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Comment by droithomme | Hacker News Reader

Man, I need to set me up one of these. Step right up everybody, lose 20 lbs or pay me $100. Thanks for signing up, ma'am! Oh, how do you lose 20 lbs? Heck if I know lady!

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It's already been done [1]. An interesting point someone brought up about this is if your money goes to a good cause, it may be less of a motivator, since even if you fail your personal goal, you still did some good.

Perhaps donating money to a charity or political party you don't agree with would be more motivating.

[1] https://loseitorloseit.com/

Absolutely. It would probably make for a much catchier PR story as well.

Don't finish your course? We'll donate to the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church, and send you a copy of Pinheads and Patriots!

Obviously, that last one would change depending on your political affiliation and/or intelligence, but a light hearted jab at half the country never hurt anyone.

Radiolab ran a story about an older woman who was co Poetry addicted to smoking, and eventually she caved out of shame and flippantly told her friend she'd donate $5000 to the KKK if she caught her smoking again. It worked, apparently, and she claims she entirely intended to donate it if she started again, and that her hate and disgust of the thought overtook her will to smoke.

Can't say I condone the method, but interesting anyway.

Can't say I condone the method, but interesting anyway.

I'm intrigued now. Why not? (Because of the risk of the KKK getting the donation?)

Yes, from her telling of it, it worked because she was absolutely ready to pay the consequences. At that point her smoking habit becomes other peoples problem (in addition to second-hand smoke etc).

I guess the reason I don't see the problem is because I believe the gambit was so bold that she simply would never start to smoke again. (A sort of personal "nuclear deterrent", if you will. But like a nuclear deterrent, dangerous if used!)

Maybe. I think it's dependent on how disposable your money is.

If it provided no support, the site would gain no traction. 0 users paying $10 is $0. I actually think the pricing scheme is a touch of genius - it makes me like the service way more, not less. The reason: as a human, I'm subject to the sunk cost fallacy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs#Loss_aversion_and_th...) Paying that money would motivate me to do the class. Same way having a gym membership motivates me to work out, even if I don't technically need a gym for most of my work outs. I say this is awesome.

As an aside, being British I recognise the suggestion that I could "lose twenty pounds" as being a solicitation for a bribe...

beeminder.com is a pretty nice site for that.

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