The article gives framing and advice that seem somewhat arbitrary, and doesn’t explain most of the choices. It alludes to research, but the discussion actually present in the article is only tangentially related to most of the framing/advice content, and even that discussion is not very informative when considered in isolation, without further reading.
There is a lot of attention to packaging the content, with insufficient readily available justification for it, which seems like a terrible combination without an explicit reframing of what the article wants to be. With less packaging, it would at least not appear to be trying to counteract normal amount of caution in embracing content of (subjectively) mysterious origin.
Hi Vladimir, thanks for your comments. Could you elaborate on what you would like to see more justification for when you say (“insufficient readily available justification”)? I’d also be interested to know what framing seemed “somewhat arbitrary.”
In the section “Nine Traits of Self-Controlled Behavior” my claim is that those pretty self-evidently are traits that (i) differ non-negligibly between people and (ii) can manifest as “self-controlled behavior.” Are there items in that list that you think don’t differ between people, or that you don’t think can manifest in self-controlled behavior? I view that list as the sort of thing that someone can check for themselves by simply seeing whether they agree with each item. Maybe you’re wondering where this list comes from? It is a list of all of the traits I know of that I believe manifest as self-controlled behavior. So I don’t view it as arbitrary—surely there are ones I didn’t think of, but I was attempting to be comprehensive.
In the section “Twelve Simple Strategies for Gaining More Control” many of those strategies have a whole research literature on them. Others are common-sense strategies. I certainly can’t claim this is a comprehensive list of strategies, as hundreds of strategies exist. So maybe this list seemed arbitrary?
On the ego depletion stuff, I go into a lot of detail on my thinking, that I think gives the reader plenty of information to decide whether they agree with what I’m saying or not. If you disagree I’d be interested to know.
The article gives framing and advice that seem somewhat arbitrary, and doesn’t explain most of the choices. It alludes to research, but the discussion actually present in the article is only tangentially related to most of the framing/advice content, and even that discussion is not very informative when considered in isolation, without further reading.
There is a lot of attention to packaging the content, with insufficient readily available justification for it, which seems like a terrible combination without an explicit reframing of what the article wants to be. With less packaging, it would at least not appear to be trying to counteract normal amount of caution in embracing content of (subjectively) mysterious origin.
Hi Vladimir, thanks for your comments. Could you elaborate on what you would like to see more justification for when you say (“insufficient readily available justification”)? I’d also be interested to know what framing seemed “somewhat arbitrary.”
In the section “Nine Traits of Self-Controlled Behavior” my claim is that those pretty self-evidently are traits that (i) differ non-negligibly between people and (ii) can manifest as “self-controlled behavior.” Are there items in that list that you think don’t differ between people, or that you don’t think can manifest in self-controlled behavior? I view that list as the sort of thing that someone can check for themselves by simply seeing whether they agree with each item. Maybe you’re wondering where this list comes from? It is a list of all of the traits I know of that I believe manifest as self-controlled behavior. So I don’t view it as arbitrary—surely there are ones I didn’t think of, but I was attempting to be comprehensive.
In the section “Twelve Simple Strategies for Gaining More Control” many of those strategies have a whole research literature on them. Others are common-sense strategies. I certainly can’t claim this is a comprehensive list of strategies, as hundreds of strategies exist. So maybe this list seemed arbitrary?
On the ego depletion stuff, I go into a lot of detail on my thinking, that I think gives the reader plenty of information to decide whether they agree with what I’m saying or not. If you disagree I’d be interested to know.
Thanks again for your comments!