People can outsource self-discipline when willpower alone fails

Evidence

Vittorio Alfieri (1749 1803), the Italian poet and dramatist, recounts in his autobiography (V. Alfieri, Vita , Epoca Terza, cap. XV) how in his determination to stop wasting his life and dedicate himself wholeheartedly to poetry he used to get his servant Elia to tie him to a chair at his desk, thus giving him no choice but to carry on working. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2430

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s standing interest in ‘small acts of decorum’ and improvised constraint; also links to Gramsci’s broader theme that consciousness is formed by material conditions and routines, not pure intention.
• STORYSTEM: A patron or poet literally chaining themselves to the desk to force output is a ready-made image for a story about coercion dressed as devotion.