
Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them. - sivers
http://sivers.org/zipit
======
kirse
I noticed this effect very early on as a kid, where I was often hacking away
at some new project or trying to undermine some system.

Some of my ideas were pretty exciting, so usually I'd be bursting to pass on
my excitement to someone else - usually my parents. (As any entrepreneur can
confirm, coming up with a great new idea is _very_ rewarding) However, I never
failed to feel like I lost some intrinsic level of motivation whenever I
explained to someone else what I was working on.

It felt like holding a secret only you knew and then letting it out spoiled
it. After awhile I learned to contain my enthusiasm and direct it toward
making a functioning product before telling anyone... this probably explains
why I tend to be much more independent when it comes to my startup ideas...

Working in secrecy makes you feel like you're about to pounce a revolutionary
new idea upon the world and take it by storm.

~~~
psyklic
Of course, on the flip side ... having people continually asking about your
progress is actually pretty motivating (even if for the wrong reason)!

~~~
rivo
Once I tell people, however, I find myself waiting for those other people's
questions about my progress. And if I don't get them, I do lose motivation
although the reasons for them not asking me could be any (e.g. they didn't
really understand or they're too busy with themselves).

So once I put it out there, I tend to constantly look for external validation
even though I might not want to. It's not my own anymore.

~~~
electromagnetic
I have the same problem, although (as I've mentioned before) I'm a writer,
which I believe requires the same kind of creativity and ability to pull out
unique ideas for solving problems.

Once I've announced a project, it seems to lose some of its energy and when
people don't ask to see more, it makes me question my work. I stalled on one
project after showing it to my wife, she didn't ask about it for a long time
(which due to college, work, friends and immigration papers, she hasn't had
the time to read anything). However, the self-doubt creeps in and now I'm
stuck deciding between an entire rewrite of the old project to correct the
problem, or to switch completely to my 'on the side' project that has occupied
me for a week (compared to a few months) and has produced about half as much
in much less time.

I also realised that the people I've listened to have been the wrong people,
despite them being well intentioned. When I used to work as a reviewer, my
editor praised my personal voice as akin to Terry Pratchett, but when I used
it in actual stories I was told it had too much personal voice in it. Stupidly
I listened to the other people and not my instincts.

So now I'm back to pointing my own compass, which is where I enjoy being and
where my motivation stays up. Ironically it involves hiding the work from my
wife, although I usually don't write when she's home anyway, which is
definitely going to get me kicked (the question is where) if I end up with a
finished 80,000 word novel I neglected to tell her about.

------
Maro
When I did the Ironman last year, I told _everyone_ about it: friends, family
and co-workers. I did it on purpose. It was a risk I took, because would I
have failed to prepare for the race or finish the race, everyone would have
thought I'm a "looser" or "quitter". I used this fear as additional
motivational fuel. Also, to my surprise, most people told me I'm an idiot for
even attempting an Ironman and that I wouldn't be able to finish it. (Lesson
learned: Culturally, here in Eastern Europe 'we' don't have the 'can do'
attitude.) That was another huge boost, showing these people how limited their
mindset is. It's kind of cheating, because you're using external factors to
motivate you, but you need all the "help" to do extraordinary things.

Think of Ali when he was preparing for the Foreman fight --- he used an entire
nation to motivate him for the Rumble in the Jungle. Whenever he got a chance,
he went on TV and said he would destroy Foreman. He absolutely commited
himself in front of the entire world and it worked for him. Foreman, on the
other hand, was different, he was more introverted, and although he lost that
fight, he was still a great boxer.

So, on a personal level, I strongly disagree with this article. I'd rather
strive to be like Ali than accept some mediocre average.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5o-yxwBJuk>

~~~
kscaldef
I had a very similar reaction. I rode a century (100mi) bike ride this spring,
and telling people I was doing it was an important part of staying motivated.
Also, because the ride was a charity fundraiser, once I had people sponsoring
me (i.e. donated money to the cause) I felt like I couldn't back out.

I think the difference between this sort of goal and what's described in the
article is that with a lot of intellectual pursuits, just telling people that
you've been thinking about it and sketching out how you would do it gets you
80% of the respect and satisfaction for 20% (or less) of the total effort. On
the other hand, you don't get much cred for just saying you're going to do a
marathon or tri or century.

