4 ms·

tl;dr version?

• Natsu 16y ago
  You get self-control by finding effective ways to distract yourself from the thing you want. If you focus on the thing you want you will give in to temptation. In that vein, note that thinking about not thinking about X is highly counter-productive. The kid who tried to stare down the treat caved quickly. More effective strategies were techniques like pretending the food isn't real (telling themselves it's a picture, made of plastic, or whatever), singing songs, hiding under the table, covering their eyes, etc. Anything that actually gets one's mind off of the temptation will work. The rest of the article was fluff about how it is more measurable than most things in psychology, how he came up with it, how effective it was and assorted anecdotes.
  • jerf 16y ago
    I am astounded by how much of the art of managing one's self is using your forebrain to feed your hindbrain a carefully crafted set of "exaggerated truths" that will produce the results the forebrain desires. I say "exaggerated truths" because you can't really de novo lie to your hindbrain; it may "be a picture" or it may not be "important" but it is still a marshmallow. But your forebrain gets a lot of leeway on what aspects get enhanced and what aspects get suppressed. And of course there isn't really a strict separation between "hindbrain" and "forebrain", but as I am working in English this will have to do.
    • GeneralMaximus 16y ago
      > I am astounded by how much of the art of managing one's self is using your forebrain to feed your hindbrain a carefully crafted set of "exaggerated truths" that will produce the results the forebrain desires. Bokononism, anyone?