I missed this nugget from NPR's profile of Orszag earlier this week:
Regardless of the data, psychology matters. Orszag has employed this knowledge while training for a marathon.
"If I didn't achieve what I wanted to, a very large contribution would automatically come out of my credit card and go to a charity that I very much didn't support," Orszag says of his training strategy. "So that was a very strong motivation, as I was running through mile 15 or 16 or whatever it was, to remind myself that I really didn't want to give the satisfaction to that charity for the contribution."
I dunno. By mile 15 or 16 I'd be happy giving bonuses to the rogues at AIG Financial Products if I could stop and have a twinkie.
(Via Tyler Cowen, via RW Daily.)
--Noam Scheiber
