Scott Alexander explores parallels between human willpower and potential AI development, suggesting future AIs might experience weakness of will similar to humans. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores the concept of willpower in humans and AI, drawing parallels between evolutionary drives and AI training. He suggests that both humans and future AIs might experience a struggle between instinctual drives and higher-level planning modules. The post discusses how evolution has instilled basic drives in animals, which then developed their own ways to satisfy these drives. Similarly, AI training might first develop 'instinctual' responses before evolving more complex planning abilities. Scott posits that this could lead to AIs experiencing weakness of will, contradicting the common narrative of hyper-focused AIs in discussions of AI risk. He also touches on the nature of consciousness and agency, questioning whether the 'I' of willpower is the same as the 'I' of conscious access. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander proposes a Bayesian theory of willpower as a process of weighing evidence from different mental processes to determine actions. Longer summary

Scott Alexander proposes a new Bayesian theory of willpower, disagreeing with previous models like glucose depletion, opportunity cost minimization, and mental agent conflicts. He suggests willpower is a process of weighing evidence from different mental processes: a prior on motionlessness, reinforcement learning, and conscious calculations. The basal ganglia then resolves this evidence to determine actions. Scott explores how this model explains the effects of dopaminergic drugs on willpower and discusses implications for understanding mental illness and productivity. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explores the motivational system as described in 'The Hungry Brain', connecting it to dopamine, willpower, and predictive processing theory. Longer summary

Scott Alexander revisits Stephan Guyenet's book 'The Hungry Brain', focusing on its description of the motivational system. He explains how the basal ganglia in lampreys and humans select behaviors from competing 'bids' made by different brain regions. The post then discusses dopamine's role in this system and how disorders like Parkinson's disease and abulia affect motivation. Scott concludes by proposing a theory linking dopamine levels, willpower, and the predictive processing model, suggesting that high dopamine levels may represent confidence in overriding default behaviors with more willpower-intensive actions. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander shares intriguing excerpts from 'Willpower', a book on self-control, while cautioning readers about the claims' reliability and expressing skepticism about some assertions. Longer summary

This post is a collection of highlighted passages from the book 'Willpower' that the author found surprising or counterintuitive. The excerpts cover various topics related to self-control, including the Zeigarnik effect, writing habits, religious influence on self-discipline, cultural differences in self-control, dieting challenges, and ego depletion. Scott Alexander emphasizes that he has not fact-checked these claims and expresses skepticism about some of the book's assertions. He also provides occasional commentary on certain passages, relating them to his own experiences or other sources. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reviews 'Willpower' by Baumeister and Tierney, finding it disappointing for its pop science approach and failure to address controversies in willpower research. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reviews the book 'Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength' by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. He expresses disappointment with the book's pop science approach and lack of in-depth exploration of the controversies surrounding willpower research. The review outlines key points from the book, discusses ongoing debates in the field, and presents Scott's own thoughts on how willpower might work. He critiques the book for not addressing important controversies and research challenges in the field of willpower studies. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander examines different theories of weight gain, focusing on the roles of metabolism and appetite/exercise drive, and concludes that individual metabolic differences likely play a significant role in weight management. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores four positions on the thermodynamics of weight gain, focusing on the debate between position 2 (weight gain depends on calories but metabolism varies) and position 3 (weight gain depends on calories but appetite/exercise drive varies). He dismisses positions 1 and 4 as unrealistic. Scott provides evidence for metabolic differences between individuals, including genetic studies and twin experiments. He also discusses the possibility of metabolism changing over time, drawing from personal experience. While acknowledging the lack of strong evidence for drastic metabolic changes, Scott concludes that people who struggle with weight loss due to their metabolism may have a valid point. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander compares his inability to allocate time for work tasks despite blogging regularly to heroin addicts' inability to allocate money for medication despite buying drugs. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the parallel between heroin addicts' inability to allocate money for medication and his own struggle to allocate time for work tasks despite having time to blog. He explains that just as addicts can find money for drugs but not for medication, he can find time for blogging but struggles to find time for other tasks. Scott suggests that the real bottleneck is energy/willpower rather than time, and that blogging, being his 'addiction', doesn't require this resource. He acknowledges this is unfair to those waiting on him and mentions he should be less busy in the coming weeks. Shorter summary