
Practicing self-control consumes real energy - gaika
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/practicing_selfcontrol_consume.php
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Jebdm
This seems fairly obvious to me; self control involves doing something extra.
For instance, take the Stroop test (where a color word is shown in another
color, e.g. "red" in blue ink). When asked to read the word, you don't have to
do anything extra (assuming you are an experienced reader); you kind of
automatically just "know" what the word is, it is your strongest
identification with the written text. Identifying the color isn't any harder
than reading the word, but you have to override your automatic propensity to
say what's written.

Thinking of it in programming terms, you're not just doing "sayColor()"
instead of "sayText()"; you _always_ do "sayText()", but you also have to do
"blockSayText()" and "sayColor()" in parallel.

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electromagnetic
Personally, as a writer I have great difficulty writing when I'm trying to
concentrate. It's actually quite unbelievable how much diet soda I go through,
yet I write best (quality & quantity) when I'm chowing down on granola bars
and candy. I think I drank an entire like uber-big gulp of coke in an hour and
got out 2000 words, yet in the same amount of time I'm usually lucky if I get
500 words when I'm drinking Coke Zero.

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bilch
The research was published in 2007. And it has been discussed here before.

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blurry
That explains why Obama is so skinny.

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johngunderman
...how does obama have anything to do with self control? On numerous occasions
he has lost his temper to the press, and that is just public stuff.

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blurry
I am surprised you would say that. From what I've seen (I've followed him and
other candidates a lot during the debates) he showed extreme self control,
more so than any other candidate.

I tend to agree with the New York Times:

 _In the way Mr. Obama has trained himself for competition, he can sometimes
seem as much athlete as politician. Even before he entered public life, he
began honing not only his political skills, but also his mental and emotional
ones. He developed a self-discipline so complete, friends and aides say, that
he has established dominion over not only what he does but also how he feels.
He does not easily exult, despair or anger: to do so would be an indulgence, a
distraction from his goals. Instead, they say, he separates himself from the
moment and assesses._

What were some examples of those numerous occasions where he's lost his
temper?

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johngunderman
The first one to pop up on google was this:
[http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/09/21/obama-
yelling...](http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/09/21/obama-yelling-at-
and-scaring-senior-citizens/) There are plenty of examples, as soon as people
stop relying on the left wing media to feed them what they think everyone
should hear.

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blurry
It really is fascinating how people's likes and dislikes color their
perception. We look at the same video and you see screaming while I see a
regular townhall meeting-type Q&A. I am not being argumentative here, I just
really fail to see the screaming - he looks to be speaking loudly both before
and after that question.

One thing I will say is that it's unfair to allow senior citizens to ask
questions, but then say that Obama is scaring them when he answers. I doubt
the specific lady in question would want to be treated differently than others
just based on her age. If she thinks herself fit to attend a political debate,
we should respect her decision.

Also, I am not sure why you presumed that I am being fed by the left wing
media. Like I said, I watched the actual candidates' debates... so I really
just saw them however they chose to present themselves.

~~~
electromagnetic
I agree, it looks like any regular debate. He's talking over her, but every
politician does that. She asked him what he'd do on terrorism and illegal
immigrants, he went to answer and then she starts arguing in the middle of his
reply.

How political debates are handled in the UK where I grew up and found my
interest in politics are: you stand up, ask the question you've got, they
reply and, I've seen this numerous times, the questioner will stand back up
and say "that's not what I asked..." I remember it with Tony Blair, he did it
3 times in a row to the _same_ guy and it was like WTF you're showing everyone
on national TV that you fully ignore people when they ask a question you don't
like. I believe the question was on why we entered the Iraq war after it had
come out that there weren't WMD's and that (IIRC) MI5 had declared they highly
doubted the existence of any WMD's in Iraq months before the war. Tony Blair
basically kept saying they did it because Saddam Hussein had WMD's.

Obama in that video was asked a question, but the woman tried to stop him from
answering, obviously she'd already made up her mind that _whatever_ he said
wasn't the answer she wanted because she never even listened.

