Show HN: Dependapal – Use Implicit Peer Pressure to Make Progress on Your Goals

Good point, I don't like telling _a bunch_ of friends that I'm trying to do something. I built this site because I work in a lot of two-person collaborations, and I wanted consistent reminders to share progress with the other person.

Excellent! How about: DependaPal - stop s---ing on your goals?

Ha, I might give this a shot :-)

Heard this idea a few times, e.g. a "Social time bomb". Very hard to actually make work, as it depends on friends to check achievements and punish the originator.

Willpower is the greatest force in our world and 99.999999% of us have a limited quantity of it. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco addiction; overeating and lack of exercise; not working or studying hard enough. Are you really trying to say anybody can overcome those by "doing and completing something because its important to you"?

Check out "The Motivation Hacker" by Nick Winter (http://www.amazon.com/The-Motivation-Hacker-Nick-Winter-eboo... - $3 ebook) for some reasons why commitment contracts might help - not everyone is that strongly self-motivated, and even strongly self-motivated people can benefit from them.

Not only that but goals change, and I wouldn't want to end up in a position where I looked like I had failed when in fact I had moved on to other things.

We all seek approval and validation from others; it's a fundamental part of the human experience. We all care about the part of ourselves that others see because it's only a part - a tiny fraction.

"The truth is you’ve already heard this. That this is what it’s like. That it’s what makes room for the universes inside you, all the endless in-bent fractals of connection and symphonies of different voices, the infinities you can never show another soul. And you think it makes you a fraud, the tiny fraction anyone else ever sees? Of course you’re a fraud, of course what people see is never you. And of course you know this, and of course you try to manage what part they see if you know it’s only a part. Who wouldn’t?"

-Good Old Neon, David Foster Wallace

There's a fairly healthy ecosystem of commitment contract sites. I associate Stickk with one particular format which is contracts with money on the line by a specific date. It looks like DependaPal is more along the lines of checking in with a friend to keep you in line.

My favorite of these is Beeminder which doesn't have the social features, but it does a great job of graphing your progress and putting money on the line as you go off track in the short term.