Good food for thought. I’d like to hypothesize that willpower is not limited in a fixed sense, but also not unlimited. (This might be obvious, but worth thinking through.)
Willpower seems to be increased by practice. People who are disciplined seem to have more willpower to apply to a given problem.
Hmm… alternative hypothesis: is it that they have more willpower, or does their discipline—their daily habits of work and self-improvement—mean that they’re wasting much less energy on deciding whether to do something, many times each day? It’s probably much more energy-efficient to just do something than to keep procrastinating—i.e. to decide to put it off another 5 min, hour or day, again and again.
[I just noticed I’m conflating energy and willpower… and that I don’t have a clear definition of willpower.]
Re John Maxwell IV’s point, earlier in this discussion, that willpower being seen unlimited could be a useful reinforcer—I can see that it would be a useful thought to psyche myself up, but I’d bet that it’s a false belief. An optimally useful belief might be to have an accurate estimate of my own willpower, and to work on the basis that it might be at the high end of the estimated range—so I push myself, but also recognize my need for recovery, and don’t exhaust myself.
Why don’t I think willpower is unlimited? I heard of a study* where people who have have been making decisions are less able to resist unhealthy snacks. This fits with my experience and that of others I’ve talked with. (To try and be thorough, an alternative hypothesis of the study could be that making decisions increases the body’s desire or need for glucose—a related but not identical claim. I know which hypothesis makes more sense in my own experience, but I’d like to know if there’s more solid evidence.)
Please point out errors & help reduce the fuzziness of this argument.
“I heard of a study” should trigger your weasel words detector. Take this claim with a grain of salt since I’m being too lazy and/or time-efficient to go and find information about the study or studies.
** I just noticed the formatting here—writing John Maxwell IV with the underscores instead of spaces turns out as John_Maxwell_IV
I think this whole reasoning about willpower as a energy (whether renewable or not) is horribly confused. It is just a surface analogy taken too far. For physical work we have muscles that burn calories—that is a scientific fact. Mental work can also make us kind of “tired”, but that is not enough to conclude that we have some analogical mental muscles that burn mana points or whatever.
A big difference is that unlike physical work, mental work does not make us literally tired, but more like frustrated. One can think about pleasant things all day long, one can do their hobby, even when it is difficult, all day long, without getting tired. But a work that does not make sense, makes one burn out quickly. When one solves a problem, the mere information that the problem is easy to solve, gives one a lot of “energy”; on the other hand, a suspicion that there is a mistake in a problem which makes it unsolvable, takes the “energy” away. I guess in a similar way, belief in one’s “unlimited willpower” makes the task easier, while belief in a “limited willpower, already largely spent” makes the task more difficult.
I propose a completely different point of view that includes what happens inside the human mind. Human brain is basicly a problem-solving machine, by nature focused on problems of survival and reproduction, and all related stuff (like status, human relations, etc.). All other goals must be somehow connected to this basic goals, even if the connection is only imaginary. This is what the word motivation means: you connect solving of problem X with something that given person already cares about; for example you say “solving problem X will make you rich” or “solving problem X will make people like / admire you”. Thus the brain includes solving problem X in its collection of problems worth solving, and that makes a human willing to do it.
The opposite of this process should be called demotivation; it is usually not done explicitly, but it just happens under some circumstances. If motivation is seeing a link between X and one’s natural goals, demotivation is weakening of this link; a person becoming suspicious that maybe X does not really contribute to one’s goals, or at least that X is so difficult that a completely different way to achieve one’s goals would be more efficient. Simply said, my model is something like “the brain chooses a rational solution, but it may have completely wrong data on its inputs”. For example a little problem on the way towards X may create an exaggerated thought “X is impossible”, which is followed by a rational conclusion “I don’t want to do X anymore”—and the person reports being too tired to do X. Next day the little problem is forgotten or put in a correct perspective, and the person is ready to work on X again.
If this model is good, the the “unlimited willpower” is simply a strong conviction that X is possible and efficient to achieve one’s goals; a convinction so strong that it can’t be even temporarily unbalanced by little problems.
Where exactly is the glucose in this picture? Perhaps consuming glucose is a chemical reinforcement which gives the organism a signal “whatever you were doing, it is good for your survival”. Simply said, you are doing X because you believe “doing X is good for me”. Then you have some problems and switch to “doing X does not work”. Then you eat glucose and your body says “you are on the right path”. And in some situations the brain interprets it that perhaps X is actually good (as if X somehow made you eat the glucose), so it is worth doing X again.
