Oops! Sorry! I should be clear and say that I know nothing about AA.
It is my understanding (and I could easily be completely off) that in AA they give you chips for different lenghts of time. And those lenghts of time gradually get further apart. Like first you get a 1 day chip, and then maybe a week, a then a month? I had decided (in my own mind, based on nothing) that it makes sense to give a lot of chips in the begining as it could help develop a sense of acomplishment in the newbie. That's all I meant.
But even if that's not the reasoning in AA, it still makes sense to me in terms of human behavior and establishing new habits, etc.
I never meant to imply that I have any expertise in AA and I should have stated that in my original post. Sorry for the confusion!