no that does not answer to the issues I raised.
I am now going to take apart this article:
7 Surprising Science-Based Hacks To Build Your Willpower
Tempted by that second doughnut? Struggling to resist checking your phone? Shopping impulsively on Amazon? Slacking off by reading BuzzFeed instead of doing work? What you need is more willpower! Recent research shows that strengthening willpower is the real secret to the kind of self-control that can help you resist temptations and achieve your goals. The great news is that scientists say strengthening your willpower is not as hard as you might think. Here are 7 research-based hacks to strengthen your willpower!
Smiling and other mood-lifting activities help improve willpower. In a recent study, scientists first drained the willpower of participants through having them resist temptation. Then, for one group, they took steps to lift people’s moods, such as giving them unexpected gifts or showing them a funny video. For another group, they just let them rest. Compared to people who just rested for a brief period, those whose moods were improved did significantly better in resisting temptation later! So next time you need to resist temptation, improve your mood! Smile or laugh, watch a funny video or two.
low willpower resisting BuzzFeed and doughnuts? You should improve your mood - try some Buzzfeed or doughnuts.
Clench your fists or partake in another type of activity where you exercise self-control. Studies say that exercising self-control in any physical domain causes you to become more disciplined in other facets of life. So do whatever works for you to exercise self-control when you are trying to fight temptations: clench your fist, squeeze your eyes shut, or you can even hold in your pee, just like UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
Photo Credit: Gleb Tsipursky meditating in the park
Meditation is great for a lot of things – reducing stress, increasing focus, managing emotions. Now research suggests it even helps us build willpower! With all these benefits, can you afford not to meditate? An easy way to get started is to spend 10 minutes a day sitting in a calm position and focusing on your breath.
Our immediate desires to give in to temptations make it really challenging to resist them. Our emotional desires seem like a huge elephant and our rational self is like a small elephant rider by comparison. However, one way to steer the elephant is to set in physical reminders in advance to remind ourselves of what our rational self wanted to do. So put a note on your fridge that says “only one doughnut” or set an alarm clock to buzz when you want to stop playing video games.
Did you know that your willpower is powered by food? No wonder’s it’s so hard to diet! When we don’t eat, our willpower goes down the drain. The best cure is a meal rich in protein, which enables the most optimal willpower.
How is self-forgiveness connected to willpower? Well, what the science shows is that feelings of regret deplete your willpower. This is why those who eat a little too much ice cream and feel regret are then much more likely to just let themselves go and eat the whole pint or even gallon! Instead, when you give in to temptation, be compassionate toward yourself and forgive yourself. That way, you’ll have more willpower going forward!
The most important thing to strengthen your willpower is commitment to doing so! Only by committing to improving your willpower every day will you be able to take the steps described above. To do so, evaluate your situation and why you want to strengthen your willpower, make a clear decision to work on improving this area, and set a long-term goal for your willpower improvement to have the kind of intentional life that you want.
Then break down this goal into specific and concrete steps that you will take based on the strategies described above. Research shows this is the best path for you to build your willpower!
So what are the specific and concrete steps that you will take to build your own willpower? Share your planned steps and the strategies that you will use in the comments section below!
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surprising clickbait title. That's fine.
science-Based No. Bad. Not helpful.
Tempted by that second doughnut? short term reward vs long term dieting goal with less salient rewards. You didn't explain that.
Struggling to resist checking your phone?
how about asking why? rather than attracting someone to ring the yes that's me bells in their head; instead attract them to the I should sort that out bells.
Shopping impulsively on Amazon?
What really? I know these are just your examples; but you should use solid ones. And don't name drop Amazon and BuzzFeed.
Slacking off by reading BuzzFeed instead of doing work? What you need is more willpower! Recent research shows
research from who? the magical scientists
that strengthening willpower is the real secret
real secret kill me now.
to the kind of self-control that can help you resist temptations and achieve your goals. The great news is that scientists say
scientists say are they the same ones that were doing research before? Or different ones.
strengthening your willpower is not as hard as you might think. Here are 7 research-based hacks to strengthen your willpower!
not inherently bad a suggestion; but really has not a lot to do with willpower. If you are a human who never smiles; you shouldn't be looking at willpower things; you should be solving that problem first.
Smiling and other mood-lifting activities help improve willpower. In a recent study,
a recent study not linked to
scientists them again!
first drained the willpower of participants through having them resist temptation. Then, for one group, they took steps to lift people’s moods, such as giving them unexpected gifts or showing them a funny video. For another group, they just let them rest. Compared to people who just rested for a brief period, those whose moods were improved did significantly better in resisting temptation later!
in what way does this connect smiling and willpower?
So next time you need to resist temptation, improve your mood! Smile or laugh, watch a funny video or two.
no. This is reaching not-even-wrong territory.
nothing wrong with this suggestion but it's a bit of a weak effect.