I agree with you for some of your opinions here. The fact of humans having limited willpower rather confusing. It provide one with no option instead settle down believing so. This is where the claim relevant for point of:
1) Uncomplete task will pop up in one’s mind rather often then not when the task is completed. The author imply sometimes we have to settle down something with less than perfect eg: the one mention in the book about finding perfect mate. So here maybe the author purposely or not-of course out of my reach to know author’s state of mind- want us to settle down with less than perfect fact that willpower indeed finite.
Here, I am not sure I follow your reasoning on glucose on willpower. This is just of my opinion, so please correct me if anything wrong with that. For long, medical community has accepeted the fact that glucose indeed a fuel for your brain. Deprive of glucose will not only distorted your perception, concious but can cause death indeed.
Thus, author simply want us to know that unhealthy diet and eating habit indeed do more harm on your precious brain. For most century, humans are believing with those three great Greek-think-tanker of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle that our centre of thinking and feeling is at the heart! That’s why for most of them discipline and willpower is indefenite, simply be because they dont even know there is brain, let alone glucose.
Nowadays, scientific and meta analysis research has proven glucose is the only fuel for our brain. The fact that glucose is so important that when our body deprive of it, our muscle and fat will be mobilized and catabolized becoming glucose! Without glucose, your brain will be chaotic and function improperly. This is where all your willpower, cognitive, judgement and concious perish!
Nonetheless, this book is very an eye-opening in the sense it give an insight and possible new dimension of looking for willpower. For some, willpower is indefinite, the rest will commit to agree that it is finite. Feel free to do so and say it loud because both are not wrong. Between those two, it is only a very fine and thin line dividing them. You will definitely loss your soul and life, let alone willpower if you are not eating well.
Anyway, thank you for the summary here. I enjoy reading it and it serve me well to understand what this book all about. I agree for most of the proposition put forward in this book, the rest maybe worth to be considered for future improvement. Thank you.
Certainly, energy in some form (glucose) is necessary for brain to work. This part is obvious. The question is, how much energy do different brain tasks require. By the way, the brain is doing some work even when I am not thinking, even when I am not using willpower. So the question is, does the brain need more glucose for tasks that require willpower, as opposed to tasks that do not require willpower?
Only if the willpower-related brain tasks need more glucose than willpower-unrelated tasks, only then we can treat the willpower as a limited resource. But if it would happen to be the opposite, if willpower-related and willpower-unrelated tasks need the same energy, then we could take the willpower as unlimited resource (and the glucose as simply the fixed cost of living).
Good food for thought. I’d like to hypothesize that willpower is not limited in a fixed sense, but also not unlimited. (This might be obvious, but worth thinking through.)
Willpower seems to be increased by practice. People who are disciplined seem to have more willpower to apply to a given problem.
Hmm… alternative hypothesis: is it that they have more willpower, or does their discipline—their daily habits of work and self-improvement—mean that they’re wasting much less energy on deciding whether to do something, many times each day? It’s probably much more energy-efficient to just do something than to keep procrastinating—i.e. to decide to put it off another 5 min, hour or day, again and again.
[I just noticed I’m conflating energy and willpower… and that I don’t have a clear definition of willpower.]
Re John Maxwell IV’s point, earlier in this discussion, that willpower being seen unlimited could be a useful reinforcer—I can see that it would be a useful thought to psyche myself up, but I’d bet that it’s a false belief. An optimally useful belief might be to have an accurate estimate of my own willpower, and to work on the basis that it might be at the high end of the estimated range—so I push myself, but also recognize my need for recovery, and don’t exhaust myself.
Why don’t I think willpower is unlimited? I heard of a study* where people who have have been making decisions are less able to resist unhealthy snacks. This fits with my experience and that of others I’ve talked with. (To try and be thorough, an alternative hypothesis of the study could be that making decisions increases the body’s desire or need for glucose—a related but not identical claim. I know which hypothesis makes more sense in my own experience, but I’d like to know if there’s more solid evidence.)
Please point out errors & help reduce the fuzziness of this argument.
“I heard of a study” should trigger your weasel words detector. Take this claim with a grain of salt since I’m being too lazy and/or time-efficient to go and find information about the study or studies.
** I just noticed the formatting here—writing John Maxwell IV with the underscores instead of spaces turns out as John_Maxwell_IV
I think this whole reasoning about willpower as a energy (whether renewable or not) is horribly confused. It is just a surface analogy taken too far. For physical work we have muscles that burn calories—that is a scientific fact. Mental work can also make us kind of “tired”, but that is not enough to conclude that we have some analogical mental muscles that burn mana points or whatever.
