Commitment

What People Think It Means

Following through on promises and obligations regardless of circumstances or emotions. Committed people are reliable and trustworthy, people who break commitments are flakes. This is treated as a core character attribute – either you're the kind of person who keeps your word or you're not.

This is moralized because societies need coordination mechanisms, and framing commitment as moral virtue encourages follow-through. But it also prevents legitimate adaptation – breaking a commitment carries shame even when continuation no longer makes sense, creating sunk cost traps.

What It Actually Is

Commitment is an external constraint system that alters the payoff matrix to make follow-through more valuable than abandonment.

The Mechanisms

  1. Identity stakes – "I am the kind of person who does X" makes abandonment feel like identity violation
  2. Social reputation costs – Other people know about this, backing out damages standing
  3. Sunk cost psychology – I've already invested so much, quitting wastes that investment
  4. Accountability structures – Someone else is checking on me, creates external pressure
  5. Restricted option space – I've cut off alternatives, continuation is now the path of least resistance

What looks like strong commitment is often just high exit costs rather than authentic devotion.

The person isn't more virtuous, they just designed a system with expensive exit conditions.

The Key Distinction

  • Functional commitment: Includes periodic strategy reviews that assess continued value
  • Dysfunctional commitment: Blind persistence regardless of new information

How to Build It

Build commitment systems deliberately for goals worth pursuing.

Create External Stakes

  • Public declarations (tell everyone you're doing it)
  • Financial commitments (pay upfront, deposits forfeited on miss)
  • Social accountability (weekly check-ins with partner who expects updates)

Use Identity Reinforcement

  • Join communities of people doing the thing
  • Adopt the identity label ("I am a runner" not "I'm trying to run")
  • Frame it as "this is who I am" rather than "this is what I'm attempting"

Implement Accountability Structures

  • Someone else tracks your progress
  • You report to them regularly
  • There are consequences for non-compliance

External pressure compensates when internal motivation is low.

Restrict Option Space

Cut off alternatives that make abandonment easy.

Example: If you're committed to building your startup, quit your comfortable job so continuing is the only path forward.

(Only do this if you're actually ready – this is a commitment mechanism, not general advice.)

Schedule Commitment Reviews

Every 30 days, assess whether this commitment still has positive expected value given new information:

  • Are you learning?
  • Is the path viable?
  • Is this still the best use of resources?

Distinguish Between Three Categories

  1. Commitments worth keeping despite difficulty – High long-term value, temporary obstacles
  2. Commitments worth renegotiating – Circumstances changed, new information emerged
  3. Commitments worth breaking – Negative expected value, pursuing them is destructive

Accept That Breaking Commitments Has Costs

But sometimes those costs are lower than continued pursuit of invalidated goals.

The commitment system is a tool for executing valuable long-term goals, not a trap that forces you to waste years on dead ends.

Design Your Commitments with Explicit Exit Clauses

"I commit to X for 6 months, then reassess"

This prevents infinite sunk cost traps while still providing enough constraint to push through temporary obstacles.

Key Principle

Commitment with periodic reassessment – Design high exit costs to maintain follow-through, but schedule regular strategy reviews to avoid sunk cost traps.