khromem's comments

Is this a cheaper alternative to browserbase? I am a bit confused since you mention creating endpoints for scraping many times, I just want to do browser automation. Is that a use case you support?

True, but if you add manually then there is no verification

Good point. Just updated the site to make that clear. Thanks!

Beeminder is largely automated.

We try to offer much more human support. Such as daily texts and manual verification of goals instead of just pulling data from an API.

Beeminder is great. However, it's all automated and you cannot set huge penalties for single goals. Also, It's limited to things that can be verified from fitness trackers and other apps thats many people do not use.

WorkOrPay tries to add more human interactions. We text users daily to make sure they aren't starting slack off. We help them form reasonable goals. Do verifications manually, so the goals can really be anything.

We are a mix between beeminder and a life coach.

The role of this is to bridge the gaps between the spikes of internal motivation.

A lot of times people start working on something new and for the first few days they have enough motivation to stick with it. But when that disappears a lot of people just quit. They don't stick with the new activity long enough for the next surge of internal motivation.

We believe this service can help people grind it out for a week or two until they get a surge of internal motivation and no longer need us.

Exactly! I have used beeminder and stickk. But there were a few things that bugged me about them.

1) Theres no option to have a referee that isn't friends or family

2) Its automated, and no human actually checks up to see if you are staying on track.

3) You can't really set huge stakes

From what I have seen, depositing before making the commitment makes you much more likely to succeed. Seeing the money leave your account creates a lot of psychological pressure that otherwise doesn't exist.

The verification system is not fool proof. If you put some effort into forging proof you will succeed. However, I do not believe most people who willingly sign up for this would do that.

I actually used to make my friends promise to give away my money if I failed to do whatever. But it never really worked that great because I would always make some plausible excuse and my friends would let it slide and eventually just give my money back.

We are a New York LLC. We're not incorporated at the moment.

We make money through a subscription model. We do not make anything from the contracts because it seemed wrong to profit from our users failing. We want our incentives to be aligned correctly!

For my whole life, I have been dealing with bursts of motivation where I am extremely productive for several days, followed by weeks-long slumps. This yo-yo behavior does not let a person develop their skills or build anything substantial.

According to my observations, people usually start working towards a goal following a temporary spike in motivation. It lasts a few days at most. Usually, it is not enough for people to move past the hurdle that is the first 2 weeks. In the first 2 weeks of starting anything new, you are garbage at everything. It’s hard work, and not very rewarding because you are constantly getting things wrong and not being able to get in flow.

However, after 2 weeks so, People start appreciating the task. They finally see hints of progression in their abilities. Are able to work for longer stretches at a time before running into something frustrating. This allows them to get into flow. Together this starts to produce consistent internal motivation that allows the person to actually stick with the new habit long term. But 99% of the time people give up before getting here.

To address this issue, I created WorkOrPay

WorkOrPay: Set goals. Form contracts. Pay the penalty if you fail.

We let you form contracts in which you agree to reach a goal before a deadline. You then deposit some money. If you fail to accomplish your goal before the deadline, your deposit is lost and donated to a charity of your choice.

Basically, we provide you with external motivation (by holding your deposit hostage), so you get stuff done even when you don't feel like it. In addition, we text you daily to keep tabs and make sure you stay on track.

WorkOrPay's mission is to bridge the gap in motivation from the initial spike and the more consistent motivation that appears a while later. The idea is that if you make a contract for the frustrating 2 weeks where you want to quit. The pressure of potentially losing your deposit will provide enough external motivation for you to continue until you reach the promised land of consistent internal motivation.

I hope others who have the same problem I had, can use this service to break out of the loop. Without wasting years of their life.

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