Sketchplanations

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Commitment device illustration: Odysseus asking his men to tie him to the mast so that he can resist the siren's song who are kind flying women

Commitment device

Sometimes we’re smart enough to know that we’ll have trouble doing something we want to get done. That might be going to the gym, finishing that essay instead of goofing around, quitting smoking, doing your taxes, or, if you happen to be Odysseus, listening to the sirens’ song without going crazy and diving in the water or driving your boat to be crashed on to the rocks.

In these cases, you can try a commitment device: a voluntary restriction to help maintain our future self-control. In Odysseus’s case he instructed his men to fill their ears with wax and to bind him the mast and told them if he asked them to let him go then they were to bind him tighter. In this way, he managed to listen to the sirens’ song without ending up at the bottom of the sea.

Other commitment device’s may be more mundane, such as publicly announcing to your friends that you’re going to do something, paying a bunch of money to sign up for something upfront, or handing a $20 bill to a friend with instructions not to give it back until you’ve done what you’re supposed to.

Here are some nice examples of commitment devices.

Keep exploring

Temptation bundling illustration: examples of running on a treadmill to watch your favourite shows or ordering your favourite in a cafe only while working
What is The Doppler effect example showing how a wave changes from a static source and gets either bunched up or spread out if you're standing in front of or behind a moving source like a siren
What is a Public commitment pledge explanation - a soft commitment device shown by someone battling a desire to eat cookies with a public commitment
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