Post: #1

Putting this here instead of Lifestyle because I think it has implications for game, both inner and "outer".

Ran across an interesting book in my never-ending search for personal improvement. In this case, it's "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" by Roy F. Baumeister (the psychologist) and John Tierney (the journalist).

Essentially it's a list of several studies on human willpower and some narrative text to fill it in. The studies themselves and the findings are absolutely fascinating, and while a lot of them provoke the "well, I knew THAT" reaction, there's a difference between having heard something and seeing the results of a study that seem to prove it.

For example, one finding is that willpower is a finite resource and that it's shared across multiple contexts; example: in one study (if I remember right), participants watched a funny movie, but while the control group just watched, two focus groups were asked to either not laugh or exaggerate their emotions. Afterward, the two focus groups who had to exert willpower both did more poorly in a basic strength test afterward.

They also found that willpower acted "like a muscle"--ie by repeatedly exerting it, you got better at it.

While there's some pretty universally useful stuff here, from a game perspective this has interesting implications.

In terms of "inner game", this is another tool we've seen before--the best way to develop your approach skill is to force yourself to do approaches; eventually, you develop the willpower to approach women you wouldn't have dreamed of trying before. The act of making decisions is particularly fatiguing to willpower, yet being decisive is seen as alpha--so a skill worth building. There are lots of good applications. Admittedly a lot of it is "common sense"--but it's heartening realizing that all the things people describe as "character-building"... really ARE. Increased willpower was strongly correlated to success across multiple domains.

In terms of "outer game", there are probably some interesting manipulations to consider. For one thing, the idea that willpower is a diminishable resource makes the idea that you can "wear down" resistance very reasonable. What's more interesting is the idea that it's shared across contexts--people who use a lot of willpower during the day are more likely to give in at night (testers who had to resist eating cookies gave up earlier on math problems). So if you can target or create environments where women have been resisting some sort of temptation all day, they are probably more likely to succumb to your temptations that evening. It might be interesting to construct or imagine useful scenarios.

At any rate, interesting stuff--very recommended reading.

Post: #2

Sounds interesting, do you have a download link or an amazon link or anything?

Post: #3

Willpower is essential for dealing with approach anxiety and LMR. You have to dedicate yourself to the goal no matter what. Persistence is key, especially for approaching, where the male version of the rationalization hamster tries to talk you out of doing it.

I got so much LMR from this girl a couple of nights ago that at one point I was thinking about giving up. It was definitely a battle of wills- a giant shit test, because I knew she wanted to bone. It took a long time and a couple of freeze-outs, but eventually she caved.

Post: #4

Sure, WesternCancer; sorry I forgot it: http://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Rediscov...1594203075

(also available at yer local library, which is where I read "48 Laws of Power" as well--just a plug for the old-fashioned room o' books approach)

(to be fair, it's also where I try to check out epubs and then remove the DRM and keep them, which is admittedly rather shady)

Post: #5

There's been a challenge to that theory - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/octob...01410.html . The 2010 study found that if one thinks of it as a limited resource, it's limited, but if not, it's not. Thus, you can get over willpower fatigue with more willpower (though actual fatigue still happens eventually).

Post: #6

I'm not sure I'd agree that this challenges the theory, though... I think it's more likely that if you don't think of it at all, it's a limited resource (ie for the majority of the population)--but if you think of yourself as being able to bull through anything, more than likely you've trained yourself to work hard anyway.

In either case, I think the short form is that if you cultivate a taste for doing hard things, it'll pay off.

Post: #7

I picked this up on Audible.com

Solid.

+1

Post: #8

And perhaps even more importantly, if willpower can grow stronger through use, then that suggests that the reverse could be true as well.

Fascinating stuff.

Post: #9

I just finished this book yesterday and I highly recommend it. I found it not only very interesting but immediately applicable to daily life and achieving goals. Most forum members would benefit from reading it.