What is self-binding mechanisms?

Self-binding mechanisms is a concept in personal epistemology: Commitment devices are external structures that make it costly or impossible to break a commitment. They work because they shift the decision from the moment of temptation to the moment of design.

Example: You want to write every morning before checking email, but the pull of the inbox wins every time. So you install a site blocker that locks you out of email and Slack until 9 AM. The first morning, you instinctively open your browser, hit the block screen, and — with nothing else to do — open your draft. Within a week the block is irrelevant because the writing habit has formed. The device didn't give you willpower. It removed the need for it.

This concept is part of Phase 34 (Commitment Architecture) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for commitment architecture.