Here’s what I sent to my 19 year old daughter after I was first introduced to the concept while reading The Bitcoin Standard. I knew about the concept of delayed gratification, but time preference is even broader.
The Most Important Concept You Can Learn to Optimize Your Chances of Success - Time Preference
Concept Demonstration: The Marshmallow Experiment
The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment was a study that looked at time preference and was conducted by researcher Walter Mischel between 1968 and 1974. The experiment involved approximately four-year-old children in whom reward deferral was studied.
In individual sessions, the children were shown a desirable object such as a marshmallow or a cookie. The experimenter told the children that he would leave the session room for some time and that they could call him back by pressing a bell and then receive a marshmallow.
However, if they waited until the experimenter returned on his own, they would receive two marshmallows. If the child did not ring the bell, the experimenter usually returned after 15 minutes.
Follow-up Observations
In follow-up observations of the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, reward deferral was shown to be a reliable predictor of later academic success and a number of personality traits.
The researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes. These outcomes were measured by factors such as academic achievement, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI) and other factors.
In short, it’s about delayed gratification. Statistically, peoples’ level of success is linked to their ability to delay immediate rewards in favour of greater rewards in the future, through patience, and investing time and energy today that will pay greater rewards tomorrow.
Examples of low time preference behaviour:
- saving up for quality items versus buying lower quality items today
- exercising
- eating high quality food
- getting adequate sleep
Oddbean new post about login | logout