Procrastination

Read a great article in the New Yorker about the philosophical examination of procrastination. The article is reviewing a book of essays called 'the thief of time', but it offers a number of fantastic points, historic writings and theories. One of my favorites is the external tool of 'extended will' which is used to fight procrastination.
Ulysses had his men tie him to the mast of his ship because he knew he would not be able to resist the songs of the siren. Gambling addicts initiate contracts with casinos to ban them from the premises. Victor Hugo would write naked and have his valet hide his clothes so as to prevent him from going out. This next one blew my mind from a number of different perspectives: a PhD candidate at Chapel Hill wrote software that enables people to shut off their internet access for up to eight hours. It currently has an estimated 75,000 users. It's called "Freedom". sheeeeeeet.

There's another great concept by Thomas Schelling, a game theorist called "The divided self". that procrastination is not the fault of a single person but a collection of selves arguing, debating, and bargaining in a sort of parliamentary chamber. "Not only were motions tabled and opposed, certain proposals were aired in order to mask others"

A number of very interesting experiments are discussed as well. The economist George Lowenstein ran one in which people were asked to pick out a movie to watch immediately and a movie to watch at a later date. The immediate film was typically a light and fluffy affair--a romantic comedy or a blockbuster--and the later film was more serious and important. "The problem, of course, is that when the time comes to watch the serious movie, another frothy one will often seem more appealing. This is why Netflix queues are filled with movies that never get watched: our responsible selves put "hotel Rwanda" and "the seventh seal" in our queue, but when the time comes we end up in front of a rerun of "the hangover""

I will now stop procrastinating and call sandwich shops to discuss my upcoming "Sandwich Tour of Hells Kitchen", which will be featured on Groupon.com starting next Friday, along with "Hey Ho! Let's Go! Punk Rock on the Bowery", a pub crawl that compares the punks of the 1970s to the punks of the 1870's. Also available will be "Jewish Gangsters of the Lower East Side" and "Greenwich Village Literary Tour". Boom.