I mean, yes, I agree with you conceptually. I will myself to run ~30 miles a week, lift three times a week, meal prep all my foods after planning out my macros, quit drinking alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and have been dedicated in my work ethic to rise sufficiently high in software engineering. I'm not a stranger to the idea. I even enjoy reading about behavioral psychology.
But surely you can also agree that environmental factors play a role in determining whether willpower is effective or not. When I was quitting smoking marijuana I didn't keep paraphernalia adjacent to me all day and tell myself to just deal with it. Same with alcohol. Exercise routines were easier to establish when paired with audiobooks, pre-committing to the activity socially or at least by laying the clothes out, etc.
The digital stuff has just been really challenging. I've been on a computer basically daily for 25+ years. I've used Reddit and Facebook daily for 15+ years. My profession, and, frankly, my identity, puts me on a computer all day and thus adjacent to my digital addictions. That has made it a lot more challenging.
I'm not even looking to use the computer less. I just want to be able to focus on long-form writing, software development, and less dopamine-inducing forms of online media.
> My profession, and, frankly, my identity, puts me on a computer all day and thus adjacent to my digital addictions.
It would require super-human sustained restraint to abstain from dopamine treats when on the computer all day. Have you considered spending less time at the machine?
After 5 years working remote I had similar concerns and started feeling alienated from myself and other people.
My solution was to pivot to industrial automation. I get to code, but also work with other people, cool robots, and visit factories. Some of them are loud and dirty but some are super interesting. I feel a lot healthier now. I am an introverted and hyperliterate person, but the lifestyle where I was 'locked in' to digital hyperreality all day was too much.
I tried all the coping skills to preserve my sanity while continuing to earn a Cloud Capital salary. None of them solved the problem of feeling like I was timesharing my own mind to the Machine, until I gave up trying to have it both ways. I wish you the best.
its called willpower, and you have to develop it over time if you dont have any