Problem with the self discipline argument is that there are thousands of highly paid software engineers and designers who spend every working day aiming to break that discipline, and they have a mountain of data and a powerful low latency feedback loop as weapons.

Yep, in hindsight, I’m off base here. I delete apps as soon as I feel like I’m being manipulated (people too). I pretty much use my mobile devices for note taking, calendar, email (with rule sets for the “offenders”), reminders, and internet/music. Basically it’s augmenting all the stuff I normally forget.

For some people it seems to be, others either see through the shallow attempts at creating and stimulating a need for more instant gratification which the 'app' world is so rife with or just plain are not interested in wasting time on caressing their touch screens for no identifiable purpose. Some - me amongst them - fit in both categories.

Mobile devices can be handy tools as long as they are seen as just that, tools to perform tasks which are laid aside when the task is completed. For some this seems to be difficult as this happens to be a tool which can be configured to call for attention at any time...

...a family is having dinner, 'bleep' says the phone in mommy's pocket and she is instantly is pulled off-balance by the urge to look for the cause of that 'bleep' versus the annoyance she knows this creates. Either she gives way to the urge and annoys her partner who feels these devices have no place in this context or she keeps it where it is and feels the pull of the thing in her pocket, the unfulfilled desire to know what made it bleep even though she knows it will just be another pointless message...

Yes. People who think they have better self control over something tend to just have a different level of enjoyment.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/3/13486940/se...

First of all, I completely disagree with this article.

Anecdotally, I always had insane amount of will-power compared to my peers/people that I can gauge.

From the article:

"But if, for example, the change is to eat fewer sweets, and then you find yourself in front of a pile of cookies, researchers say the pile of cookies has already won."

I use to do this daily on purpose, just to better my will-power. I bought tons of stuff that I specifically didn't want to eat (I had 6 pack, attempting to get 8 pack) and I put them on my table so I can see them the whole day. I never reached for them, cause even if sometimes I thought of it (especially when there was no other food available (rarely), I STILL didn't touch them). Cause it's my choice, and it's up to me and I'll do what I decide to do. End of story.

It's up to you. It's a choice. Forget everything you have been thought, it's completely up to you. When you take Coca Cola and put it in your mouth, you are doing it. Not some abstract will-power or genes or anything. It is you!

Similarly, we can make up our minds on anything and stick with it. I refuse to believe that we aren't control of our own, damn it!

There's some dumb things in the article like:

“People who are good at self-control … seem to be structuring their lives in a way to avoid having to make a self-control decision in the first place,” Galla tells me. And structuring your life is a skill. People who do the same activity — like running or meditating — at the same time each day have an easier time accomplishing their goals, he says. Not because of their willpower, but because the routine makes it easier."

So according to them, there is no such thing as "willpower" cause it's always something else. They say nobody has willpower anyway; there are people that have no temptations and that's why they persevere. Ridiculous.

Hmm. Maybe it’s not black and white - try this idea out for size: “willpower” as a finite resource. Some have more. Some have less. Some learn how to develop it and increase capacity. Some use their current capacity to greater effect by creating systems for themselves that maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their current level.

By the sound of it, for them that was all apps. So just use a normal phone, no point in a smartphone without apps.

Yes. The system is designed to be difficult to ditch. For a lot of people, the little thrill of an unread notification badge is like mainlining heroin. It's a dump of happy chemicals right to their brain.

Cigarettes might be a better analogy: that little pick-me-up in small bursts throughout the day.

The 'notification junkie'... :P

Yes, obviously, or they wouldn't struggle with it.

If you're addicted, rational thought isn't dominant.