WEBVTT - The Procrastinating Brain 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.920 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.520 My name is Robert Lamb. I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, do 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.799 you remember studying writing papers all that jazz back in 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.880 high school and college? Now I'm doing jazz hands, Yes, 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:30.280 I do remember. I recall frenzy um activity happening at 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:35.320 the eleventh hour. Yeah. I remember staying up like all 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.919 night to write things. In college. I remember getting up 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.400 early to do homework, then being late as I ran 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.919 off the class, and then finishing the homework in class, 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.720 or skipping lunch to do a homework assignment do that afternoon. 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.680 Everything was always a last minute, right, And this is 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.680 called the student syndrome, right, Yes, yeah, and it's really common. 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.520 I'm sure everyone at some point, particularly in in in 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.840 their student years, experienced this where you were just putting 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.600 everything off because you were making a deal with yourself saying, oh, yeah, 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:06.640 i'll do it in a couple of days, I'll do 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.080 it a couple of hours and then bam. Because there's 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.720 always something more entertaining or worthwhile to do in the 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.839 present than later on. And I'm sure that that would 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.000 have been something like other studies rather than beer consumption 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:26.160 or well, well I did not consume libations in college 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.720 for the most part. But what would you have occupied 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.680 have been? Stuff like, um, you know, team Fortress or 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:33.800 a quake or something I guess, you know, other at 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.679 leisure activities. I wasn't exactly living it out most of 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.039 my college career. I have to say, all right, well, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.720 I don't have any comment on that for myself. Okay, well, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.480 but procrastination, it is a huge deal. It is perhaps 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.040 an inseparable part of who we are. Everyone does it, 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.400 even the even the go getters out there. There's something 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.000 on that to do list. It's not getting um do attention, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:01.880 and it all boils down to procrastination. We've been trying 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:06.400 to fight this for ages. We still don't have it 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:10.520 completely kicked or anywhere close to it. So what exactly 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.040 is it? We're going to discuss what procrastination is, why 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.400 we do it, some of the ideas out there about 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.800 how we might defeat it, and uh and and whether 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.680 that's really an achievable goal. Yeah, can you really vanquish it? Yeah? 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.480 Um and just saying no, you ever actually get around 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.400 to vanquishing it? Well, yeah, you can put a plan together, 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.280 you can clean the plan just at all. You can 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.240 have a board meeting about it. You can put together 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.960 committee to study procrastination and put together ten like ten 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.600 steps on best us standards and practices towards defeating it. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.240 Then you can blog about those ten steps. Yes yeah, um, 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.639 but like, this is not a modern phenomenon, right, Sure, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.320 there's been an uptick, and for reasons we'll talk about later. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.399 But just in case you're wondering it, it actually came 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:02.359 into our vernacular and owned fifteen hundred and thirty two, 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:04.640 I believe the first instance of the use of the 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.600 word procrastinate. Yeah, the actual like English word procrastinate. Ye. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.399 And there's a book from eighteen fifty two called Thoughtless 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.800 Little Fanny, The Unhappy Results of Procrastination. So this was 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.880 on people's minds thoughtless little fanny, thoughtless little fanny, Like, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.880 don't have such a thoughtless little fanny? Like? Is that 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.160 never mind? No, we're not talking about fannies like fanny, 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.919 because it's like, get off your fannie and do something right. Well, 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.320 maybe that's where some of that came from. Who is well, uh, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.400 even though the word is relatively new in terms of 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.560 human history. Uh. The idea is, of course has been 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.880 around for as long as we've had stuff to put 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.520 off doing. I mean it's uh, if you look back 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.160 in the Mahabarada, the ancient Indian epic, which we've discussed 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:51.720 a little in the past when we were talking about 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.400 ancient technology and weapons. Um, and I'm I've been really 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.160 into it because I just forced my wife to set 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:02.200 through several hours of the Peter Brook Channel four film 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.320 that up to he did. Peterborok did like a nine 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.360 hour version of the Mahaparata and then they cut it 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.000 down to like six hours or five hours for TV, 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:11.600 and then they cut that down to three hours for 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.400 the DVD. And it's really cool, but my wife had 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.440 suffered through it because it is a little slow. Yes, 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:20.880 but there's a part in it where the character of 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.599 Bishma is talking to King yudish Tura and he's taking 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.120 him about these fish right that they're they're three fish 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.080 in the water and there's a fisherman coming. Um. You know, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:33.600 this is like the apocalypse for these fish. And one 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.880 of the fish in the water says, all right, I'm 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:37.960 a fish of action. Let's do this. This let's do this. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.520 Let's uh, let's let's hop to it. Let's get to 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.800 some water where we're not going to be threatened by 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.239 this fisherman. And then there's another fish, and this fish 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.400 is more of a thoughtful planner, and the fish says, look, 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:49.400 I'm gonna think this over, I'm gonna i'm gonna do 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.680 a little research, I'm gonna crunch some numbers, and then 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.919 when the time for action comes, I will act and 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.680 I will be prepared to act. And uh, and that's good. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:00.320 Both of these fish are great. But then there's a 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.600 third fish, and that third fish is just like, ma, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.440 you know, I'm not I'm not gonna worry. Well, is 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.039 that fish just completely hamstrung by the idea and and 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.560 therefore becomes a slacker fish? Um, yeah, kind of a 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.440 slacker fish, just like doesn't that is it gonna put 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.400 the is it gonna act now? Isn't gonna put the putar? 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.760 Far with the effort to act now? Is instead going 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:22.920 to just be like, well, what the fisherman does tomorrow 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.320 is completely out of my mind, so Bishmuth says. Thus 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.080 everyone meets with destruction, like the procrastinating fish, who from 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:34.039 want of intelligence cannot divine the hour of danger. That 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.000 man again, who, regarding himself clever, does not seek his 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.760 own good improper time, incurs great danger, like the Sekula 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.760 who had presence of mind. So it's, uh, it's it's 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.680 really interesting ancient texts they're already talking about, you know, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.240 the wisdom behind tackling procrastination. You don't have to act 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:51.760 right away, you know, you don't have to be the 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.600 person it's like, oh, here's a here's a challenge. I'm 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.479 on it. At least be the be the fish that 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.560 is that is planning things out and as well. Discussing this, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.280 you tend to see like two types of procrastination with anybody. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.039 We're either putting off something that we really do not 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.520 want to do, like taking out the garbage roundloading the dishwasher, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.520 or doing our taxes something like that. Or we're putting 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.880 off something that we really want to do, or we 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.000 think we really want to do, or we feel like 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.520 we should want to do. The stakes are higher in 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.960 that instance, right, and the expectations and probably the fear 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.320 surrounding it. Right if you look in in the In Islam, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:34.040 the Arabic world word for procrastination toss with primarily concerns 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.560 the postponement of good deeds. So there's more of an 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:42.400 emphasis in Arabic on procrastination as the putting off of say, uh, 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.960 you know, doing this great endeavor that you're planning, you know, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.080 I know, writing that book you always wanted to ride, 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.039 or or finally donating to charity or you know, or 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.320 whatever you're particular. There's more of a lighting of the 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.080 fire under the duff to get things done. Yeah, and 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.360 then hitting on Buddhism, here's a quote from Surya Dass, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.840 an American in a lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.080 and he says, we have to stop procrastinating, pretending that 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.360 we have forever to do what we want to do 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.160 and be what we long to be. So that's it. 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.000 He dies in this whole idea that a lot of 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.240 procrastination is sort of on some level feeling are like 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.040 we're gonna live forever and we have indefinite time to 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:25.080 achieve these various goals, obligations, dreams, uh, etcetera. C. S. Lewis, 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.600 of course, the Christian writer and sci fi fantasy fictioner, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.920 says there is no other day all days are present. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:36.080 Now this moment contains all moments. I really I enjoyed 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:37.920 sort of looking looking around and seeing what different people 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:39.280 have to say about it. So, so we've been thinking 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:40.600 about it for a long time. There's a lot of 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.360 philosophy and uh and religion tied up in actually stirring 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.920 people to action and stirring yourself to action. Yeah, and 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.760 let's talk about some statistics behind this too, like what's 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.560 going on here? There is a five year study that 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.680 actually this is the the irony here. It was meant 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:01.360 to be a five years study, but it took ten 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:06.000 years to complete. Not making this up. Oh yeah, journalists 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:10.320 love that stuff, by University of Calgary professor Pierce Steele. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.280 It's a thirty page study and it's actually pretty exhaustive. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.000 But it concluded, among other things, that only about five 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.880 percent of the American public thought of themselves as chronic procrastinators. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.000 But now today it's about so the number has gone 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.160 up quite a bit significantly. Yeah, and the culpriate just 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.320 just guess what the culprit is. But the reason why 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.960 this may have gone up, Oh, let's see the last 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:39.679 twenty five years, I'm guessing the Internet. Yeah, it's lovely distractions, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.800 That is exactly it. Pierce Steel also attributes to the 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.640 mind uh mind sweeper game. I really I never figured 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.440 out how to play mine. I know, I thought, well, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.760 he had kept like and all the things that I 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.000 read there were all these quotes of that mind sweeper 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:58.520 game just taken over the nation. Yeah, I think perhaps 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.160 for him, I'm going to guess that. I don't know, 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:04.000 but it's really interesting because it's a hard thing to measure. 