In other words, every time you make a decision, pre-commit to making the same decision in all conceptually similar situations in the future.
That’s not quite how I would put it. I think the basic insight is: notice that you already will make the same decision in all similar situations in the future, and weigh the cost and benefits of doing that. (Especially striking in examples like dieting: you’re not just eating the extra fry now, you’re eating all of the extra fries that you’ll eat from being the sort of person who eats extra fries in situations like now.)
I think all of the modifications you propose are reasonable.
I almost agree with that formulation better. The problem which I wanted to highlight with the wording—although perhaps the wording I made is not the most effective way to do so—is that there’s something inherently dissimilar about the current situation: you’re making a conscious decision about it. In a world where you’re trying to diet, you still make conscious decisions only a small fraction of the time you eat food.
So your TDT calculation needs to take as input the fact that you currently have the slack/willpower to think about it, and your attention has been drawn to the decision for the particular thing. And this becomes far less generalizable.
That’s not quite how I would put it. I think the basic insight is: notice that you already will make the same decision in all similar situations in the future, and weigh the cost and benefits of doing that. (Especially striking in examples like dieting: you’re not just eating the extra fry now, you’re eating all of the extra fries that you’ll eat from being the sort of person who eats extra fries in situations like now.)
I think all of the modifications you propose are reasonable.
I almost agree with that formulation better. The problem which I wanted to highlight with the wording—although perhaps the wording I made is not the most effective way to do so—is that there’s something inherently dissimilar about the current situation: you’re making a conscious decision about it. In a world where you’re trying to diet, you still make conscious decisions only a small fraction of the time you eat food.
So your TDT calculation needs to take as input the fact that you currently have the slack/willpower to think about it, and your attention has been drawn to the decision for the particular thing. And this becomes far less generalizable.