【正文】
rything39。s fine until this happens . So the Rational DecisionMaker will make the rational decision to do something productive, but the Monkey doesn39。t like that plan, so he actually takes the wheel, Then we39。re going to go over to the fridge, to see if there39。s anything new in there since 10 minutes ago. After that, we39。re going to go on a YouTube spiral that starts with videos of Richard Feynman talking about mags and ends much, much later with us watching interviews with Justin Bieber39。s mom. All of that39。s going to take a while, so we39。re not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today. Now, what is going on here? The Instant Gratification Monkey does not seem like a guy you want behind the wheel. He lives entirely in the present moment. He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future, and he only cares about two things: easy and fun. Now, in the animal world, that works fine. And to the Monkey, humans are just another animal species. You have to keep wellslept, wellfed and propagating into the next generation, which in tribal times might have worked OK. But, if you haven39。t noticed, now we39。re not in tribal times. We39。re in an advanced civilization, and the Monkey does not know what that is. Which is why we have another guy in our brain, the Rational DecisionMaker, who gives us the ability to do things no other animal can do. We can make longterm plans. And he wants to take all of that into account. And he wants to just have us do whatever makes sense to be doing right now. Now, sometimes it makes sense to be doing things that are easy and fun, like when you39。re having dinner or going to bed or enjoying wellearned leisure time. That39。s why there39。s an overlap. Sometimes they agree. But other times, it makes much more sense to be doing things that are harder and less pleasant, for the sake of the big picture. And that39。s when we