Daniel R.

6: Studies of teenagers have found that self-disciplines is a much better predicator of academic performance than IQ ...
12: ... first-order desires, to describe the grab bag of appetites and longings that seem to best us without conscious intervention. ... those essential desires that you actually prefer - we'll call second-order desires.
14: ... self-control doesn't mean, in my book, is mindless self-sacrifice or knee-jerk self-denial.
18: ... roughly one-third of all U.S. deaths are attributable to just three behaviors: smoking, inactivity, and a lousy diet.
21: This myopic way of choosing is sometimes called melioration; ...
26: ... too many calories lowers brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein importnat for the brain's development.
28: In America, states with the highest rates of gun ownership have higher rates of suicide, ...
30: A low flow of serotonin in to the prefrontal cortex - the section of brain most important for self-control - seems to increase impulsivity, break down inhibition, and raise the odds that you'll take your own life.
34: ... precommitment, because we use them to constrain ourselves in advance against the foreseeable strength of some future desires.
38: ...; some evidence suggests that people are happier with choices that are irrevocable, ...
49: ... the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise."
63: ... "paradox of thrift" - was that if people saved too much, everyone would be poorer, because a lack of spending can kill the economy.
72: Anomie means lacking clear norms, standards, or ideals.
77: Lonely people have a harder time concentrating (attention management is a key element of self-control), ...
82: ... enkrateia, which means roughly "self-command."
84: ... sophrosyne, which means something like temperance or self-mastery.
86: ... akrasia simply meant a lack of self-command, so that your desires run away with you contrary to the dictates of reason.
93: ... asthenia, which means, roughly, weakness. The weak person does what is bad in full knowledge of what is good, ...
93-94: ... propeteia, or impetuosity, ... acts without even thinking of whether he does good or ill.
153: Modern life simply requires an unnatural degree of self-control, and one of its side effects is self-control fatigue.
156: ... prefrontal cortex is the seat of our supervisory functions as well as our ability to conceive of the future.
169: ... women have more self-control than men.
181: ... "matching law" ... animals (including us) acting freely will spend their time doing things in direct proportion to the relative value they get from each.
191: ... driven biologically to place inordinate value on immediate rewards. ... hyperbolic discounting - ...
196: Low self-control, by the way, predicts not just criminality but also victimization.
196: ... when it comes to self-control, heredity probably accounts for 60 to 75 percent.
209: Addiction, it seems, is at least to some extent voluntary - ...
217: Procrastination is a ruse. We know what's really going on, but we want badly to be fooled.
220: ... if guilt means feeling bad about what you do, shame means feeling bad about what you are.
224: A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules."
241: ... our preference for lesser, sooner objects over larger later ones - will lead us to pursue our own short-run interests in ways that are damaging to ourselves and our society.
264: "Being our better selves is biologically costly."