A Shocking Way (Really) to Break Bad Habits | Hacker News Reader

A Shocking Way (Really) to Break Bad Habits

well.blogs.nytimes.com

13 pointsmaneesh19 comments

This article is from earlier this year, but admin @dang mentioned that I should repost it, with a link to the comment thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13266386

I'm the founder of Pavlok, and we've helped thousands of people quit their bad habits and wake up earlier. Our company has a strict metric of 'habits over money' --- so I'm happy to help anyone with their behavior change goals. Hacker News has been a big part of my life, so I would be honored to help anyone here with their goals in habit change.

What are your goals / New Year's Resolutions?

It would be great if you didn't post this with a click bait title. It might be stupid, but on principle I'm not going to read it.

how is this click bait? its not sensationalist in anyway what so ever.

Can you help me see how the title is clickbait?

He used the published title and, given the content, it isn't as clickbaity as it appears (electric shock is the mechanism discussed).

Hi. Probably your biggest question, but here goes: does the voluntary nature of it impact results? In other words, don't you need the discipline to self-administer the shocks? And, if you have that discipline, then why can't you just use it to stop the behavior?

I think the answer is in the article:

>“It’s not designed to be painful,” he added. “It’s instantaneous, a surprise sensation, a shock that knocks you out of automatic mode.”

If something is completely a habit, your self-discipline doesn't really have an opportunity to engage.

But how do you form the habit of shocking yourself when you behave in a way your self-discipline doesn't have an opportunity to engage?

Exactly. But it seems our gracious host has disappeared.

On the plus side, if you order now, you'll get a bonus Pavlok free. Just pay shipping and handling.

I would lose a lot of money on each transaction if I offered that deal :p

but maybe I'd make it up in volume

We have a 5-day aversion course that you follow. The first three days are about awareness (tracking triggers, mindfulness, etc). The following days, you follow the program for 5 minutes, where you turn on the zap (manually or autozapper) while you do the behavior.

It's the same principle as when you over indulge on tequila, and suddenly the smell of the beverage makes you cringe. For our users, they feel the same way towards foods and candies --- the sight/smell of it becomes an aversion.

> “Every time I took a bite, I zapped myself,” she said. “I did it five times on the first night, two times on the second night, and by the third day I didn’t have any cravings anymore.”

Really? Why is this better than inflicting other kinds of pain on yourself like flicking a rubber band, or pricking your finger? Where do you get motivation to even zap yourself at all?

If you ever have tried to quit smoking, there is a strong motivation. That being said I found this archaic technique useless. My brain realized it could "buy" the smokes for pain, and just factored in the cost along with the other costs.

Im interested in forming a good habit instead (remembering to log all my meals on my fitness pal). There isn't a "bad" behavior to trigger one of these zaps, unless you count hitting the end of the day without meals logged or something like that, but that feels too far removed to have the necessary subliminal effect.

I believe I remember a similar product on Shark Tank. From memory, I believe it was an unfortunate pitch. What differentiates this product?

It's the same product: https://buy.pavlok.com/pages/saw-us-on-shark-tank

He hired a woman to smack him? I would've done it for free.

I'll hire you!

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