------
byrneseyeview
This slightly overstates the case. Structured announcements ("I will have done
X by date Y") give you a chance to fail in the eyes of people whose opinions
you value. That helps. I have an online friend who used this idea a couple
months ago. To make himself achieve his weight-loss goals, he announced that
he'd be posting nude pictures of himself on his blog at a set date. I'm not
sure how well it worked (he lost weight, but not as much as he'd hoped), but
he did actually post the pictures.

~~~
Tichy
Link? Or actually, never mind...

------
ALee
It would seem that for some public shame (announced plan that you never
completed) is a motivator, while for others public announcement gives you a
sense of reward.

Most studies show that the biggest motivator for anyone is when it costs you
and not accomplishing the goal costs you even more.

There is a study on going to the gym and they found that the primary motivator
for working out is if you pay for a gym membership and are reminded that
you're losing money. It does not work if it's a gift (money you never had). It
would be interesting to see if it matters between extroverts (get energy from
talking to strangers) and introverts (lose energy when talking to strangers).

~~~
electromagnetic
Personally I'm an introvert and while possibly not as bad a case as others,
I'm restricted to a handful of friends who being with doesn't seem to drain
me. Again, personally, I seem to lose motivation when I tell other people
about a project, because I expect other people to ask about the project.
However, that isn't realistic, I'm sure a hardened extrovert would tell their
friends about every single part of the project as it progresses.

From what I can tell, an extrovert is going to be motivated because they get
to tell everyone new stuff because they keep working. Where as an introvert is
going to lose motivation, because they don't have the tendency to be out there
talking to everyone, they expect an unrealistic and disproportionate amount of
questions.

I guess a good analogy is that an introvert is the actor on the stage who
always wants to be in the spotlight, but doesn't do enough to attract the
spotlight. Where as the extrovert _is_ the spotlight, who wants to tell
everyone where and what to pay attention to.

------
xexers
I think he should be a bit more specific here. Zig Ziglar says: Share "give
up" goals with everybody. Share "Go up" goals only with family, friends, and
people you can rely on who will support you and not bash your ideas.

So if you want to give up smoking, tell the whole world and they will hold you
accountable. If you want invent something new and exciting, only share it with
people you know will support you.

------
abossy
Conversely, announcing your plans and having a financial stake in the
completion of those plans is shown to work exceptionally well. The company,
stickK (stickk.com), is founded on this principle. It is drawn from behavorial
economist Dean Karlan, so it is based on incentives rather than rigorous
psychological evaluation, but it seems to work well:
<http://www.stickk.com/about.php>

~~~
srn
If the financial state is already having invested the money, I wonder if this
is more or less motivating than a possibility of money later. The money paid
is a sunk cost, so failing to follow up negatively impacts your experience and
not the financials.

------
wallflower
"The soft over comes the hard, the slow over comes the fast,

let your working remain a mystery

just show people the result."

\- Tao Te Ching -

------
mccon104
This is exactly what Friedrich Nietzsche was talking about when he said;

"160. One no longer loves one’s insight enough once one communicates it."
[Beyond Good & Evil (1886)]

The story is that Nietzsche returns from his mid-day walk having had what he
considers a brilliant idea. He is smiling. He passes an acquaintance who asks
him what he is smiling about. He explains the idea.

The instant he does so he regrets it. As he is speaking his mind is suddenly
changing, his emotions deflating. The smile becomes a concerned frown. He goes
home and writes down number 160. He no longer loved his insight enough.
Communication ruined it.

\---

The idea is you can never formulate experiences/thoughts into words. The best
we have are metaphors which only cheapen the beauty of the original by
associating it with the everyday.

------
bonaldi
The third way is to announce something as complete. That gives you a real
sense of motivation to get it done (see Vikings, burning boats).

------
ABrandt
First of all, I was immediately turned off by this article when it cited a
study from _1933_. Sure he used other evidence later, but I've come into the
habit of being seriously skeptical of any scientific work done more than
twenty years ago.

I may be reading this article wrong, but this seems to fly in the face of
Steve Blank's customer development model and other wisdoms that are being
thrown around these days. To me, part of putting your plans out there is the
resultant pressure from peers to see them through. When an idea is just in my
head, nobody knows when I abandon it for no apparent good reason. But when I
tell my friends, family, and everyone I meet what I am planning to do, then I
better follow through or risk hurting my credibility. I like to call this
"going balls deep."

~~~
gruseom
_I've come into the habit of being seriously skeptical of any scientific work
done more than twenty years ago._

That has amusing implications for us, twenty years from now.

~~~
GeneralMaximus
I think he was talking about behavioral studies.

~~~
shard
I would imagine that human nature changes much more slowly than that.

~~~
GeneralMaximus
You have to take into account the rapid changes in technology. Surely, the
Internet has somehow affected human behavior?

------
shellerik
"those who kept their intentions private were more likely to achieve them"

Or they forgot about or lied about having those private intentions? How do you
know that someone had private intentions?

~~~
cracki
exactly. if you keep quiet, you can't disappoint the people you'd have opened
up to.

perhaps a defense mechanism?

don't kick me. i'm talking about myself here. i'm no psychiatrist, just a
programmer who talks too much.

