I became a bounty hunter!
A few months ago, I hypothesized that effective and rapid resolution of anxiety, insecurity, and validation-seeking symptoms is possible.
To test this, I began a bounty-based unlearning experiment. Participants were forbidden from paying their bounty until they felt they satisfied with lasting results.
Bob’s bounty
I met a man I’ll call “Bob” (pseudonymous) at Manifest 2024, a prediction market conference.
Bob said he had lifelong anxiety, and that it was crushing his agency and relationships.
He offered a $3k bounty. He’d choose if/when to pay, and wasn’t allowed to pay sooner than 1 month.
Then unlearning.
A month later:
I waited another month before posting this, just in case.
It’s been two months. Since unlearning, Bob has been:
Dancing weekly
Choosing more difficult projects at work
Embracing social interactions that used to be triggering
Expressing romantic feelings frankly
I’m choosing to work on problems beyond my capabilities, and get excited about situations where my weaknesses are repeatedly on display.
He asked to pay:
