Our brain differentiates between thinking about similar others and dissimilar others, including our future self. We tend to treat our future self like a stranger and don't use the same brain regions to think about their likes, dislikes, and goals. This leads to treating our future self as a concrete stranger, resulting in the miseries of life. We have a strange theory about who our future self will be, seeing them as an aspirational self who has solved all our current problems but is also unaffected by certain things. We believe our future self won't mind unpleasant tasks as much as we would and won't enjoy things as much as we do. This mindset causes us to prioritize immediate gratification over long-term benefits.
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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