The Secret of Self-control
newyorker.com
The Secret of Self-control
1–10 of 20 posts
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#2Thanks for linking to this. RadioLab has an episode covering the same Walter Mischel study, among other things:
http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2009/mar/09/misc...
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#3Previously: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=603364
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#4Isn't that an 'egg and chicken' type of problem? You can, after all, learn self-control / to defer gratification.
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#5Isn't that an 'egg and chicken' type of problem? You can, after all, learn self-control / to defer gratification.
chicken and egg indeed. It's easier once you have better self-control to learn better self-control.
I've discovered that practicing meditation helps me a lot with self-control.
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#6what about people following orders rather than waiting?
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#7tl;dr version?
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#8Isn't that an 'egg and chicken' type of problem? You can, after all, learn self-control / to defer gratification.
chicken and egg indeed. It's easier once you have better self-control to learn better self-control. I've discovered that practicing meditation helps me a lot with self-control.
It is situational.
You practice self control in situations where you have a reserve of self-control - say, in your own house before bed time. Theoretically this will let you build up a greater reserve for situations where you need more self-control - confronting a subordinate or superior on a job.
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#9tl;dr version?
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.
Re: The Secret of Self-control
#10Thanks for posting this. I've heard about this study but never knew the details. I definitely think self-control/the ability to delay gratification is one of the keys to success in any challenging endeavor, whether it's elite sports or building a company. You have to have the ability to keep going when it really hurts rather than opt for the easier, more immediately gratifying path of giving up.