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comment by CrazyEyeJoe
CrazyEyeJoe  ·  1895 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Cal Newport on Why We'll Look Back at Our Smartphones Like Cigarettes

The nonsensical part for me was that it sounded like you thought it was wrong for people to do "half measures" that work. If you're just talking about your personal preference, that's a different matter.

Personally I agree that the optimal solution is to have self control, and I do have a fair bit of self control. However, I don't always have perfect control, so I try not to put myself in situations where I'm likely to do something I don't think I should.

The problem is that life can be very stressful, and in general I find it demands TONS of self control. I go to work five days a week, I have to keep my apartment and clothes clean, I have to be polite to people even if I might not like them; in short there's a lot of stuff I have to do that I don't really feel like doing. I find this pressure keeps building as I get older.

I don't need some extra source of temptation around to challenge my self control, I already exercise enormous self control just living life.