Clench your fists or partake in another type of activity where you exercise self-control. Studies say
studies say Which ones? Where?
that exercising self-control in any physical domain causes you to become more disciplined in other facets of life.
hey wait - the nebulous idea of willpower, the draw of the science based, the entire idea that there are super secret answers is entirely the opposite of what rationality wants to convey. Truth is - if there were any ideas that really worked; you would already know about them; and probably already be using them. The entire idea of maybe if I keep searching for ideas I can uncover a secret truth is wrong. It's an overstretch of exploration in the exploration-exploitation dilemma. The worst part is partial reinforcement helps to reinforce addictive behaviours (like endlessly browsing buzzfeed) more than anything else.
So do whatever works for you to exercise self-control when you are trying to fight temptations: clench your fist, squeeze your eyes shut, or you can even hold in your pee
just like UK Prime Minister David Cameron. What? Not a good thing to be referencing.
I'm gonna stop because this feels too much like a waste of time.
I realise it's easier to criticise than generate content; I plan to try to do that in contrast to this article if I get the time.
science-Based No. Bad. Not helpful.
Why not helpful?
real secret kill me now
I speak in the tone of listicle articles reluctantly, as I wrote above. It's icky, but necessary to get this past the editors at Lifehack and elsewhere.
a recent study not linked to
Actually, it is linked to. You can check out the article for the link, but here is the link itself if you're curious: www.albany.edu/~muraven/publications/promotion files/articles/tice et al, 2007.pdf
Smile or laugh, watch a funny video or two. no. This is reaching not-even-wrong territory.
T...
What is your opinion on rationality-promoting articles by Gleb Tsipursky / Intentional Insights? Here is what I think:
Trying to teach someone to think rationally is a long process -- maybe even impossible for some people. It's about explaining many biases that people do naturally, demonstrating the futility of "mysterious answers" on gut level; while the student needs the desire to become stronger, the humility of admitting "I don't know" together with the courage to give a probabilistic answer anyway; resisting the temptation to use the new skills to cleverly shoot themselves in the foot, keeping the focus on the "nameless virtue" instead of signalling (even towards the fellow rationalists). It is a LW lesson that being a half-rationalist can hurt you, and being a 3/4-rationalist can fuck you up horribly. And the online clickbait articles seem like one of the worst choices for a medium to teach rationality. (The only worse choice that comes to my mind would be Twitter.)
On the other hand, imagine that you have a magical button, and if you press it, all not-sufficiently-correct-by-LW-standards mentions of rationality (or logic, or science) would disappear from the world. Not to be replaced by something more lesswrongish, but simply by anything else that usually appears in the given medium. Would pressing that button make the world a more sane place? What would have happened if someone had pressed that button hundred years ago? In other words, I'm trying to avoid the "nirvana fallacy" -- I am not asking whether those articles are the perfect vehicle for x-rationality, but rather, whether they are a net benefit or a net harm. Because if they are a net benefit, then it's better having them, isn't it?
Assuming that the articles are not merely ignored (where "ignoring" includes "thousands of people with microscopic attention spans read them and then forget them immediately), the obvious failure mode is people getting wrong ideas, or adopting "rationality" as an attire. Is it really that wrong? Aren't people already having absurdly wrong ideas about rationality? Remember all the "straw Vulcans" produced by the movie industry; Terminator, The Big Bang Theory... Rationality already is associated with being a sociopathic villain, or a pathetic nerd. This is where we are now; and the "rationality" clickbait, however sketchy, cannot make it worse. Actually, it can make a few people interested to learn more. At least, it can show people that there is more than one possible meaning of the word.
To me it seems that Gleb is picking the low-hanging fruit that most rationalists wouldn't even touch for... let's admit it... status reasons. He talks to the outgroup, using the language of the outgroup. But if we look at the larger picture, that specific outgroup (people who procrastinate by reading clickbaity self-improvement articles) actually aren't that different from us. They may actually be our nearest neighbors in the human intellectual space. So what some of us (including myself) feel here is the uncanny valley. Looking at someone so similar to ourselves, and yet so dramatically different in some small details which matter to us strongly, that it feels creepy.
Yes, this whole idea of marketing rationality feels wrong. Marketing is like almost the very opposite of epistemic rationality ("the bottom line" et cetera). On the other hand, any attempt to bring rationality to the masses will inevitably bring some distortion; which hopefully can be fixed later when we already have their attention. So why not accept the imperfection of the world, and just do what we can.
As a sidenote, I don't believe we are at risk of having an "Eternal September" on LessWrong (more than we already have). More people interested in rationality (or "rationality") will also mean more places to debate it; not everyone will come here. People have their own blogs, social network accounts, et cetera. If rationality becomes the cool thing, they will prefer to debate it with their friends.
EDIT: See this comment for Gleb's description of his goals.