A big difference is that unlike physical work, mental work does not make us literally tired, but more like frustrated. One can think about pleasant things all day long, one can do their hobby, even when it is difficult, all day long, without getting tired. But a work that does not make sense, makes one burn out quickly. When one solves a problem, the mere information that the problem is easy to solve, gives one a lot of “energy”; on the other hand, a suspicion that there is a mistake in a problem which makes it unsolvable, takes the “energy” away. I guess in a similar way, belief in one’s “unlimited willpower” makes the task easier, while belief in a “limited willpower, already largely spent” makes the task more difficult.
I propose a completely different point of view that includes what happens inside the human mind. Human brain is basicly a problem-solving machine, by nature focused on problems of survival and reproduction, and all related stuff (like status, human relations, etc.). All other goals must be somehow connected to this basic goals, even if the connection is only imaginary. This is what the word motivation means: you connect solving of problem X with something that given person already cares about; for example you say “solving problem X will make you rich” or “solving problem X will make people like / admire you”. Thus the brain includes solving problem X in its collection of problems worth solving, and that makes a human willing to do it.
The opposite of this process should be called demotivation; it is usually not done explicitly, but it just happens under some circumstances. If motivation is seeing a link between X and one’s natural goals, demotivation is weakening of this link; a person becoming suspicious that maybe X does not really contribute to one’s goals, or at least that X is so difficult that a completely different way to achieve one’s goals would be more efficient. Simply said, my model is something like “the brain chooses a rational solution, but it may have completely wrong data on its inputs”. For example a little problem on the way towards X may create an exaggerated thought “X is impossible”, which is followed by a rational conclusion “I don’t want to do X anymore”—and the person reports being too tired to do X. Next day the little problem is forgotten or put in a correct perspective, and the person is ready to work on X again.
If this model is good, the the “unlimited willpower” is simply a strong conviction that X is possible and efficient to achieve one’s goals; a convinction so strong that it can’t be even temporarily unbalanced by little problems.
Where exactly is the glucose in this picture? Perhaps consuming glucose is a chemical reinforcement which gives the organism a signal “whatever you were doing, it is good for your survival”. Simply said, you are doing X because you believe “doing X is good for me”. Then you have some problems and switch to “doing X does not work”. Then you eat glucose and your body says “you are on the right path”. And in some situations the brain interprets it that perhaps X is actually good (as if X somehow made you eat the glucose), so it is worth doing X again.
I agree with you for some of your opinions here. The fact of humans having limited willpower rather confusing. It provide one with no option instead settle down believing so. This is where the claim relevant for point of:
1) Uncomplete task will pop up in one’s mind rather often then not when the task is completed. The author imply sometimes we have to settle down something with less than perfect eg: the one mention in the book about finding perfect mate. So here maybe the author purposely or not-of course out of my reach to know author’s state of mind- want us to settle down with less than perfect fact that willpower indeed finite.
Here, I am not sure I follow your reasoning on glucose on willpower. This is just of my opinion, so please correct me if anything wrong with that. For long, medical community has accepeted the fact that glucose indeed a fuel for your brain. Deprive of glucose will not only distorted your perception, concious but can cause death indeed.
Thus, author simply want us to know that unhealthy diet and eating habit indeed do more harm on your precious brain. For most century, humans are believing with those three great Greek-think-tanker of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle that our centre of thinking and feeling is at the heart! That’s why for most of them discipline and willpower is indefenite, simply be because they dont even know there is brain, let alone glucose.
Nowadays, scientific and meta analysis research has proven glucose is the only fuel for our brain. The fact that glucose is so important that when our body deprive of it, our muscle and fat will be mobilized and catabolized becoming glucose! Without glucose, your brain will be chaotic and function improperly. This is where all your willpower, cognitive, judgement and concious perish!
Nonetheless, this book is very an eye-opening in the sense it give an insight and possible new dimension of looking for willpower. For some, willpower is indefinite, the rest will commit to agree that it is finite. Feel free to do so and say it loud because both are not wrong. Between those two, it is only a very fine and thin line dividing them. You will definitely loss your soul and life, let alone willpower if you are not eating well.
Anyway, thank you for the summary here. I enjoy reading it and it serve me well to understand what this book all about. I agree for most of the proposition put forward in this book, the rest maybe worth to be considered for future improvement. Thank you.
Certainly, energy in some form (glucose) is necessary for brain to work. This part is obvious. The question is, how much energy do different brain tasks require. By the way, the brain is doing some work even when I am not thinking, even when I am not using willpower. So the question is, does the brain need more glucose for tasks that require willpower, as opposed to tasks that do not require willpower?
Only if the willpower-related brain tasks need more glucose than willpower-unrelated tasks, only then we can treat the willpower as a limited resource. But if it would happen to be the opposite, if willpower-related and willpower-unrelated tasks need the same energy, then we could take the willpower as unlimited resource (and the glucose as simply the fixed cost of living).