More pressure is not necessarily better. Peoples brains work differently.
I would never use the app if it posted on facebook, whereas finding people with the same problem who can't embarrass me in front of my friends (because they don't know them) is more useful. Not saying the facebook version wouldn't be useful for some people, but I bet there are also lots of people who wouldnt' touch it with a barge pole. You might want to consider two separate ones.
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.
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.
Whatever happened to doing and completing something because its important to you? This strikes me as seeking approval/validation from others, which I'm not sure would make me feel so good about myself if I indulged in...
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"?
Actually, if something is important enough to someone, they are always motivated to do it. Period. No tricks needed. Of course, it's not often in life that one finds things that are that important. Some people never find such things. And that is sad, and sadly common.
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?"
I'm not sure this is a good idea. Have you ever told a bunch of friends you were going to do something? It actually makes you want to do it less and less, because then if you screw it up, you think everyone will know.
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.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 48.1 ms ] threadI would never use the app if it posted on facebook, whereas finding people with the same problem who can't embarrass me in front of my friends (because they don't know them) is more useful. Not saying the facebook version wouldn't be useful for some people, but I bet there are also lots of people who wouldnt' touch it with a barge pole. You might want to consider two separate ones.
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.
"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