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.240 And in fact, Slate dot com had a great article 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:12.800 called Procrastinators Without Borders, and what they were saying essentially is, okay, 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.080 here is a study that is right for research. You know, 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.560 how do people procrastinate in other cultures? Because you know, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.400 you you can look at Americans and you can say, okay, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.400 there's a high incidence of self reporting of procrastinating. But 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.679 perhaps that's because we're really into self disclosure, right Americans are. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.080 And you can say there's a high incidence in Japan. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.319 But you could say, well, that's also because uh, if 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:40.560 someone were to say they were procrastinating, that's sort of 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:46.560 a cultural norm of self criticizing oneself, and so it 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.400 would make sense that they would say, oh, yes, I'm 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.719 a procrastinator and this is part of my problem. Um, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.920 So there's there's sort of hard to measure in other cultures, 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.840 and also how how is it perceived there? Right, because 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.040 we know that a color is a color in one 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.920 culture and the color in a different culture. Right, It's 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.320 all how we sort of uh construct this reality, right 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.400 of how we perceive things. And of course there's also 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:14.319 something to be said about how different different cultures perceived 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.080 time slightly differently, right, Um. And then this comes down 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.960 to basically clock time versus event time. Yes, and there's 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.400 nature time to write, right, yeah, nature time as well, which, 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.760 of course it's just it's it's light out, it's start out, 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.080 the sun's going coming up, the sun is going down. 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:33.920 Looks like when when are you planning to eat dinner? 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.000 Are you planning to eat dinner at seven o'clock sharp? 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.600 Are you planning to eat dinner when everyone returns to 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.800 the house, or are you planning to eat dinner when 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.600 the sun comes down? There's not all necessarily the same time, right, 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.560 and in in different cultures that could be wildly different 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.480 times that they actually occur. Robert Levine is a social 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.679 psychologist and the author of a geography time, and he 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:59.000 maps the different perceptions of time between urban and rural settings, 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.240 corporate culture, as ethnic groups, and academic disciplines, and he 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:07.400 puts forth the idea of a multi temporality. So he 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.600 it's sort of this idealistic like, you know, possibly we 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.120 could start to move between nature time, event time, and 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.160 clock time, depending on the situation. But what you'll see 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.840 is that in most Western cultures we work on clock 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:24.400 time monochronic time, right, monocron nicktime rather, and that's a 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.200 linear timeline. It moves us from one task to another, 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.640 where if you're in um event time in another culture, 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.560 then let's say that you make a date to study 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.560 with someone, and you make the date for seven o'clock. 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.720 In an event time, you wouldn't actually be expected to 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.280 show up at seven o'clock because what might happen between 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.280 you showing up for that time and when you actually 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.400 do is that a friend could come over and want 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.800 to listen to music. And so it's much more like, Okay, well, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.199 I'm just going to go with it now, and it's 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.400 less of a concern about the future. It's more like 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.160 what's going on right now. So it's like Davies yes, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.960 it's very much so like this Um and Levine found 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.640 that the quicker we speak, walk, eat, and drive UM, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:15.960 the more of an economic um boom we get. Right there, 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.880 So the communities that are much more structured around clock 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.000 time tend to be ones that and this is no surprise, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:28.920 have bigger economies, um, more luxuries, higher incomes, and so 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.199 on and so forth. And I thought this was interesting. 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.560 This was interesting that the top five countries using the 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.120 index of pace of life as he calls it, or 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:41.040 time consciousness from fastest to slowest are Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Japan, 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.080 and Italy. And the five slowest or at least time 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:50.439 conscious countries are Syria, El Salvador, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Mexico. Yeah, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.120 so I mean, here you go. Here's a good example 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.960 of how time and this perception of whether or not 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.360 you're procrastinating could be wildly different from one culture to another. Well, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.600 having been too in Mexico and having been to Germany, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.040 I can say that there does a drastic difference in 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.240 how time is perceived and how time passes in those 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.960 two countries. Well, as I know that Germany is is 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.200 famous for its transportation, right and for for always being 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.440 on time, um and adhering to the clock time. Well, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.440 I have, I have. I mean, I'm I'm not the 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.160 most you know, buckled down of individuals, but but I 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:24.920 do have some German blood in me. So there there 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.280 are times where I'm like, where is someone to enforce 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.320 the rules and to put straight limits and beginnings on 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.000 this thing? You know? And then you reach for a 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.240 strudal Yeah, and then I reach for a strudle. You know. 