"So the reading that I assigned to you for today is a very, very brief chapter from Dan Ariely's popular book. It's a chapter on procrastination. And in it, he describes a number of strategies that we can use to help ourselves stick to long-term commitments.
So, for example, one of the things that people do if they want to get themselves to read is that they go to the library, and they surround themselves by other people who are reading. If you are in a social setting where other people are conforming to a standard that you had set for yourself to conform to, you may find yourself conforming to that standard, and not doing that which you will ultimately regret. If you find yourself incredibly tempted by food that you have prohibited to yourself, it may be helpful to limit your access to it.
In the chapter that we read, Dan Ariely describes an example of what he called the iced credit card solution, where, if you have a tendency to make impulse purchases on the Internet, you take your credit card, and you put it in a glass of water, which you put into the freezer. And then, if you want to buy something, you remove the credit card from the freezer, and if, when the water has melted, you still want to buy it, then go ahead. So restricting our immediate access to items that are tempting is a way of getting around the problem."
© Tamar Gendler
Yale Lectures on Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, 2011
So, for example, one of the things that people do if they want to get themselves to read is that they go to the library, and they surround themselves by other people who are reading. If you are in a social setting where other people are conforming to a standard that you had set for yourself to conform to, you may find yourself conforming to that standard, and not doing that which you will ultimately regret. If you find yourself incredibly tempted by food that you have prohibited to yourself, it may be helpful to limit your access to it.
In the chapter that we read, Dan Ariely describes an example of what he called the iced credit card solution, where, if you have a tendency to make impulse purchases on the Internet, you take your credit card, and you put it in a glass of water, which you put into the freezer. And then, if you want to buy something, you remove the credit card from the freezer, and if, when the water has melted, you still want to buy it, then go ahead. So restricting our immediate access to items that are tempting is a way of getting around the problem."
© Tamar Gendler
Yale Lectures on Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, 2011
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