An author speculates that GLP-1 drugs will curb a lot of people’s impulses. This could potentially help a lot of people make better—less impulsive—decisions.

In this speculation, one concern will be a division of advantage: the people who can afford the impulse control drugs would be at a greater advantage than the people who can’t or aren’t able to take them.

The main implication to me was this: if you rely on these drugs to control your impulses—what happens if, for whatever reason, you ran out of them and couldn’t get more?

If you value your own freedom from your impulses, you’d probably want to have a couple of options aside from the drugs to control them. 

Ideally, you’d want to be able to independently control your impulses and not rely on a drug to do that at all. Just good old fashioned character traits, a mindfulness practice, and maybe a system that minimizes distractions and other impulses.

When you develop good character traits and constructive habits, you also unlock the ultimate form of freedom—self-control, provided by yourself.

P.S., The same principle really applies for any other sort of thing you value: you want to be able to do it yourself. For example, if you value your memories and stories, you don’t want to just rely on media like your photos and videos to remember things. You want to practice them—telling yourself stories, letting your brain have downtime to remember things, experiencing the present as fully as possible. Rehearse the memories by discussing it with your friends and family, journaling them out. Publish them on the internet. Revisit the actual place where the memories took place. That doesn’t mean you can never use memory aids. It does mean that if, for whatever reason, your files all disappeared one day, ideally you’d still remember things you want to remember.

P.P.S., The more reliant you are on any one business, the more leverage it has over you. Having other options gives you leverage (and comes with its own costs).