stickK.com - Put a contract out on yourself | Hacker News Reader

stickK.com - Put a contract out on yourself

stickk.com

5 pointspius8 comments

Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution) on why it won't work:

"The very smart Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres are behind the idea. I've long predicted this won't work; one group of potential customers doesn't really want to change, the other group is unwilling to give up control. It's not exaggerating to say that human nature is on the line here, and that if I am wrong this is probably the most important idea you will ever encounter."

From (which has additional interesting comments): http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12...

eww. people are so confused. "i want to lose weight, but also i don't want to take steps to lose weight. i know! i'll just hurt myself every time i gain weight. i'll make it really embarrassing and painful. that will resolve my contradictory preferences!"

that's a good point

It does remind me of an old study of alcoholics in the military (I can't reference it), specifically a study of the best way to treat them. In this study some of the patients were 'forced' to take pills that would make them feel really uncomfortable when they drank any alcohol. I could be wrong, but I think these patients were the only ones who recovered or came closest to recovering...

there's a drug out there now that does it... it makes your body not digest fat, so if you eat fat, it comes right out at inopportune times.

I remember reading somewhere that drinking Yerba Mate naturally causes one to release some excess calories as heat instead of storing them as fat. Sadly Wikipedia doesn't have the cite.

Yerba Mate is just caffeine, and caffeine increases your metabolism like any other stimulant. It is a good dieting tactic to drink lots of sugar-free coffee. This is why amphetamines are prescribed for weight loss.

taking alli is a horror story waiting to happen

People believe in weird things. This could succeed.

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