Temptations and Self-Control
Dec
20
A few months ago I got to visit Woods Hole (a fantastic place by the way) when they were having their TEDx event — and here is my talk.
One of the challenges of human life is knowing that what’s good for us in the long term often doesn’t seem good for us right now. Dieting, for example, is not very fun now, but good for us in the future; the same goes for saving money or submitting to preventive medical tests. When we face such tradeoffs, we often focus on the short-term rather than our long-term goals, and in the process we get ourselves into trouble.
But wait! There is hope. By understanding where we fall short, there are methods we can use to overcome our natural (and less than desirable) inclinations.
The Upside of Irrationality, explores some positive and some negative ways that irrationality plays out in our lives.
Nice talk Dan.
You should put links to some of the websites/resources mentioned in the talk at the bottom of your post.
As I watch this video, there’s a huge funeral for a 50-yo father of 5 at the church next door. (Traffic accident caused by last week’s ice storm.) Had he taken you up on the “full box of chocolate next week” offer, he would have lost.
While I understand and agree that my long-term interests are usually served with the “more chocolate tomorrow” options, I also have seen enough unexpected outcomes to know that sometimes, long-term doesn’t happen.
I would be curious to know the relative % compliance of women with mammograms (30 minutes total, drive in drive out) and colonoscopies (full day, anesthesia with its attendant risks and hangover, help needed with driving, prep, etc.).
Based on what we know about happiness, the rats are almost as happy with one piece of food as they would be getting 10, and certainly, more than 0.1x as happy. Are they maximizing their food intake, or their happiness?
I know my dogs are happiest when we set out for a walk, and given a certain minimum distance, would just as much go for 3 walks a day as one walk that’s 3x as long (which might be better for me, too, if I didn’t have the “get dressed” overhead). That said, dogs are a great “contract” for getting exercise.
A couple of clicks away is Brad Feld’s “My Life May Be Half Over But The Glass Is Half Full”
It proposes that at the age of 45, humans start a long, slow, gradual decay ending in death, and suggests that it would be nice to have a step function “decay cycle” instead. Healthy until 84, dead at 85.
Self Control is the route to slow decay. Temptation is the way to the ideal cycle (although picking your 85th birthday is a bit trickier).
You have rightly said that “what’s good for us in the long term often doesn’t seem good for us right now.” For example, having a mix of debt in your business capital, in the short term, it looks o.k. courtesy feasibility study etc. but in the long term one or few bad years in a row can have a devastated results for one’ business and off course for the owners.
This is old news, Hyperbolic Discounting, see Georges Ainslie papers, see also the Wikipedia entries.
i think that this long term talk, if you go out and talk this with a bunch of 100 year old persons, they will tell you, that this is right and everyone should listen to you, i agree with this, and you cannot be living life like if you are going to die next week, im sure there are things that need to be done now, but this talk is about temptations, and temptations are usually used to describe acts with negative connotation
The question of weight loss is a good one: for a reflection on the role that the shadow of the future (to borrow Axelrod’s phrase) can be used to help change food-related attitudes in the present, see https://files.me.com/askpang/wn3hid
Thanks for sharing your painful experiences in this lecture. I commend you for your courage in being so open. I’ve faced the same dilemma when taking Interferon for Multiple Sclerosis. The decision to undergo short term pain for an uncertain long term gain is questionable. The drive to maximize short term gain remains in our biologies from our evolutionary heritage. Are we mere mammals at best?
I think we can be better by understanding where we fail and trying to fix it. This in my mind is where hope is
Dan
“In the future we’re wonderful people” is very true. You wouldn’t believe all the wonderful and responsible things I have on my “not now, but I’ll get around to it” list.
Thank goodness there’s ways to trick ourselves out of going for the short term rewards. Now if only I can think up a plan to make ‘cleaning the kitchen’ as appealing as ‘fooling around on the internet’…
@michael onger – the “expiration date” of human life is one of the things that really annoys me. like manifest destiny, we all expect to die at the age of 70 or 80.
2 things need to change: the system and human perception.
there’s a lack of “forward / future thinking” in the system, that is, everyone from politicians (ensuring their job security) and credit card companies (enjoy now, worry about payment later) benefit from this lack of responsibility. it takes some harsh discipline to change that… think german vs. american credit systems.
about human perception, well, we need to enjoy the present moment. when we start thinking that dieting is an agony or excersize is too strenuous, then it becomes a burden. trick yourself by having a week of different home-cooked healthy food from a new recipe each night. or “excersize” by playing the kinekt or dancing with friends.
it’s all about consciousness and making a conscious effort. (but i think i’m preaching to the choir here!)
Hi
How do you resolve the following conundrum:
You propose using strategies to achieve self-control; BUT following/enforcing those strategies requires self-control!!??
Thank you for posting this presentation and sharing your experiences and work.
Although the father of 5 incident is tragic, it’s kind of irrelevant.
The idea is less about huge long term gain and more about enabling yourself to at the time complete what is needed to be completed, (which will effect long term gain without you even trying).
For example – I am a Freelancer, I work from home. I am also an avid gamer. I should work to provide money for my family, right now I want to game. Gaming dosen’t create money for me unfortunately, so I have to work – and in the present I can easily say, just one game won’t get in the way.
What I need to say is, get this bit of code written and you can go play 30 mins of Bad Company 2.
This resolves 2 issues, one my procrastination of wanting to game but not letting myself because I need to work and then being distracted by Facebook/Twitter or something else – then feeling guilty. Also it itches my gaming spot, which then I do not feel guilty over doing, because it is my reward.
I am all for taking things on the spur of the moment – I hate planning for the future. But I don’t think this is what the video was about, it was more about getting the things you need to get done, done – while rewarding yourself with the things you love doing.
If you take this outlook the long term works itself out. I mean if I just played games all day, in a few months time I wouldn’t have a house – and I would have a very irritated wife. If I enable a reward based system I get my games, and can keep my house + my wife is less irritated with me!
Lots of great stuff here.
In my experience, it’s not that people don’t like change. It’s they don’t enjoy the pain associated with change. Everything here explains why the pain is so painful. This helps us understand the pain.
But if my motivations behind the change are Life-based, then self-control takes on a whole new meaning because it is driven by a different source. If I want to lose weight because I love my family and want to be there for them in health, then there can almost be a limitless tank to draw from.