Sometimes I am not motivated to study - so I am building Studypact - Reviewing the Kanji

cromadon New member

From: Osaka Registered: 2011-02-09 Posts: 3

Hey guys! I sometimes have a hard time to stay motivated for reviewing my Kanji. It kinda comes in waves. So I started working on Studypact (http://www.studypact.com) and think it might help other people in here as well to stay motivated and get through RTK. Let me know what you think!

Splatted Member

From: England Registered: 2010-10-02 Posts: 776

The idea sounds great but I see a lot of problems with actually making it work.

1) Who's going to regularly pledge money for goals they aren't meeting? My guess is that the user base will be heavily skewed towards people that meet their goals, resulting in weekly payouts that consist of little or nothing.
2) People can set there own goals. For the system to work you need to ensure that the goals are actually challenging.
3) A lot of people don't use anki based on time spent but on work done. Users could end up being forced to pay money because they finished quicker than normal.
4) There's important information lacking: How are the pledges handled? Do you take the money and then pay it back if the pledge is met or do you trust people to pay up if they miss their targets? Do you take a cut for providing the service? Why should I trust you with my money?

Zgarbas Watchman

From: 名古屋 Registered: 2011-10-09 Posts: 1210 Website

While there will be some people who would be willing to pledge money for motivation, the bulk of them will be the ones who know they meet their goals. If you don't meet your goals you just quit studypact after the initial $lost, and then there will be no money to pay the ones who meet their goals.

The idea sounds nice, but I don't see it working. Also, since it only caters to anki reviews it's already quite limited.

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Stansfield123 Member

From: Europe Registered: 2011-04-17 Posts: 799

You guys should check out the accounting books of any cheap gym, compare the number of paying customers with the number of people who actually show up regularly and get their money's worth. You'll find that you're wrong, and that this idea (if put into practice the right way), will work just fine.

Besides, it looks like the money is mostly just symbolic, it's a few bucks for motivation not a means of earning an income.

Aspiring Member

From: San Diego Registered: 2012-08-13 Posts: 307

"After each week all participants who missed their commitment pay the amount pledged into the StudyPact pot. "

Most people here would find paying money too troublesome

I do like the idea of tracking how much time is spent daily, though.
There's a peer-based app called Insight Timer that records how much time you meditate daily, and provides stats.
Using tracking tools such as this is probably a very effective way to improve any skill.

Simple study logs work too

Last edited by Aspiring (2013 March 20, 11:30 pm)

cromadon New member

From: Osaka Registered: 2011-02-09 Posts: 3

Thx for the feedback guys!

To answer your questions:

1) Challenging goals: I will probably set a minimum time make it count. Maybe 30 min or something. I am open for suggestions.

2) Anki only: I am open for other apps and will try to find a way to make it work. Anki seems to be most popular though to get started.

3) How are pledges handled: I will not charge anyone who meets their goal. Not only for avoiding the credit card charges (~3%), but also for comfort.

4) payout size: I expect something like 90% of the people to meet their goal. So your payout will be in the range of 10% of the amount pledged. If it's higher, then that means everybody is studying -> even more amazing

Zgarbas Watchman

From: 名古屋 Registered: 2011-10-09 Posts: 1210 Website

Regarding 2, it's not necessarily about apps, it's just that
1) most people study using multiple websites
2) I doubt websites could be tracked.

e.g. I use renshuu.org more for my reviews these days, kanjibox, different websites and media for exposure, textbooks, etc. So while I study an average of ~3 hours per day, anki reviews are only about 20 minutes. I'm sure most people here would have that kind of anki:websites ratio, if not even less. Since there is no reward for the bulk of it, there would be no real point in using Studypact.

cromadon New member

From: Osaka Registered: 2011-02-09 Posts: 3

Thx for the feedback! You are right. It will be hard to get all services on StudyPact that are out there. Any app/website that reports aggregated study time should not be too hard though. For others I will have to find a different way. Obviously I will go for the most popular ones first.

Cyborg Ninja Member

Registered: 2010-07-18 Posts: 41

I welcome creativity, but this idea just doesn't work. No one is going to risk or allow someone to take their money just because they didn't study. That is just throwing money away, and to what benefit? So an individual can take your money? Of course it would be abused. And I don't know how you would keep track of progress objectively. Perhaps if it were for charity then it would have a noble purpose.

Last edited by Cyborg Ninja (2013 March 30, 11:50 pm)

Sometimes I am not motivated to study - so I am building Studypact

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