Adam Limehouse writes in about "The Cognitive Costs of Doing Things" -

Mr. Marshall,

First off, very cool article.

Second off, I have a question/conflict about the language you used when talking about ego/willpower depletion. I would suggest that instead of talking about it in terms of a battery (something that can be depleted, must be recharged from the outside and eventually wears out) it would be better to approach this in terms of a muscle group many people have allowed to become lax (a virtue ethics perspective if ever there was one). I think the advantage here has to do both with the need for external charging intrinsic in the metaphor of batteries and with the status in most Americans minds of the possibility of becoming physically stronger as something they can do. We might pursue this as a sort of meta-willpower.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this,
Adam

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I agree, and I think that's a better way of putting it overall. Yes, by spending time working on a kind of will, you build more. So willpower-like-a-muscle is probably a better analogy than willpower-like-a-bettery.

Gosh, I've got such smart readers. Good point here, thanks Adam.

Adam's on Twitter as @BlueFieldHand and LinkedIn as himself.