marshmallows.

This is Part Ten. Part One is here.

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(Not to be confused with the producer and DJ Marshmellow - who I wonder if he spelled his name the wrong way on purpose or accident.) 

Okay there is this very famous experiment that Stanford ran on kids. They offered them 1 marshmallow now or, if they waited 30 minutes, they would give them more. Most kids take the 1 now.

Standford tracked these kids and there have been many studies similar - and what they found is that the kids that are willing to wait 30 minutes for more marshmallows end up much more successful in life. 

Because, get this, life requires us to forgo short term thrills to avoid long term consequences - which, by the way is what the teenage brain has a big problem doing - which is why people don’t wear condoms when they are teenagers (condoms again?) and why America acts like a teenager most of the time. 

We sacrifice long term consequences in the name of a short term thrill. If America was a farmer, would we ever plant a single seed?

What do I mean? 

We’ve already talked about the economy. Yeah the short term thrill of the stock market rising, the short term thrill of lower taxes, the short term thrill of giving money away, look! We’re rich. 

We love everything fast. Fast food, fast religion, fast money, fast sex, fast articles - hell this is way too long of an article for most people to read which is why it’s broken up into smaller chunks. Did you know music is even changing because we don’t like to sit around as much? And let’s not get started on social media…

There’s also another major, major short term thrill.