
A Shocking Way (Really) to Break Bad Habits - maneesh
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/a-shocking-way-really-to-break-bad-habits/?_r=0&register=facebook
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maneesh
This article is from earlier this year, but admin @dang mentioned that I
should repost it, with a link to the comment thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13266386](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13266386)

I'm the founder of Pavlok, and we've helped thousands of people quit their bad
habits and wake up earlier. Our company has a strict metric of 'habits over
money' \--- so I'm happy to help anyone with their behavior change goals.
Hacker News has been a big part of my life, so I would be honored to help
anyone here with their goals in habit change.

What are your goals / New Year's Resolutions?

~~~
SCdF
It would be great if you didn't post this with a click bait title. It might be
stupid, but on principle I'm not going to read it.

~~~
DrScump
He used the published title and, given the content, it isn't as clickbaity as
it appears (electric shock is the mechanism discussed).

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0xdeadbeefbabe
> “Every time I took a bite, I zapped myself,” she said. “I did it five times
> on the first night, two times on the second night, and by the third day I
> didn’t have any cravings anymore.”

Really? Why is this better than inflicting other kinds of pain on yourself
like flicking a rubber band, or pricking your finger? Where do you get
motivation to even zap yourself at all?

~~~
vorotato
If you ever have tried to quit smoking, there is a strong motivation. That
being said I found this archaic technique useless. My brain realized it could
"buy" the smokes for pain, and just factored in the cost along with the other
costs.

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revicon
Im interested in forming a good habit instead (remembering to log all my meals
on my fitness pal). There isn't a "bad" behavior to trigger one of these zaps,
unless you count hitting the end of the day without meals logged or something
like that, but that feels too far removed to have the necessary subliminal
effect.

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peddamat
I believe I remember a similar product on Shark Tank. From memory, I believe
it was an unfortunate pitch. What differentiates this product?

~~~
grzm
It's the same product: [https://buy.pavlok.com/pages/saw-us-on-shark-
tank](https://buy.pavlok.com/pages/saw-us-on-shark-tank)

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dakrootie
He hired a woman to smack him? I would've done it for free.

~~~
maneesh
I'll hire you!

