your psyche’s conscious verbal planner “earns” willpower
This seems to assume that there’s 1) exactly one planner and 2) it’s verbal. I think there are probably different parts that enforce top-down control, some verbal and some maybe not.
For example, exerting willpower to study boring academic material seems like a very different process than exerting willpower to lift weights at the gym.
I think that there is something like:
Local beliefs about the usefulness of exerting willpower in a particular context (e.g. someone might not believe that willpower is useful in school but does believe that it’s useful in the gym, or vice versa, and correspondingly have more willpower available in one context than the other)
To the extent that one has internalized a concept about “willpower” being a single thing, broader beliefs about willpower being useful in general
Various neurological and biological variables that determine how strong one’s top-down processes are in general, relative to their bottom-up processes (e.g. someone with ADHD will have their bottom-up processes be innately stronger than the top-down ones; medication may then strengthen the amount of top-down control they have).
Various neurological and biological variables that determine which of one’s processes get priority in any given situation (e.g. top-down control tends to be inhibited when hungry or tired; various emotional states may either reduce or increase the strength of top-down control)
My model of burnout roughly agrees with both your and @Matt Goldenberg . To add to Matt’s “burnout as revolt” model, my hunch is that burnout often involves not only a loss of belief that top-down control is beneficial. I think it also involves more biological changes to the neural variables that determine the effectiveness of top-down versus bottom-up control. Something in the physical ability of the top-down processes to control the bottom-up ones is damaged, possibly permanently.
Metaphorically, it’s like the revolting parts don’t just refuse to collaborate anymore; they also blow up some of the infrastructure that was previously used to control them.
Perhaps the “decisions” that happen in the brain are often accompanied by some change in hormones (I am thinking about Peterson saying how lobsters get depressed after they lose a fight), so we can’t just willpower them away. Instead we need to find some hack that reverts the hormonal signal.
Sometimes just taking a break helps, if the change in hormones is temporary and gets restored to the usual level. Or we can do something pleasant to recharge (eat, talk to friends). Or we can try working with unconsciousness and use some visualization or power poses or whatever.
Something in the physical ability of the top-down processes to control the bottom-up ones is damaged, possibly permanently.
Metaphorically, it’s like the revolting parts don’t just refuse to collaborate anymore; they also blow up some of the infrastructure that was previously used to control them.
This is scary; big if true, would significantly change my own personal strategies and those I endorse to others -a switch from focusing on recovery to rehabilitation/adaptation.
I’d be grateful if you can elaborate on this part of your model and/or point me toward relevant material elsewhere.
This seems to assume that there’s 1) exactly one planner and 2) it’s verbal. I think there are probably different parts that enforce top-down control, some verbal and some maybe not.
For example, exerting willpower to study boring academic material seems like a very different process than exerting willpower to lift weights at the gym.
I think that there is something like:
Local beliefs about the usefulness of exerting willpower in a particular context (e.g. someone might not believe that willpower is useful in school but does believe that it’s useful in the gym, or vice versa, and correspondingly have more willpower available in one context than the other)
To the extent that one has internalized a concept about “willpower” being a single thing, broader beliefs about willpower being useful in general
Various neurological and biological variables that determine how strong one’s top-down processes are in general, relative to their bottom-up processes (e.g. someone with ADHD will have their bottom-up processes be innately stronger than the top-down ones; medication may then strengthen the amount of top-down control they have).
Various neurological and biological variables that determine which of one’s processes get priority in any given situation (e.g. top-down control tends to be inhibited when hungry or tired; various emotional states may either reduce or increase the strength of top-down control)
My model of burnout roughly agrees with both your and @Matt Goldenberg . To add to Matt’s “burnout as revolt” model, my hunch is that burnout often involves not only a loss of belief that top-down control is beneficial. I think it also involves more biological changes to the neural variables that determine the effectiveness of top-down versus bottom-up control. Something in the physical ability of the top-down processes to control the bottom-up ones is damaged, possibly permanently.
Metaphorically, it’s like the revolting parts don’t just refuse to collaborate anymore; they also blow up some of the infrastructure that was previously used to control them.
Perhaps the “decisions” that happen in the brain are often accompanied by some change in hormones (I am thinking about Peterson saying how lobsters get depressed after they lose a fight), so we can’t just willpower them away. Instead we need to find some hack that reverts the hormonal signal.
Sometimes just taking a break helps, if the change in hormones is temporary and gets restored to the usual level. Or we can do something pleasant to recharge (eat, talk to friends). Or we can try working with unconsciousness and use some visualization or power poses or whatever.
This is scary; big if true, would significantly change my own personal strategies and those I endorse to others -a switch from focusing on recovery to rehabilitation/adaptation.
I’d be grateful if you can elaborate on this part of your model and/or point me toward relevant material elsewhere.
Mostly just personal experience with burnout and things that I recall hearing from others; I don’t have any formal papers to point at. Could be wrong.