Is Procrastination an Optimizing Behaviour?

Procrastination. We all do it. And we all have those pangs of regret at the wee hours of the morning trying to finish something that we should have been working on a long time ago. Ask just about anyone, they would probably say procrastination is a bad thing. But if it is so bad, why do we do it all the time? The short answer is, we do it because it is the best choice for us to make!

If we consider the work that must be done as dreadful and we would do anything to avoid it, which is to say that work is a cost, then we can think about our decision to do work as a decision about how to pay a cost over time. Procrastination in this case would be to delay paying the cost until as late as possible.

To understand how we make decisions over time, we must first understand what possible choices there are to make, and the possible trade-offs. At any moment, there are two choices: to do work now or to put it off. The trade-offs in either case are clear: on the one hand, we get the work out of the way and forgo leisure at the present; on the other hand, we enjoy leisure now, knowing that we will have to pay the cost eventually.

When faced with the choice of paying the cost now or in the future, for most people it is in fact optimal to pay later. To delay paying the cost is optimal because experiments show that we tend to "discount" the future, in the sense that we tend to place more importance on the present than on the future. As a heuristic example, consider whether you would prefer to receive $200 today or $200 next year. (In the case of doing work, we can consider the choice of delaying work as preferring to enjoy leisure today over leisure in the future).

There are a few theories as to why we discount the future. One reason is simply that we are impatient and do not look very far ahead into the future. Surely, we've all experienced these kinds of moments. For those that demand a rational-choice reason, however, we discount the future because we lack immediate control and perfect foresight over the future, whereas we can manipulate and have close to full knowledge of the present. For example, there is no guarantee that hyperinflation won't hit and $200 will become entirely worthless by this time next year. Also, if you were give $200 today instead, you could do whatever you want with it, including putting it in the bank and getting the $200 (plus interest) back the next year. Therefore, consumption in the future is worth less than consumption today because we cannot access the future immediately and because there is uncertainty over the future.

The above seems to suggest then, that procrastination is in fact optimizing behaviour because at any given moment, we would want to delay doing work as much as possible. Indeed if there was no deadline, it would be optimal to delay work indefinitely (keeping in mind our assumption that this work is only costly and does not bring any benefits when completed).

The problem is that most work have a deadline so we cannot put it off indefinitely. In this case, two contradictory incentives act. Far ahead of the deadline, when we plan how we will do the work, it is optimal to enjoy leisure now and delay work to later. This incentive to delay paying the cost will be present at all times leading up to the deadline. However, the deadline represents a hard limit at which time the entire project must be done, and forces us to work, against our desire to procrastinate. Given that it is optimal to delay as much as we can, and that we are constrained to finish the project on time, the optimal behaviour would in fact be to start the project as late as possible such that we would still expect to finish on time.

The story is a little more complicated than this though. Since finishing the entire project at once can be physically taxing, and usually involves no leisure at all in those few hours, the fact that we generally like to "smooth consume" is actually incentive for some people to pace out their work more evenly. Smooth consumption means we tend to prefer to have a few hours of free time everyday (and perhaps to sleep a decent amount every night) than to have no free time and no sleep one day, and a lot of free time and sleep the next, i.e. we prefer consumption in an evenly paced way. The other complication is expectations. Notice I wrote it would be optimal to start the project as late as possible while still expecting to finish on time. Since our expectations are rarely, if ever, perfect, we often overestimate our abilities and have to ask for extensions or else sacrifice in quality.

The negative consequences of not smoothing consumption of leisure (just think about the sleepy day after the deadline) and incorrect expectations often lead us to think that procrastination is a bad habit, when in reality it is arguably optimal given our preferences of discounting the future. So next time you get the urge to procrastinate, just be sure that you can finish the work under the pressure of a deadline and feel good in the fact that you're just optimizing your leisure consumption.

Or perhaps we just need to take on less projects.

Air

The air has a taste. We just never realize it. Some air tastes better than others. It's a combination of the smell, I think. A burnt match is better than a dry heat. Water also has a taste. Sometimes memories do too. Emotions? I think. If they can cause pain or pleasure, they can cause taste.

Names in the Wind

Yesterday I lost my name.

Not the 'H' one. Although to be honest I don't know why I refer to myself as 'H' here. The veil of anonymity isn't opaque when all of our followers are our friends. But we pretend the cloth conceals us, and that game makes me reluctant to share the name I lost. It was an internet moniker, eternally buried in the the Google graveyard. Let's refer to it as "Lia".

I invented Lia when I was twelve. It survived a move, three changes of secondary school, and a particularly horrible Objectivist phase. It even survived the edge of graduation six years after I first named myself. I used it in every single website sans the few I did not want associated with me (looking at you RealSuperPowers). Everybody online called me Lia, not H. Lia was who I was. It was my name. Yesterday an old online friend got back in touch with me. It had been three years. We had both gone to college and lost contact. When he contacted me on Gchat, his first words were 'Hi Lia'.

It was a full fifteen seconds before I remembered who 'Lia' was.

We change. That's an inescapable fact. We change and leave our old selves behind. Yet it's still jarring, deeply troubling, to leave behind your name. After all, I am not a person with H's characteristics. I am H. The two qualifiers are as different as night and justice. And for six years, I was Lia. Was. Time sliced my past self and me apart. H and Lia, now just H.

