= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
MendelSchmiedekamp comments on The ideas you're not ready to post - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (253)
By all means do post. Clarification would be welcome, since we're almost certainly not using the term willpower in the same way.
I'm using it to mean relying on conscious choice in the moment, to overcome preference reversal. Forcing yourself to do something that, at that moment, you'd prefer not to, or to not do something, that you'd prefer to.
What I do instead, is find out why my preference has changed, and either:
Remove that factor from the equation, either by changing something in my head, or in the outside world, or
Choose to agree with my changed preference, for the moment. (Not all preference reversals are problematic, after all!)
From that usage your claim makes much more sense.
Willpower in my usage is more general, when impulses are overridden or circumvented. In your example, it includes the conspicuous consumption of which you describe, but also more subtle costs like the cognitive computation of determining the "why" and forestalling the impulse to remove internal or external factors.
My main point is that willpower is a limited resource that ebbs and flows during cognitive computation, often due to changing costs. But it can be trained up, conserved, and refreshed effectively, if certain hazards can be avoided.
I don't see how that's any different from what I said. How is an "impulse" different from a preference reversal? (i.e., if it's not a preference reversal, why would you need to override or circumvent it?)