It seems appropriate to share an article of Ray Peat's here.
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/dark-side-of-stress-le...
Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
91–100 of 241 posts
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who consider themselves "gym rats" go to the gym because it is what they do. People who are mountain bikers don't ride to keep in shape, they look forward to getting on their bike.
Those are easy to see, but there are few people who clean their dishes for fun/leisure.
I have met some of them. And I can say for certain I find using a dishwasher more fun than washing by hands. Even if it's family time etc. etc.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#93Good thing I didn’t read such a bullshit defeatist conclusion before I dropped 40 lbs 7 years ago (adopted sane diet, never gained it back) and dug myself out of a deep hole of alcohol dependence. haven’t beaten the habit of falling for engagement baiting headlines though i suppose do not let yourself believe you are weak or a victim
I agree with this comment 100%. I stopped drinking and lost 20kg by changing my diet and taking up exercise.
There is one caveat:
You can make it easier by making better decisions sooner. I stopped buying shit food. I started making better food more often. I planned my day around exercise.
No temptation from being at the pub. No temptation from snacks and sweets at home. Not temptation to skip a day because I had already exercised and would exercise further.
We are powerful and building structures in our life is arbitrage from when we have excess power to when we need our power most.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buying groceries when you’re feeling good, and changing your route through the store to groom yourself for success instead of failure, are common, effective bits of advice for weight loss and healthy eating. Most of the garbage really is in the middle of the store, and I imagine myself diving into deep water to grab ketchup, soup, flour. Get in, get out, no sightseeing.
My shopping list is sequential by aisle, so I don't go down the aisle if it's not on my list. I wonder if shopping online for delivery helps curb impulse buying
Try shopping just the exterior.
The head of UI at Homegrocer was a friend of a friend when they were at their peak, and I was in the middle of my second affair with UX, so we occasionally talked.
He told me he was getting pressure to incorporate dark patterns (though that phrase hadn’t made the rounds at the time) into the site design to get people to do more impulse buying.
Sadly if he had they might still be around.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The conclusion may not be defeatist, but the conclusion is different from the subtitle of the article (and the title of the submission): > Studies suggest that relying on will power is hopeless Which would indeed be extremely defeatist. Willpower and better strategies can both work in conjunction. Willpower is not entirely hopeless as a strategy.
why omit the last part? > Studies suggest that relying on will power is hopeless. Instead, we must find strategies that don’t require us to be strong. nothing defeatist about it. not to mention, why judge such a long article which is summarizing a long book by the subtitle which generally isn't even written by the author of the article...
>Instead, we must find strategies that don’t require us to be strong.
Similar to the title, is is again framing it as an either/or situation.
Reality is that strategy+ willpower is the winning approach. Making change will almost always require strength, but strategy can make that requirement lower.
Throwing out your cigarettes/beer/ junk food makes abstinence easier, but it doesnt make abstinence easier than buying more.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#96These threads always bring out a whole bunch of people who confuse confirmation bias with population-level statistics. If you kicked a heroin habit, good for you! Societally we still can’t use “suck it up you pansies” as a drug rehab strategy just on your say-so.
It is interesting that a forum filled with a disproportionate amount of techies still fall for such biases
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! If you eat too much, take up smoking instead. That's one old habit gone, and a new one added!
Reminds me of a friend who's New Year's resolution over 20 years ago was to pick up smoking. He tried a few times but just couldn't manage to start the habit.
I worked for a guy who said he would take up smoking at age 75 because he'd calculated the impact on his remaining life span at that point would be minimal.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
why omit the last part? > Studies suggest that relying on will power is hopeless. Instead, we must find strategies that don’t require us to be strong. nothing defeatist about it. not to mention, why judge such a long article which is summarizing a long book by the subtitle which generally isn't even written by the author of the article...
>Instead, we must find strategies that don’t require us to be strong. Similar to the title, is is again framing it as an either/or situation. Reality is that strategy+ willpower is the winning approach. Making change will almost always require strength, but strategy can make that requirement lower. Throwing out your cigarettes/beer/ junk food makes abstinence easier, but it doesnt make abstinence easier than buying m…
Again the article already says all of this. The issue is people judging the entire thing by the title.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#99[flagged]
It doesn't work, until it does. But perhaps some other thing actually did the working.
Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)
#100These threads always bring out a whole bunch of people who confuse confirmation bias with population-level statistics. If you kicked a heroin habit, good for you! Societally we still can’t use “suck it up you pansies” as a drug rehab strategy just on your say-so.
It is interesting that a forum filled with a disproportionate amount of techies still fall for such biases
Technical ability and knowledge just doesn't correlate with critical thinking at all. At worst, it makes you more likely to fall into that common trap of believing you're "smart" and therefore know everything about everything.