There are seven bridges of Koenigsberg. We cannot cross them all.

Mom Energy

Today we salute the energy of moms.

Mama Shaq

http://snitchcockscav.com/shaq/


Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Where the seal swim among the trees and smooth brick buildings stand, cast from the iron of the seas, there is a rose of infinite beauty posted atop a lamp pole. Its black hues and bright darkness light the sky when the moon has pulled too hard and torn itself apart. Whether the pieces went in peace, nobody knows but this black rose and its bespectacled creator, for deep beneath the ocean floor lies the source of its dark power: the moondust bubbles, hisses, and boils while the white-coated man, watches the dials and gauges for signs of good or evil. Making light out of darkness is not to be taken lightly, so heavily he takes it and darkly he waits on it.
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
The only three of them to step on the spikes of the horizon's adhesive were the ones with black sneakers. This, of course, was unacceptable. The only way to stop the reaction between them was to increase the overall energy to upwards of 450 GeV; the machine simply could not handle that much energy. If they had instead tried to open up the three and check their hydraulics, they would have found that the energy field was already full and only needed a kick start.
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
So I'm looking for a class in Rosenwald Hall--- actually, I was looking for Swift Hall-- and, I thought i'd found it. no sign-- no main entrance.
So I walk around the building and find what I perceive to be an acutal door with and actual doorknob. So I opened it.
Inside was a room at least 150x50-- maybe half a football field- maybe more- black concrete- 20ft ceiling.
Two guys in white overcoats. A cow. Upside-down with hooves pointing into the air. On some type of cart.
A chainsaw.
They were as embarrased to see me as I was to see them.
Everybody stared at everybody else for about 6 sec. (except the cow, who was not facing me.) And I shut the door.
"Not econ."
I wasn't more than 10ft away from the door when I heard it lock.
I don't know what the hell they were doing, but they seemed to need privacy.
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact
Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact

More news to come about Scav, promise! Including our record breaking for largest traditional scavenger hunt!!

The Second Scav Post

I'm focused a lot more on performance and cheating hacks. So far the items I've completed were making a timelapse of the meeting room [218], giving a 2000+ chess AI two free moves and then beating it [237], and using Gandhi to justify violence against other people [185]. Pretty proud of all of them. I think I remain on four projects plus whatever gruntwork I can do. No Angryballs this year. That's good.

Also: Mama Shaq Mama Shaq Shaq's Your Mom and That's a Fact.

The First Scav Post

The UChicago Scavenger Hunt officially started on the midnight of Thursday. (But the most important thing is: Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's Your Mom. That's a Fact). Unlike previous years, where a small group from each team retrieved the list from the judges, this year the judges had everyone come out to list release (probably so that they could tell us in detail about the world record for largest scavenger hunt attempt on Friday, yes, it's going to happen!). Of course, the world record will be eclipsed by the fact that Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's Your Mom. That's a Fact.

Some things that I've been working on are peeling an egg with one hand in under 30 seconds with the shell in one piece. [Item 67] (Still working on that...) and making a cladogram for the original 151 Pokemon. [Item 267].

But most importantly, Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's Your Mom. That's a Fact.

http://snitchcockscav.com/shaq/

I personally have no idea what this is about, but apparently, Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's Your Mom, That's a Fact. I hope repeating it once is enough... But just to be safe, Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's Your Mom. That's a Fact.

More news to come on Friday and Saturday! Judgment is on Sunday.

For the curious, the list can be found here.

Welcome Post, the Second

Decompositions of the name.

Momenergy = Momentum + Energy.

Physics. So these authors must really love Physics to dedicate their blog name to it?

True.

In fact, momentum and energy are the most fundamental concepts in Physics. Conservation of momentum and energy have been around for a long time, and remains the cornerstone of every new formalism and new theory in modern physics. Even though seemingly fundamental laws like Newton's laws, the uniformity and absolute nature of space and time (what is now known as the Galilean formalism) have gone through radical transformations and reinterpretations, conservation of momentum and energy largely retain their classical interpretations (although relativity does provide a unification of the two ideas as two manifestations of an equivalent phenomenon).

We named the blog Momenergy as a sort of tribute to the two fundamental laws. Also, it sounded cool at the time. (Also, also, it can be thought of as Mom + Energy, the best of both 1950s domestic life and physics.)

This blog will not exclusively focus on Physics. It will more be a mixture of different subjects like math, economics, physics (duh) and perhaps literature and creative writing. There will be a mixture of formats, from quick updates on something that is going on in our lives to random musings, to more serious entries.

I hope everyone enjoys reading this blog as much as we enjoy writing it!

P.S. The next four days will be the annual University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt. I will be documenting some of the events and photos here. Hope it all goes well!

What is Momenergy?

Momenergy is momentum energy, the binding arrow the unites all space and time. The homogeneity of space leads to the mass velocity of all reality being eternal, unchanging. The uniformity of time creates the infinite fields, stretching as r fib two, melding together to form a Noether umech. Momenergy is the relativity of meters and seconds, letting the fields step into movement and the movement into fields. Momenergy is the unity. Momenergy is the divine vector.

Momenergy is also mom energy, the collective will of soccer moms across the multiverse. When this will stirs, it censors video games for having sex in them.

But not violence. Violence is okay.

Soccer moms are weird.