I want to challenge your thought experiment. Consider Navy Seal training. Pushing through via sheer force of will isn't possible. There needs to be a cycling and restorative process that enables above and beyond grit.
Clip of Prof Huberman on "quitting behavior" such as quitting a long bout of work. (Note: Noradrenaline is norepinephrine. It's a weird historical thing where two teams discovered it and nobody agreed on the real name)
https://podclips.com/ct/y4Ucji
Good Joe Rogan with Huberman.
That's exactly what I'm saying. I'll check out the link.
What I'm saying is that you can't push your way through Navy Seal training by trying harder. But you can significantly increase your output and down regulate the process around "quitting" by using other techniques that will trigger the norepinephrine reset.
I think many of us on HN are familiar with being able to work 10-12 hours if we're feeling like we're on the track to success. However, even then, at 10-12 hours, eventually the brain gets tired. That's something that I'm also interested in learning about.
https://www.learningstrategies.com/Home.asp
No affiliation, just a happy customer.
He's got this one guided meditation called 15 minute memory super charger, or some such, I think it's this one:
https://www.learningstrategies.com/Paraliminal/Memory.asp
It gets me nearly every time. I'd say 7 out of 10 times I listen to it I enter an altered state of relaxed alertness, somewhere between awake and and sleep, where I'm aware of my body and mind, but not fully present. Observers say I looked like I was asleep because I start twitching like I'm about fall asleep, but you're aware of what's happening.
Do it a few days in a row and the change in mental / emotional resilience is nothing short of phenomenal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory
https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine...
It's a similar way to describe budgeting mental energy reserves, and how some activities lose spoons while others replenish them.
And yes, I realize "mental energy reserve" isn't a scientific term, it's just a term I'm using for lack of something better to label something I experience.
Re: the football team though, no matter how energized they are, that team will not be able to lift more than their 1RM (1 rep max), they won't be able to lift their 10RM (10 rep max) more than 10 times (maybe a few more on a good day). Eventually there are physical limits to their ability. Similarly if that team had not slept for 48 hours, or had done non-stop math problems for 18 hours and was asked to continue doing them.