= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Heka comments on Review of Scott Adams’ “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” - 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 (39)
I read the chapter on diet. Adams claims that "Science has demonstrated that humans have a limited supply of willpower." This idea is important for at least this chapter. However as Robert Kurzban has noted it is a weak theory that cannot be falsified. I would prefer Adams to use the concept of willpower as another self-delusion to help optimize one's systems.
We know that humans act roughly as if they have a limited supply of willpower. That is, it is a reasonably functional model for predicting a variety of experimental outcomes. As a rule of thumb for purposes of providing self-help advice that applies in most cases, this seems pretty sufficient.
IIRC, I think this falls under his general admonition not to treat the contents of the book as true, but rather as useful.
The problem is that there is some evidence that indicates believing that willpower is in limited makes it a limited resource. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/opinion/sunday/willpower-its-in-your-head.html?_r=0
Holding a belief that reduces your willpower in turn isn't good for self-help purposes.