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.240 It's like why why are people coming in late and 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.120 leaving early for yoga class? This should not be permitted. 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.839 I've got Dutch on my side, So I just wear 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.760 wooden shoes. Okay, that's That's gotta make down dog different 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.679 really difficult though it does, it does. It's a challenge. Um. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.000 But so the question then sort of becomes like, how 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:56.120 how do we become motivated in these different atmospheres, um, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.520 of different environments. And it's interesting to note that Lady 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.200 Gaga actually enters this equation, yes, and doesn't she always 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.600 I guess she does. She's always interjecting herself in these 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:11.760 philosophical discussions, right, um, And we're there was we're of 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.280 course referring to m psychology today blog post or or 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.680 article I think blog post slash article um that was 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.720 talking about basically pitting Lady Gaga against the Secret because 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.320 the lady guy got had this thing about where she 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.560 could see the awards, and she doesn't put them on 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:28.520 the wall. She like throws them in the closet or something. Right, 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.360 she sort of bragged, well, I don't know if you 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.480 say bragg but her advice to an up and comer was, Hey, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.960 don't don't get all excited about whatever awards you've been given. 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.440 I just pretend like they don't exist anymore. Taken down 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.720 and I take it down to the studs, and then 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.400 I have to get those awards again. Yes, and uh yeah, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.560 And the name of this article was the motivatical wisdom 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.400 of Lady Gaga versus the Secret. And we'll have to 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:51.960 throw a link in the blog post we do with this, 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:57.160 but it concerns Sigmund Freud's idea of the irrational lobido, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.920 the part of our psyche that lives for immediate pleasure, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.440 all right, which actually ties into a lot of a 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.680 lot of our discussions here about procrastination, because it's about, 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.480 you know, it's all about like this present us and 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.520 then dealing with a future us that yeah, feed it 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:18.640 and give its its instant gratification. Right, so um two. 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.200 In order to accomplish this immediate pleasure, the libido uses 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.840 what Freud termed a primary process, where it produces a 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:30.600 memory image of an object needed for gratification in order 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.400 to reduce the frustration of not having been gratified yet. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.280 So basically this would be like an example of this 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.560 would be like if someone was like, man, I sure, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.360 I sure, wish I was a rock star. That looks great, 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.000 and then you imagine yourself as a rock star and 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.120 you just sort of set there and you're you know, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.040 your high school class or your or behind the wheel, 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:51.320 and you sort of stay up, you're off into the 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.760 distance and see yourself as a rock star, and in 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.640 doing that, scratch that itch and then the itches scratched 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.600 and you're like, okay, I'm good. I'm good. Now back 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:01.160 to what I is doing. Okay, So this is the 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.160 fantasy part of it, right, And this is this is 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.760 how it relates to the secret. Yeah, we imagine everything 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.280 from revenge to accomplishment, you know, whatever it may be, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.320 without doing anything, and we received the pleasure from the 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.800 image alone, and then of course the secret. On the 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.720 other hand, can we say what the secret is? Can 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.320 we be sued for revealing the secret? I don't think 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.760 it's a secret anymore. Yeah, I mean, has that red 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:26.920 stamp on the it's been on Oprah and and all 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:28.600 sorts of stuff. I'm sure a lot of people are 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.880 are familiar with the concept at least right sort of 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.240 this law of attraction. It's like you imagine it and 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.200 make it real. You put out your your wish for 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.840 this thing, and then you put that out into the 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.440 universe and that that I know I'm probably massacring this, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.480 but I will admit that I have not read this book. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.960 So this is my piecemeal understanding of it. Is that 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.840 once you put out that wish, that energy, then that 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:56.000 is going to attract uh, your wish fulfillment so that 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.800 it comes to you whatever it is. I have. I 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.280 have read other things that to make similar arguments for 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.760 this idea of manifesting what you want in your life. 