I think the way people focus on 'self control' is interesting - it's always presented as a choice, or a flaw in a person if they don't have it. But is this really the case? I'm not convinced my conscious desires are necessarily powerful enough to overwhelm procedures in my brain that have developed by other means.
Of course there are probably plenty of people for whom being told this kind of thing is itself a stimulus that can help to modify their behaviour, but I worry there's another class of people (or even just people in specific contexts) to whom being told to exercise self control is not much different to telling someone with depression to cheer up. Potentially well meaning, but fundamentally the wrong way to approach things.
(To relate to this specific article, I don't see why it shouldn't be a very reasonable point that popular window managers etc may really not be optimised for productivity - not necessarily for you, but for some significant number of people. It's easy to say 'oh they can just change it then', but maybe most of them will never think about it or even realise it's possible unless the issue becomes publicised more widely.)
It's all about environment. I don't know about you, but in college I quickly noticed that if I hung out with the hard workers I would get great grades and do all my work on time, and if I hung out with slackers I would just play video games all day.
Put the unfittest, unhealthiest person you know in a house with crazy healthy and fit people for a few months, and you'll notice drastic changes in their habits and behaviors. The opposite is true - put a healthy person in a house where their roommates eat pizzas and watch TV all the time, and they'll quickly get to their level.
On one hand it's depressing (if all your friends and family follow the same patterns you'll have a hard time breaking out of it), but on the other hand it's empowering: you can modify your environment to encourage healthier habits (if all you have in your fridge is healthy food, you won't be snacking on Cheesy Poofs when you're hungry at 4pm).
Of course there are probably plenty of people for whom being told this kind of thing is itself a stimulus that can help to modify their behaviour, but I worry there's another class of people (or even just people in specific contexts) to whom being told to exercise self control is not much different to telling someone with depression to cheer up. Potentially well meaning, but fundamentally the wrong way to approach things.
(To relate to this specific article, I don't see why it shouldn't be a very reasonable point that popular window managers etc may really not be optimised for productivity - not necessarily for you, but for some significant number of people. It's easy to say 'oh they can just change it then', but maybe most of them will never think about it or even realise it's possible unless the issue becomes publicised more widely.)