TEDxEast Guest Curator - Dan Ariely: Self-control

As a guest curator for TEDxEast, Dan Ariely shares more of his research and thoughts on self-control and irrationality.

[@circe1657]

omg! Professor Ariely is a hero! Personal battles are the most challenging of all. I'm so glad that he won his. Reward substitution works! I had had not as grave but similar experience as he and that time I "rewarded" myself with a chapter of my favorite book ... it worked like a charm.

[@JackBresler]

My favorite recurrent TED personality is indeed re-hashing stuff he first introduced a few years ago - again - BUT this is worth paying attention to 1- The simple fact that we forego huge future benefit (relayed rewards) for measly immediate (short term) rewards. (ADAM and EVE Experiment) and that this almost universal mode of behavior flies in the face of rationale (cognitive based) behavior. 2- That reward substitution can be utilized to overcome naturally irrational behavior.

[@hellothere2865]

this is brilliant

[@tigresslovetube]

you have inspired me to do more research. thank you

[@triforcelink]

@JackBresler Just like with any good book or movie, we learn something new each time we read/watch it. I'm very glad that he is 're-hashing' this, because I learned something very powerful this time around (Or at least it is very powerful to me personally) Oftentimes, simply wanting and hoping for change is not enough. We have to modify our environment in such a way that it will FORCE us to make the change. Nothing says 'change' like the possibility to loose (or gain) a large sum of money.

[@JackBresler]

3- A second solution mode - Self Control Contracts - accepts the difficulty of withstanding temptation, and motivates us to create conditions to overcome/eliminate temptation. 4- That technology and capitalism create exponentially increasing temptations, so that the importance of addressing how we address short term temptation is of extreme importance.

[@jlumley]

most practical video i've seen in a while

[@triforcelink]

I love this guy!

[@koshikayadava4026]

Wondering if the colour choice of the buttons may be slightly problematic for the experimental setup with rats?(in the Ainslie and Hernstein experiment from 1974)

[@zavangar]

whats that website he mentioned?

[@triforcelink]

@GrumpyOldTroll As long as I get to where I want to go, I don't really care if the positive change was due to something internal or external. At the end of the day, each of us are the way we are because of our environments, it is because of these external influences that we have our personalities/traits. The very reason we speak English is because of the demands of our environment.

[@esparagus]

great! very pragmatic.

[@GrumpyOldTroll]

Interesting talk. One issue for me, though, is that I have difficulty accepting that a positive change in my life might stem from external constraint, even if it is one that I have freely chosen and consented to; I cannot help but feel that if change comes about from an external mechanism, albeit one I have chosen, then it is not really genuine. (This is why I uninstalled StayFocusd, for instance.) Does anyone else feel this way?

[@myotherusername9224]

Good point on uninstalling StayFocused. How is your self control now? have you been able to force yourself to not reinstall? ;~)

[@wadegruber2119]

First, maybe the people in the crowd who would take the chocolate are just trying to lose weight. They know that if they take the chocolate now, they won't be tempted with twice as much in the future. They are linking a positive thing in the present with the losing of weight in the future. Also, if you are going to have your alarm clock rolling around in the morning, it could roll into the other room where you can just ignore it. Another way to do it would be set your clock to change its own time randomly, so it will go off and say it's 8 am, but you won't know if it's really 8 am or 9 am when you have to get up, so you will get up like it's 9 and you are running late for work just in case.

[@Blue_Buick]

Regard to the chocolate thing, that crowd could take the chocolate box in order to give it to relatives or friends and share it with them, and not just for themselves. And it is likely if you see the ted talk by Michael Norton, but those were chocolate greedy people (ha, ha the chocolate’s power).

[@downbntout]

"Stick" as he mentioned is "stickK" online, spelled S T I C K K (extra K). It's the technique of loss aversion which is just as strong as reward. Dare to use it.

[@elchafa337]

This reward substitution stuff can be used for evil too. And in my opinion it has already.

[@Kimchiboy08]

I need a clocky🤣

[@TEDx]

@clmrd5 No need to call names. We are volunteers- someone made a mistake it has been fixed. Back off.

[@Th3Wab3]

more dangerous doughnut = deep fried candy bars ie: twix, mars, snickers etc. nice talk

[@VeraKlimkovsky]

It's Dan *Ariely*!

[@RJN4444]

The Adam and Eve analogy is not persuasive. Actually, the apple was not just an apple, it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve thought they would become like god by eating the apple. Hence, they were pursuing a higher value. Henry Hazlitt's book 'The Way To Willpower' is FAR superior to this presentation. It clearly explains the concept of present vs future focus, understanding opportunity cost, being prepared to pay the relevant price and setting priorities early on.

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

Why is the TED talk on self-control the one that goes over-time? The general rule is around 15 minutes -- probably based on a bit of mythico-science done at McMaster, that the ass goes to sleep after 18 minutes. Self-control? 22 minutes, 11 seconds.

[@KUBE.archvis]

David Lloyd-Jones because it is a talk on self control not time management

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

netsreik92 Sorry, fella, going overtime on a speech like this is a flamboyant display of lack of self-control, seems to me... There's another thing going on here, too, seems to me: TED were pretty good a couple of years ago when they started. These days an awful lot of it is just crap. Law of Diminishing Returns? Second law of Thermodynamics? Murphy's Law? I dunno... Cheers, -dlj.

[@Ole_ks]

i remember times when the rule was - 18 min