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.879 And some of these even take a sort of quasi 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.240 quantum physics approach by you know, sort of like looking 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.400 at the idea that all possible realities exist somewhere. So 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.879 if you were to focus, you could force yourself into 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.160 the physicals, into into the alternate realities where the desired 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:23.560 events have transpired. So there's a reality where I'm a 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.200 rock star. There's a reality where I clean up after 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.080 rock stars, and all I need to do is focus 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:35.160 hard enough, and I can move my current self toward 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.720 more towards the rock star persona than the rock star 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.400 cleaner upper. Okay, So there's a problem with this though, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.159 if you're actually motivated to fulfill it for yourself, right, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:48.120 And that's where Lady Gaga comes in, because she's relying 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.639 on an expectation that she has that's a framework based 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:57.000 on her past experiences. So she already knows what it 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.199 takes to get to this goal and fulfill it, right, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.920 and only that she's created a lack right because mentally 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:12.199 she has removed those awards, those accolades from from her um, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.000 from from becoming a symbol that is already fulfilling. So 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.840 she's her desire. I think it's like like, man, I 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.600 wish I was famous and successful, and then she looks 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:23.640 up at the awards and she goes, there, I am, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.280 and then like then they accomplished, and so she takes 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.280 them off, and she's like, oh, that was accomplished and 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:29.840 famous and all that. And then she looks up in 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:34.480 the walls empty and she makes a little frowny face. Nothingness, right, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.200 and then she starts to levitate like a zen Buddhist. Um. 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.040 I made that part of so over the last decade 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.760 is this article lays out there was a study at 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.400 a New York university and they took they used three 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.400 different groups to study which of these approaches is more successful. 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:53.720 Here's a fantasy group that essentially falls the path of 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.440 the secret here and they imagine what they have already 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.639 desired having come true, all right. And then there's a 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.600 control group that's the baseline people just do, left to 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.200 their own devices. And then there is a mental contrasting group, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.560 and this is uh, this is like the Lady Gaga 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.239 model where they mentally contrast by fantasizing about what they 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.400 want and then immediately afterwards they compare where they are 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.040 now with where they want to be. So this would 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.240 be the whole like, you know, fantasizing about being a 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.280 rock star and be like, oh, that's that's kind of 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.159 cool in my head, and then you you, you know, 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.040 you suddenly you're back in reality and you're like, whoa, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.159 I'm not a rock star at all, and then perhaps 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.920 imagining the steps that would take you to that desired reality. 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.120 So anyway, the results show that the Lady Gaga styled 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.720 mental contrasting always does a better job than than pure fantasy. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.000 And so the suggestion here is that the secret mode 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.199 is uh is kind of flawed. I just love the 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.880 fact that that someone took Lady Gaga's quote about taking 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.720 our platinum records down and and it's something like she 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.480 said something like a pretenda, haven't sold a damn one 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.360 and I've got to do it all again. Like they 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:00.439 took that quote and then they app aied it to 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.240 a study along with the Secret this book the Secret, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.520 and bore this out. I think that's pretty great. Yeah, well, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.280 I mean that's how you do it. You get this, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.280 You take the science, you throw Lady Gaga or a 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:14.840 really strong verb in the headline, and you've got yourself 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.479 the science news story. He's got legs. Yeah. Um. In 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:20.479 a minute right here after the break, we're going to 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.359 talk about whether or not there's a unifying theory of 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.240 procrastination of why we do it, and we're going to 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.919 talk about how you can overcome your procrastinate and ways. 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.240 This podcast is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.080 of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:41.200 curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. Join us at 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.920 curiosity dot com and explore the answers to life's questions. 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:49.280 All right, and we're back. Are you ready to listen 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:50.639 to the rest of this podcast or have you been 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:56.800 putting it off? No? No, you have to finish this podcast. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.560 We're halfway through. It's like that I'm gonna go grab 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:01.280 some water. It's like that quote from a beeth where 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:03.040 he's wading through the blood and he's like to to 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:05.600 turn back. Now, I'd have to wage just through just 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.200 as much blood to see it all the way through. 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:08.840 So that's where we are. We've got to wait through 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.280 the rest of the blood. Wow, you're dark man. Yeah, uh, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.640 I like it. So So yeah, we're talking about procrastination 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:21.000 and is there a unified theory because we we we 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.240 discussed that. We discussed humor in a recent podcast, and 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.800 we talked about a unified theory of humor where they say, 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.880