21 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2022
    1. Of course, the closest you can get is having the activity available in your own living space, but as unused home treadmills and exercise bikes demonstrate, this has its pitfalls. There could be something about a thing always being available that means there’s never any urgency.

      There seems to be a minimum at which hyperbolic discounting stops working because things are too easy to access

    2. You may have heard of hyperbolic discounting from behavioral economics: people will generally disproportionally, i.e. hyperbolically, discount the value of something the farther off it is. The average person judges $15 now as equivalent to $30 in 3-months (an annual rate of return of 277%!).

      this is fascinating and must relate to delayed gratification

  2. Mar 2022
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  8. Feb 2021
    1. propose to create a new academic discipline called “machine behavior.” It approaches studying AI systems in the same way we’ve always studied animals and humans: through empirical observation and experimentation

      We do this all the time; observe people's behaviour and then make inferences about their intentions.

  9. Jan 2021
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  12. May 2020
    1. Research on motivation makes a distinction between two motivational systems. The approach system engages when people pursue a goal to achieve a desirable outcome. The avoidance system engages when people pursue a goal to avert some threat or calamity.

      approach: seek pleasure avoidance: avoid pain