Practicing self-control consumes real energy | Hacker News Reader

Practicing self-control consumes real energy

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24 pointsgaika11 comments

This seems fairly obvious to me; self control involves doing something extra. For instance, take the Stroop test (where a color word is shown in another color, e.g. "red" in blue ink). When asked to read the word, you don't have to do anything extra (assuming you are an experienced reader); you kind of automatically just "know" what the word is, it is your strongest identification with the written text. Identifying the color isn't any harder than reading the word, but you have to override your automatic propensity to say what's written.

Thinking of it in programming terms, you're not just doing "sayColor()" instead of "sayText()"; you always do "sayText()", but you also have to do "blockSayText()" and "sayColor()" in parallel.

Personally, as a writer I have great difficulty writing when I'm trying to concentrate. It's actually quite unbelievable how much diet soda I go through, yet I write best (quality & quantity) when I'm chowing down on granola bars and candy. I think I drank an entire like uber-big gulp of coke in an hour and got out 2000 words, yet in the same amount of time I'm usually lucky if I get 500 words when I'm drinking Coke Zero.

The research was published in 2007. And it has been discussed here before.

That explains why Obama is so skinny.

...how does obama have anything to do with self control? On numerous occasions he has lost his temper to the press, and that is just public stuff.

Doesn't that go for most public figures, though?

most, yes. But I would hope that our most important leaders have good self-control.

I am surprised you would say that. From what I've seen (I've followed him and other candidates a lot during the debates) he showed extreme self control, more so than any other candidate.

I tend to agree with the New York Times:

In the way Mr. Obama has trained himself for competition, he can sometimes seem as much athlete as politician. Even before he entered public life, he began honing not only his political skills, but also his mental and emotional ones. He developed a self-discipline so complete, friends and aides say, that he has established dominion over not only what he does but also how he feels. He does not easily exult, despair or anger: to do so would be an indulgence, a distraction from his goals. Instead, they say, he separates himself from the moment and assesses.

What were some examples of those numerous occasions where he's lost his temper?

The first one to pop up on google was this: http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/09/21/obama-yelling... There are plenty of examples, as soon as people stop relying on the left wing media to feed them what they think everyone should hear.

It really is fascinating how people's likes and dislikes color their perception. We look at the same video and you see screaming while I see a regular townhall meeting-type Q&A. I am not being argumentative here, I just really fail to see the screaming - he looks to be speaking loudly both before and after that question.

One thing I will say is that it's unfair to allow senior citizens to ask questions, but then say that Obama is scaring them when he answers. I doubt the specific lady in question would want to be treated differently than others just based on her age. If she thinks herself fit to attend a political debate, we should respect her decision.

Also, I am not sure why you presumed that I am being fed by the left wing media. Like I said, I watched the actual candidates' debates... so I really just saw them however they chose to present themselves.

I agree, it looks like any regular debate. He's talking over her, but every politician does that. She asked him what he'd do on terrorism and illegal immigrants, he went to answer and then she starts arguing in the middle of his reply.

How political debates are handled in the UK where I grew up and found my interest in politics are: you stand up, ask the question you've got, they reply and, I've seen this numerous times, the questioner will stand back up and say "that's not what I asked..." I remember it with Tony Blair, he did it 3 times in a row to the same guy and it was like WTF you're showing everyone on national TV that you fully ignore people when they ask a question you don't like. I believe the question was on why we entered the Iraq war after it had come out that there weren't WMD's and that (IIRC) MI5 had declared they highly doubted the existence of any WMD's in Iraq months before the war. Tony Blair basically kept saying they did it because Saddam Hussein had WMD's.

Obama in that video was asked a question, but the woman tried to stop him from answering, obviously she'd already made up her mind that whatever he said wasn't the answer she wanted because she never even listened.

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