Looks = Power: 5 Reasons You Probably Underestimate Its Value

[Plinco]

Our thoughts are not something we generate; consciousness is just sort of "there". That's why you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea; your brain was "thinking" whether or not you were consciously involved. It works like this: we have a thought then become aware of the thought, and mistakenly assume that we thought the thought. But to say we think our thoughts is to say we thought the thought before thinking it which is just an absurd notion.

Thinking doesn't require consciousness; self-direction does. Look up the concept of ego depletion. Try this experiment: You and someone else both read a book, focus on reading and nothing else. How long did you focus? How long did the other person focus without getting distracted? One person has more free will than the other.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Thinking doesn't require consciousness; self-direction does. Look up the concept of ego depletion. Try this experiment: You and someone else both read a book, focus on reading and nothing else. How long did you focus? How long did the other person focus without getting distracted? One person has more free will than the other.

Seems like a silly term. Using ego depletion as a synonym for what basically amounts to "willpower" which is almost unanimously agreed to be a finite resource. What am I missing?

If your premise is correct, the next question is why does one person have more free will than the other? That's not in their control. We know for instance that the prefrontal cortex controls these high order behaviors like this. Are you in control of how much cerebral blood/flow oxygenation reaches your PFC or how many neurons you have in that region?

I do believe in willpower but I think it only plays a small role in our actions over the long term.

 

[Plinco]

Seems like a silly term. Using ego depletion as a synonym for what basically amounts to "willpower" which is almost unanimously agreed to be a finite resource. What am I missing?

If your premise is correct, the next question is why does one person have more free will than the other? That's not in their control. We know for instance that the prefrontal cortex controls these high order behaviors like this. Are you in control of how much cerebral blood/flow oxygenation reaches your PFC or how many neurons you have in that region?

I do believe in willpower but I think it only plays a small role in our actions over the long term.

Correct. You can increase your ability to focus by the practice of focusing. People who have short attention spans have a lack of free will.

My understanding of consciousness is that it doesn't reside in any particular part of the brain, but it is an emergent property of how the brain is organized. If you want an interesting read, I suggest a book by Julian Jaynes titled "On The Origin of Consciousness; The Breakdown of The Bicameral Mind."

To put it another way, to focus or not to focus is the only metaphysical choice that one has.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Correct. You can increase your ability to focus by the practice of focusing. People who have short attention spans have a lack of free will.

My understanding of consciousness is that it doesn't reside in any particular part of the brain, but it is an emergent property of how the brain is organized. If you want an interesting read, I suggest a book by Julian Jaynes titled "On The Origin of Consciousness; The Breakdown of The Bicameral Mind."

To put it another way, to focus or not to focus is the only metaphysical choice that one has.

My understanding is that there are independently conscious parts of the brain that are all fighting for dominance. "Why Buddhism is True" by and "Dragons of Eden" by Sagan are the main sources I've learned this from. But I'll add yours to my list.

 

[BadBoy89]

It depends how old the woman is, but a man can’t do much in terms of looks without height and hair.

Woman are generally attracted to things about men that they can’t change,

Genetics > hard work for young women who want sex and babies
Hard work > Genetics for older menopausal women who are divorced and have kids

 

[sangheilios]

There are some good looking people who deny that their looks do most of the heavy lifting for them in terms of generating attraction. They might claim it’s more due to their personality, game, social skills, intelligence, etc.

Most of the guys who "self-improved" from incels to "slayers" did the customary +1 point boost by maxing out everything else they can. It is almost impossible to level up more than this. They already had the baseline attributes to do well with women, but just had to fix some easily correctible things, like getting in shape, or modestly improving their financial situations.

I suppose significant plastic surgery could help even more but, at least among men, it is still taboo, aside from hair transplants or steroids.

There are a lot of factors at play that go beyond pure facial symmetry/attractiveness.

A good hair style, or bad one, can have a big impact on how attractive a man will be to others. Even things like facial hair can in certain cases can make a man look more attractive.

Something that a lot of guys don't seem to even consider is your wardrobe. For men, your overall body shape plays a huge role in how good you look in clothes but there is such a thing as looking bad lol. However, a tall and good looking guy with a fit/athletic body would look good in a pair of ripped jeans and a t shirt lol. With this out of the way, the TV show "Queer eye for the straight guy" was a really solid example of what I'm talking about. A lot of the guys were nerdy or put very little effort into their wardrobe considerations and honestly looked quite a bit more attractive in more stylish clothes.

There are definitely other variables, but these two here I mentioned plus the obvious ones you both have discussed are definitely things to consider..