Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Will power is an interesting and important topic. A good authoritative book on the subject written for general audience is long overdue. So I eagerly waited to read this book. Unfortunately, this book is not it. It is a readable book but with no significant payoff to the reader. In recent years, a new genre of books - academics and scientists writing for lay audience - has become very popular. Many such books (for example, Influence by Cialdini, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert) are surprisingly well written; others are well-meaning but plodding (for example, The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Positivity by Barbara Frederickson); but almost all of them are clearly focused on their subject. Not so with this book. If authors know what this book is about, they don't tell the readers. But, to be fair to the authors, it doesn't appear that they have a clue themselves. What is Willpower? Well, the authors aren't sure. It could be decision making skill. The authors have the solution. Watch your glycemic index. Or it could be strategies to cope with things when you DON'T have self-control. Authors helpful suggestions include that if you are an alcoholic, don't be around people who drink. I could have never thought of that. Or... How to increase your willpower? Well you cannot. But wait, if you are organized, then you will increase your willpower in other areas. Well not really. When something becomes a habit, it does not deplete your energy. So you have more willpower, even though you don't. Are you following all this? If not, let's take a detour here. Let's go on some completely irrelevant excursions into the Heart of Darkness, Eric Clapton's transformation and behavioral economics. And if you are still confused, here is another suggestion. Maybe you should become religious. The authors know of a study in which religious people are found to have more will power than those who don't. Good enough for us. Are the authors bothered by contradictory findings? No, not a bit, not our intrepid authors. They have explanations for things that might baffle more enquiring minds. When you lack the willpower to resist the second temptation, it's because your ego is fatigued. When you do have the willpower to resist the second temptation, it's because your willpower is strengthened by your earlier resistance. If parole officers decide to be less lenient when their glucose level is low, that's because they don't have the willpower at all to decide (to be lenient). Deciding not to grant parole is the same as not deciding. Theoretical consistency and reality checks are no concern of the authors. Must be wonderful to find a fantasy niche in science where one's theories are unfalsifiable, no matter what reality says. Is the book a summary of what researchers found thus far on willpower? Well maybe. But the authors did not find much worthwhile research done by anyone else except by one of the authors. Anything else that is mentioned just supports Baumeister's research. Bit players all. Is the research reported solid? Yes of course, most of them are based on single studies on voluntary university students. Why bother replicating when you can stretch the implications of single studies to develop beautiful theories? Why consider the possibility of alternative explanations? Why consider testing anything in a more realistic or broader context? This book lacks the theoretical rigor of books like Howard Rachlin's The Science of Self Control or the breeziness of books like Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational. This book (Willpower) is like a large meal that lacks taste and flavor. Come to think of it, nutrition as well. Why two stars? I am a generous guy, that's why. This book is an embarrassment to the genre created by the likes of Bob Cialdini, Dan Ariely, Steven Levitt and Dan Gilbert.