Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

396 | HOW THE MIND WORKSSchelling notes the strange ways in which we defeat our self-defeatingbehavior: putting the alarm clock across the room so we won't turn it offand fall back to sleep, authorizing our employers to put part of each paycheckaway for retirement, placing tempting snacks out of reach, settingour watches five minutes ahead. Odysseus had his crewmates plug theirears with wax and tie him to the mast so he could hear the Sirens' alluringsong and not steer the ship toward them and onto the rocks.Though myopic discounting remains unexplained, Schelling capturessomething important about its psychology when he roots the paradox ofself-control in the modularity of the mind. He observes that "peoplebehave sometimes as if they had two selves, one who wants clean lungsand long life and another who adores tobacco, or one who wants a leanbody and another who wants dessert, or one who yearns to improve himselfby reading Adam Smith on self-command . . . and another whowould rather watch an old movie on television. The two are in continualcontest for control." When the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, suchas in pondering a diet-busting dessert, we can feel two very differentkinds of motives fighting within us, one responding to sights and smells,the other to doctors' advice. What about when the rewards are of thesame kind, like a dollar today versus two dollars tomorrow? Perhaps animminent reward engages a circuit for dealing with sure things and a distantone a circuit for betting on an uncertain future. One outranks theother, as if the whole person was designed to believe that a bird in thehand is worth two in the bush. In the modern environment, with its reliableknowledge of the future, that often leads to irrational choices. Butour ancestors might have done well to distinguish between what is definitelyenjoyable now and what is conjectured or rumored to be moreenjoyable tomorrow. Even today, the delay of gratification is sometimespunished because of the frailty of human knowledge. Retirement fundsgo bankrupt, governments break promises, and doctors announce thateverything they said was bad for you is good for you and vice versa.I AND THOUOur most ardent emotions are evoked not by landscapes, spiders,roaches, or dessert, but by other people. Some emotions, such as anger,make us want to harm people; others, such as love, sympathy, and grati-