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I'm not sold on the idea of aligning one's failures with charitable contributions. You'd inevitably learn to feel good at the prospect of not having to yield cash to a good cause. Also, dangling a piece of charity (say, to a watsi patient) and then ripping it away once you 'succeed' seems a bit... unethical.

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>You'd inevitably learn to feel good at the prospect of not having to yield cash to a good cause.

Are you really saying this is like Pavlov's dog experiment? Since, the money goes for good cause, I think it might not act as a good motivation in the first place to finish the task. But yeah, publicly announcing this stuff can lead to many people comprehending this as unethical.

Yes, better to allocate the funds to a cause you actively oppose if you fail.

Donating to charity is good and making the donations large enough to be an effective disincentive would be foolhardy.

Try rewards rather than punishment. It seems like a sself-made, self-run system using rewards would be simpler and more resilient.

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