CNN's John Sutter talks about the field of cognitive neuroscience. He and his co-host Lucy Liu explored California on their own, without telling anyone. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how do we take very rudimentary thoughts or perceptions and turn those into complex behaviors that humans engage in? "Cognitive process" is a term used to refer to kind of the recipe that the mind is using to create our understanding of the world around us."
Who do we volunteer to run a gruelling half-marathon? Who do we expect to give up sugar, or quit drinking? Who do we demand clears out the garage in the middle of summer?
Ourselves. Mean, right?
Turns out we make demands on our future selves that our present selves would think are unrealistic or unreasonable. And the reason we do it is because our minds are really bad at anticipating the wants and needs we'll have in a week, a month, or a year from now. And that harms our happiness.
Talking before a live audience in Somerville, MA, Dr Laurie Santos and Harvard professor Jason Mitchell explore how we can be kinder to both our present and future selves.
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