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The Anatomy of Determination

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#11

Post by radu_floricica »

ankeshk wrote: post #7

1. Easy way to become better at controlling will power is controlling your diet. Yep - glucose increases will power. http://psr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/11/4/303 2. "Environment trumps discipline" I'd read an article that said that for most people - their income will be very close to the average income of their 5 closest friends. Create the environment - and discipline will come on its own. 3. Ambition either co…

About 1: Glucose is necessary, not sufficient. You don't have it and willpower suffers. You have in excess and you just get fat.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#12

Post by ankeshk »

radu_floricica wrote: post #11
ankeshk wrote: post #7

1. Easy way to become better at controlling will power is controlling your diet. Yep - glucose increases will power. http://psr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/11/4/303 2. "Environment trumps discipline" I'd read an article that said that for most people - their income will be very close to the average income of their 5 closest friends. Create the environment - and discipline will come on its own. 3. Ambition either co…

About 1: Glucose is necessary, not sufficient. You don't have it and willpower suffers. You have in excess and you just get fat.

Good point.

I think it would also be interesting to ask religious folks how they get willpower to fast.

Fasting means lack of glucose in your body. Yet fasting is a showcase of willpower.

So maybe some interesting answers may come from them...

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#13

Post by abalashov »

davidw wrote: post #9
sharpn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's willfull. Having the discipline to wait until spring (no matter what the cost) would have been determined.

If you're "ambitious", you may be going where no one has gone before. These days, everyone knows that getting into a land war with Russia is a bad idea, but it may not have always been so. Same thing with lots of other people whose ambition caused them to push the limits (mountain climbers?). If you're at the limits, you may not know when 'determination' means pushing on despite everything to achieve some great succe…

I think that PG's elements for success are, in a generic way, about right. Just that that vagueness sort of precludes one from applying them to specific situations until after the fact.

That was my sentiment as well, after reading. Much of what is said is difficult to argue with on an ideological level; it's just that it's rather abstract.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#14

Post by abalashov »

rw wrote: post #3

Very true in my experience: "When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they'd get from ambitious peers, whatever their age."

I've had the opposite experience, depending on what kinds of personalities are involved. Sometimes when you put several ambitious people together, they all destructively interfere with each other with the strength they radiate, particularly if they're young and inexperienced.

Ambitious people are almost always more granular and more preoccupied control freaks than people who are less ambitious. That can be a problem unless they are also diplomatic, pragmatic and wise.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#15

Post by sharpn »

davidw wrote: post #9
sharpn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's willfull. Having the discipline to wait until spring (no matter what the cost) would have been determined.

If you're "ambitious", you may be going where no one has gone before. These days, everyone knows that getting into a land war with Russia is a bad idea, but it may not have always been so. Same thing with lots of other people whose ambition caused them to push the limits (mountain climbers?). If you're at the limits, you may not know when 'determination' means pushing on despite everything to achieve some great succe…

Ok, to continue your (excellent) mountain-climbing analogy, the ultimate goal is to climb the mountain and return safely. Encountering potentially fatal difficulties near the summit will result in you turning back to retry later if you are "determined" to reach the ultimate goal. If you willfully abandon the long-term goal of returning safely to achieve the "ambition" of reaching the summit, that's reckless rather than disciplined.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#16

Post by xenophanes »

> A good deal of willfulness must be inborn, because it's common to see families where one sibling has much more of it than another.

This is a non-sequitur. The hidden assumption seems to be that siblings in the observed families are treated exactly the same and have exactly the same environment, in every way, which is blatantly false.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#19

Post by gruseom »

ankeshk wrote: post #7

1. Easy way to become better at controlling will power is controlling your diet. Yep - glucose increases will power. http://psr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/11/4/303 2. "Environment trumps discipline" I'd read an article that said that for most people - their income will be very close to the average income of their 5 closest friends. Create the environment - and discipline will come on its own. 3. Ambition either co…

England started becoming a super power only when King Henry read the book of King Arthur and his Knights of the round table. (King Arthur's story was a false story written by Thomas Malory - while in prison. A convict changed the fortunes of England which was until then a land of misfits and barbarians - by giving them a hero!)

I don't know much English history, but this is surely nonsense. Malory was a late compiler of the Arthurian legends, in no way their originator, and Henry V (whom I assume you have in mind?) was a generation earlier. Besides, history doesn't work this (fairy-tale) way.

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