Discipline is treated as a character virtue — something the successful have and the struggling lack. The research says otherwise: willpower depletes, environment dominates, and the people who appear most self-controlled are usually the people who've designed their lives to require the least of it.
Stories are how humans understand the world. They're also the primary mechanism by which we get it wrong. The better you are at constructing narratives, the more confidently you'll be misled by them.
Most social consensus is manufactured from private dissent. The people nodding in meetings, agreeing on social media, and following the trends often don't believe what their behavior suggests — and neither do their peers. We are conforming to a consensus that doesn't exist.