The Benefits of Focusing on the Past, Present, and Future

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

When pain is really at this sort of very mild level of inconvenience, it really does draw you back very intensely into the present moment. It reminds me of the kind of dichotomy where on the one hand where these beings capable of rational thought and abstraction were attached to these extremely physical biological machines. And that dichotomy I think is part of what's so strange about being a human.

Read the full transcript here.

To increase our chances of success (in whatever domain and using definition of success), should we focus on boosting our strengths or shoring up our weaknesses? Are we harsher in our critiques of ourselves than in our critiques of others? What should an ideal inner monologue be like? What are some useful taxonomies of pain? Are there times when irrational, magical, emotionally-driven, and/or delusional types of thinking are useful?

Anna Paley is insatiably curious about how best to live our lives. She is a behavioral scientist and marketing professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She received her PhD from New York University, Stern School of Business in 2017. You can reach her at a.paley@tilburguniversity.edu.

Staff