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> I used to be afraid of checking the balance of my bank account. [...] In reality, checking my balance causes me to gain money. Nobody's paying me directly for logging into my account, but having accurate beliefs about the resources available to me allows for far more efficient, and less completely insane, spending patterns, and therefore a higher balance on average. [...] 

> Merely knowing this in an abstract, System 2 way was nowhere near enough. It didn't actually change my behavior at all. The relevant bit was that I really did care about having money, and I understood why checking my account balance would lead to that larger goal.

> Having learned about "urge propagation" in a CFAR workshop, I installed an urge propagator. Urge propagation is a motivation hack. Basically, it traces the causal link between a larger goal you really care about and the action you don't feel motivated to take, and explains that link to System 1 in a language it can understand.* Every time I noticed "this would be a good time to check my bank account" and felt myself trying to bury the thought, I invoked my propagator.

> Before me, I'd imagine, (where "me" is usually played by Duncan MacLeod of the TV series Highlander) is an ominous looking lock on a Gringotts style bank vault. A broadsword is strapped across my back. The lock represents "clinging to false beliefs about my finances", and it stands between me and all the riches behind that door.

> Focusing on the feeling of wanting to remain ignorant, of wanting to pretend everything is ok regardless of the truth, I draw my sword. I prepare to strike, raising the sword, calling to mind relinquishment: "That which can be destroyed by the truth should be... the thought I cannot think controls me more than thoughts I speak aloud." Remembering how it feels to let go of ignorance, I let the sword fall, slashing right through the lock. It falls, broken, to the stone floor, making an amplified echo of the "click" from the enter key of my keyboard as it clatters across the ground. Slowly, the door begins to open.

> In the mean time, having taken the head of my enemy, the Highlander!quickening begins. The quickening is, well...

> Some background: In Highlander, an "immortal" can kill another immortal by cutting off his head. When that happens, all the knowledge and power of the dead immortal is transferred to the victorious immortal. The transfer is called a "quickening", and it basically looks like a giant lightning storm focused on the winner.

> Anyway, knowledge is power, so this knowledge storm thing happens while the vault door opens. When it's all over, I enter the vault to look upon my horde of gold pieces and jewels so sparkly they would make a dragon jealous.

> If that seems a whole lot more intricate and over the top than you'd expect me to need for something as simple as "check my account balance", you've got to remember I was trying to blast through this almighty ugh field that had crippled me for years. [...] And... it totally worked! I checked my balance multiple times a week, and experienced no more pain than my actual financial situation warranted. I ended up with accurate beliefs about how much I'd spent and how much I had left.
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