🐈

this would imply that the absolute level of dopamine doesn't matter. it's the relative weighing of new information compared to the weight of the prior, i.e. the existing body of mental models and habits.

a very robust prior should be weighted more heavily while a weak and inexperienced one should be weighted less. it is not a virtue for the young to be stubborn but it *is* for the old. brazen youths and stubborn geezers are socially acceptable archetypes

an example of a dysfunctional willpower system is a stubborn youth. common in kids that are "over prepared" for life with too much naive idealistic unpractical knowledge.

because all incoming information conforms to the model, the world is gradually weighted less and less until information from the world no longer motivates. this leads to the "i already know everything" trap and can only be broken out of when reality forcibly crashes the naivety

e.g. "i'm such a nice guy but why can't i get a date?" or "i do much work but y can't i get a promotion?" the world makes sense from the lens of a naive model for so long only because the feedback mechanism is so indirect and so ritualized and backloaded into the future.

willpower is subconsciously kept low because increasing the weight of incoming evidence would BREAK the model that has served so well thus far in toy environments (school, online, imagination, work(?))

if the hooman has egoically bound sense of self into the model, increasing willpower feels like the threat of dying. the raindrops cannot be allowed to become hailstones because "everything that i am" would not survive the battering

hmmm.... this would imply that a "beginner's mind" is actually necessary for willpower. a "master's mind" has no need for willpower since everything it does is "perfect" and "correct" (yet the true master's maintain beginner's mind)