------
Vivtek
At first glance, this rings very true -- I've seen it myself in open-source
work. As long as I'm privately chugging along solving problems, things go
well, but as soon as I see the project as an attention-getter, I find myself
focusing on the attention instead of the actual project. This has happened to
several times over the last decade, and it has always led to me abandoning
whatever it was I was working on. (Not that I don't take it up again later,
but by then it's a different project.)

But I have a counterexample, too: my house renovation, which I'm blogging.
(Cf. <http://big-old-house.blogspot.com>) Clearly, I'm being public about my
plans there, and yet, knowing that people are going to look at what I've
gotten done _today_ is a real motivator in getting something done every day,
even if it's trivial. So in that instance, the publicity has really helped
motivate me (as Maro noted earlier with the Ironman prep).

Perhaps human involvement in big projects isn't necessarily a demotivator; in
my house case, I'd say that I assign my social value to each task only as it's
done and I can show people what I did -- by breaking the big project down into
little tasks, and not talking about the little tasks until they're complete, I
can get the best of both worlds (i.e. having the social support and advice of
people, without the loss of motivation due to talking about unhatched
chickens).

------
PebblesRox
I'm not convinced that announcing plans causes people not to fulfil them. The
studies may show correllation, but I wouldn't assume cause and effect. Another
explanation could be that the people who keep their plans to themselves are
the kind of people who are more likely to carry them out.

~~~
bhrgunatha
Yes, I suspect there are a large number of factors that affect our motivation,
and each of those factors has a different effect on different people.

What's more important is finding those factors that personally motivate you.

For me making a public announcement helps in the short term, to get the ball
rolling, but doesn't keep my motivation at a high level.

------
wglb
I don't think so.

Who was it that said that one of the forces keeping an entrepreneur going was
the embarrassment factor--having announced the plan, then being committed to
prevent the shame of failure.

Studies of this sort leave me questioning the true amount of science in social
science. The business about "symbols in the brain" is pretty lame. (As if that
is where the mind is--but that is another discussion altogether.)

~~~
PebblesRox
I agree that the bulk of this article is speculation. "Identity symbols" and a
"premature sense of completeness" may be one possible explanation, but the
article presents them as the only explanation of the correlation shown in the
studies.

------
dan_the_welder
Funny, I have noticed this exact same phenomenon in bars.

------
dannyr
I partially agree on this.

I believe it depends how a person values the opinions of friends and families.

If I care about what they think, I will be accountable and try to reach those
goals.

If I announce my goals and do not deliver, my friends and families would stop
believing in and listening to me.

I'm very selective on the plans I announce. I only announce those that I think
I can achieve.

------
gsk
The author emphasises: "Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-
identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed."

This is one of those sentences that seem to make sense but don't. It's a
oversimplification at best, psychobabble at worst.

~~~
sivers
It is just a useful summary of the many academic studies.

The article's links point to the actual studies for those who want the
details.

------
gurtwo
If true, this has a devastating effect on elections. The more a political
party talks about its agenda, the less it will do?

It totally contradicts the notion that the voters like a candidate that can
clearly explain what his goals are.

------
nw
[http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/post/51600839/222-dont...](http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/post/51600839/222-dont-
boast-about-projects-in-progress-celebrate)

------
nreece
However, announcing your plans early can generate buzz (which is helpful in
case of startups), IF you can "under promise, and over deliver."

~~~
cracki
what's the most extreme form of underpromising? promising nothing? not
promising?

and then you pull the rabbit out of your hat.

the buzz might be achievable by just giving off the impression that you're
working on Something Big, Details Are Secret etc...

------
flinc
<http://ideas.al3x.net/>

Alex Payne's Open Ideas: he's publishing his notebook of "someday" ideas

<http://twitter.com/al3x/status/2169778627>

------
Aron
I suspect the worst thing to do is to talk glowingly about your progress or
efforts to people who don't have the ability or desire to judge the accuracy
of it.

------
known
Does Open source makes you less motivated to accomplish?

~~~
jodrellblank
How many times have you heard the words "I'll release the code when I've had
some time to clean it up", implying it was developed in private.

How many abandoned projects are there on Sourceforge and Freshmeat?

------
curej
_"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always
ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid
plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, and then providence
moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise
have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in
one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material
assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever
you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in
it. Begin it now."_

\- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

~~~
zackattack
I find the italic really annoying to read

~~~
zackattack
Italic is more annoying/difficult/straining to read. Seriously. You know how
they say hackers don't think about user experience?

------
gaius
That's really interesting. It's taken as read in marathon running that you
should tell everyone you're going to do it and this well help you keep
motivated to train during the winter. I did that because I was "supposed" to,
but it didn't seem to affect my motivation much - however lots of people _did_
prematurely say well done, hmm.

