November 16, 2016
Interview with Timothy Ferris, author of the book Tools Of Titans
Mike Carruthers: If you want to accomplish a goal or get good at something it helps to have a real incentive.
Timothy Ferris: Whether that’s go to the gym 3 times a week, practice the guitar twice a week, whatever it might be. Because part of the reason people take so long to learn things is the practice gets put aside so often – because people have fulltime jobs and kids and so forth.
Timothy Ferris, author of the books The 4-Hour Workweek and the upcoming book Tools Of Titans, says one very good way to create incentive is to have a financial stake in the outcome. Which you can do by going to a website called Stickk.com; S,T,I,C,K,K.
You put a little bit of money into escrow, enough that would sting (and this is designed by a Yale researcher). You choose an anti-charity, meaning a charity you’d rather destroy than give money to and there are many to choose from. And then the site will assign referees to actually confirm whether or not you do what you say you’re going to do and if you don’t your money in your name on the public record goes to the anti-charity. It’s incredible how high the compliance rate goes it can jump from 20 to 80%.
Because that’s how we humans are wired incentives work and they don’t have to be financial.
But there can be social pressure as well. I was just talking to a reader who gained 20 pounds of muscle in a month. And he hadn’t been successful trying in the past and the reason he was successful this time is he had a bet with a friend where a competition to see who could gain in 1 month. And the person who lost had to wear a penguin suit for a day.
