Show HN: Hold yourself accountable for gym visits with a $10 stake

[paul_brook]

https://www.gymbully.fit

I don't go to the gym as much as I should or want to. To give myself some financial motivation I made this website.

First you set a goal for how many days you'll hit the gym. To prove you're at the gym, you will verify each visit by pressing a button on your phone (with location sharing on). You stake $10 as motivation and if you hit your target, you get the money back. If you fail, your $10 goes to the "Save The Children" charity with a donation receipt emailed to you.

Obviously you could visit the gym and then just go home without working out - but getting to the gym is half the battle!

It's simple to use with a Google sign-in and hopefully it will encourage some people to workout (or give to charity)!

[spondyl]

The idea is great and is essentially the same premise as Beeminder (no relation, just a user)

Instead of pledging an amount up front, you instead provide card details and get charged if you miss your goal.

Once you miss the goal, the pledge multiplies exponentially until you're sufficiently incentivised to do whatever the goal is.

They sound wacky at first but motivation devices are pretty effective, assuming you trust yourself to not game them of course.

[paul_brook → spondyl]

Interesting, I'll check it out thank you.

[marssaxman]

Interesting idea, but the number is too small; getting out of having to go to the gym for only $10 sounds like a great deal.

[paul_brook → marssaxman]

Haha I take your point. I was originally going to make it so that you could choose your own amount, but I decided to keep it simple for version 1.

If people are interested in using it of course, I will let people stake what they like :)

[kzrdude → marssaxman]

That reminds me of a fallacy that was described somewhere (is it in freakonomics?). A daycare place wanted parents to not be late for pickup so they instituted a small fine ($5-10) if you pick up late. The result was: more late pickups, because it now had a price, the perception changed to make it less shameful and more like the price of a service.

[paul_brook → kzrdude]

Interesting. That definitely makes sense.

[kzrdude → paul_brook]

I think it's relevant but do with it what you will :) good luck with your thing

[rob74 → marssaxman]

So, on top of paying for a gym membership and not using it, you're paying an additional $10 for each time you should go but don't, and it's... still a good deal?

[marssaxman → rob74]

But of course! Since when are human beings perfectly self-consistent? The part of me who wants to sign up for a gym membership is concerned with long-term planning, and thinks it would be a good idea to remain healthy into older age; the part of me who actually has to go to the gym, here and now, feels far more concerned about the fact that working out sucks, and would very much rather do just about anything else.

[paul_brook → rob74]

Just to be clear, it's not necessarily $10 each time you don't go. You set yourself a target like "4 times this week" or "10 times this month" and it's when you fail to hit your own target that you lose the money.

[delichon → marssaxman]

Then pay it to the election campaign of <politician you loathe>.

[Volundr → delichon]

It took me a minute to work through why I hated this so much. What it comes down to is that <politician I loathe> is actively doing harm. Even if you don't believe that it's essentially gamifying something that has very real consequences for a lot of people. Helping <politician I loathe> doesn't just affect me. It's a punishment for everyone.

Personally I wonder why these always involve sending money somewhere. Why not just automatically post to your socials "I skipped the gym today". Far more motivating to me than a cup of coffee.

[joshmit]

Forfeit (YC W23) (https://www.forfeit.app) is a similar one!

[paul_brook → joshmit]

Ah thank you.

[pythonguython]

If the money went to a bad cause instead of a good cause, the incentive to go to the gym would be higher

[roncesvalles → pythonguython]

Church of Scientology is the worst I could think of. Anyone have better (worse)?

[paul_brook → pythonguython]

Haha yeah I thought about this. But I guess everyone has a different idea about a bad cause. But yes a next version of this would let you select from a few different organisations.

[sshine]

My gym already provides this services:

The late/no-show fee for classes is $5.