testsuites/coverage, clean component libraries, whatever fits, and also keeping an eye on security and performance. I don't even have to worry much about any expensive hosting/operations costs at all at this point. Still after 2 weeks max, I abandon the project... quite often with a working state that actually is good and usable (most MVPs are in a worse state, as they should).
Its like no matter what I do, there are zero issues for me to research a thing and jumpstart doing it the right (as in: best effort research that looks like actually working) way, and then just stopping it after some time for no particular reason. Somehow my brain just can't be forced for an extended amount of time.
Being aware of that, I also tried several things that are recommended to build up discipline, from atomic habits of different flavors to gratefulnes diaries, so far nothing worked. To give you an idea: I am not able to brush my teeth every single morning/evening as a man in my 30s, its more like 5 out of 7 days roughly. Also I have no attention shortages and can comfortably read a full book cover-to-cover nonstop, meditate or keep the focus of a full-day meeting on track with multiple persons in the room trying to derail.
If someone truly had a solution that works in my case, I'd pay a high premium for that with a smiling face. So far, only failures, and a hopeless me.
The stakes are pretty low, but just high enough to get you to think about it. I like the idea!
They have a huge community and tools ecosystem.
You might also want to check the Awesome List "Quantified Self" [2] if you like these kind of tools.
Suggestion: a large portion of folks looking to use this app would like to do so to achieve fitness goals. The simplest possible integration with HealthKit may be closing your exercise rings. It’s general enough to not require integrating with specific vendor APIs, but is still fairly difficult to fake it. It may be a good MVP goal.
Sadly -- things like this don't seem to work for me. I either have the discipline to hold myself to something, or I just figure it wasn't that important to me after all.
Speaking of which, here's a list of all such competitors we know of: https://blog.beeminder.com/competitors/
(Adding Discipline.io to the list now...)
