Will Power Button

“More fundamentally, the common, monolithic definition of willpower distracts us from finer-grained dimensions of self-control and runs the danger of magnifying harmful myths—like the idea that willpower is finite and exhaustible. To borrow a phrase from the philosopher Ned Block, willpower is a mongrel concept, one that connotes a wide and often inconsistent range of cognitive functions. The closer we look, the more it appears to unravel. It’s time to get rid of it altogether.” From Aeon: Willpower is a dangerous, old idea that needs to be scrapped. (At my house, it will definitely be scrapped by the second quarter of the Super Bowl.)