I’d argue that this is more broadly about having a forcing function, of which status dynamics are a subset. I find that when I tie myself to the mast, I have more willpower, which probably has something to do with the dopaminergic anticipation of reward changing. In the case of status, high-status people have a lot of sway over others in their tribal context, so most people are naturally averse to disobeying them in that context. You wouldn’t want to get exiled from the tribe, after all.
The problem is that this doesn’t work for more serious cases that might also involve e.g. depression. My best guess at a more comprehensive theory is that willpower is intricately linked with consciousness and intelligence. More intelligent minds learn and get tired out more quickly (from faster fine-tuning maybe?), which needs to be overridden with more willpower. The less conscious you are and the less willpower you exercise, the more likely you are to be doing a rote task that’s already been fine-tuned, and in that case there’s not much efficient cross-domain optimization going on.
I’d argue that this is more broadly about having a forcing function, of which status dynamics are a subset. I find that when I tie myself to the mast, I have more willpower, which probably has something to do with the dopaminergic anticipation of reward changing. In the case of status, high-status people have a lot of sway over others in their tribal context, so most people are naturally averse to disobeying them in that context. You wouldn’t want to get exiled from the tribe, after all.
The problem is that this doesn’t work for more serious cases that might also involve e.g. depression. My best guess at a more comprehensive theory is that willpower is intricately linked with consciousness and intelligence. More intelligent minds learn and get tired out more quickly (from faster fine-tuning maybe?), which needs to be overridden with more willpower. The less conscious you are and the less willpower you exercise, the more likely you are to be doing a rote task that’s already been fine-tuned, and in that case there’s not much efficient cross-domain optimization going on.