Dr. David Eagleman
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Right.
It's smart because what is happening is the Ulysses of sound mind is making a contract for the future Ulysses who he knows is going to behave badly.
So he's lashing him to the mass.
And what I've been fascinated by is the ways that we do this in our lives all the time.
So the example you gave a few minutes ago about locking up your phone in one of these lock boxes is a perfect example because we're
What you're making sure is that the Andrew of two hours from now can't do the wrong thing because you know he might.
You know he's going to be tempted.
So you take away that temptation.
By the way, I recently met an older gentleman who told me about an older woman that he'd met years ago who used to β
take her money, her cash, and freeze it in a block of ice in the freezer so that she couldn't spend the money until she really needed it.
Exactly.
Because you care about your future self and you want future Andrew to do the right thing.
So there are a million ways to make these Ulysses contracts.
I've been studying this for years and I... Yeah, so I decided to write a book on this because the way that we deal with our future selves is just this fascinating thing because...
Your future self is a little different than who you are now.
But with time, we come to understand that our future self will behave badly in different situations.
And so we just try to cut those off.
I'll give a couple examples.
One is it's super useful to...
get social pressure involved.