WEBVTT - Willpower 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.680 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.280 your Mind. My name is Robert lamp and I'm Julie Douglas, 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.840 and this is our first recorded episode back from the 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.239 Christmas New Year's e break. You're gonna be getting this, 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.040 you know a little later in January, but this is 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.680 our the first episode we're recording of the New year. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.160 So I have to ask, Julie, what did you get 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.280 for Christmas? Thank you for asking. I got an accordion? 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.839 Whoa button accordion? Now? What? Now? What is a button accordion? 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.000 Because with accordions I tend to picture like there's that 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.640 little the little deal that you see hoboes and monkeys playing, 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.559 and then there's like the big, honking like weird Ari 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:50.040 Yankovic Polish Grandfather model. It's sort between those two. Cost 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.199 wise to you, by the way, I'm telling you this 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.680 is crazy. With accordions, they're either like they just go 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.200 up super high. So of course the model I have 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.360 is a reasonable dollar amount, um. But as a result 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.720 is the button one, and it's actually simpler and um. 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.440 The button one has buttons instead of keyboards on one side, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.360 but it still has that delicious sound that it makes 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:14.280 when it's you know, um exhaling and inhaling air. That's 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.440 what I do. You have a history with with this 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.680 versus a new endeavor that you're setting out on. Uh. 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.160 I've always been obsessed with them, and um, I always 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.960 wanted one, and my my husband finally said, hey, because 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:27.160 it's one of the things I wasn't gonna go I 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.440 and buy for myself. Right, But what does this mean 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.720 for me? Yes, okay, it means that, Um, not only 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.960 do I need to learn how to do you know 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.959 these great polka songs that I have to um, sit 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.440 down with a book and learn how to do this, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.600 I need to use some self control, some willpower. Right. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:46.200 And that's the at this time of year that's on 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.080 everyone's mind because New Year's I mean everybody's thinking what 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.320 am I going to do with my New Year? What's 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.160 going to be different this time? Um? You know, because 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.760 there are some people maybe thinking, oh, can I have 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.320 a little more. I knew where I stood in twelve, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.320 I knew what was going on. I just want to 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.600 stick with that. Well, you can't new year, new things 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.440 going on, So we inevitably end up thinking about things 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.280 we can change. What are we going to do differently? 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:14.840 And uh and and ultimately we have to face the 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.920 question do we have the the the stick with it? 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.799 Do we have the willpower? Do we have the grit, 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.480 the grit to really make it happen? Do I have 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.320 the grit to poka? Yeah? And I have a feeling 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.880 you do? I think? I think? I think so too. Yeah, 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.360 we'll see. You know, if if I get decent at it, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.440 maybe I'll play for you guys. That would be awesome 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.679 in two years. Well, now now that everyone's going to 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.080 be be wanting and wanting, if they're gonna ride in 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:42.519 and they're gonna say when is you? Theyre going to 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.440 play the accordion on the part I know. And you guys, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:47.200 don't encourage me because I'll just do it every single 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.440 podcast and you'll be like why uh, But yeah, I 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.440 mean this is something I really want to do. And 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.920 so right there there's some motivation, but it turns up 0:02:56.040 --> 0:03:00.160 that's not going to be enough. It's not. No. I 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.560 need to bear down and figure out what willpower is 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.000 and how I can game it. And in order to 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.080 do so, we need to look at willpower and and 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.560 try to get at the bottom of it, scratch at it. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.120 And one of the ways that we can do that 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.960 is we can look towards the American Psychological Association and 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:20.560 they define willpower as the ability to delay gratification, resisting 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.880 short term temptations in order to meet long term goals. 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:29.239 The capacity to override an unwanted thought, feeling, or impulse. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:31.720 So clearly, if I'm trying to play, I cannot listen 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.120 to my body if it says it has to get 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.400 up and go use the restroom. Right, if that sounds 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.160 reasonable for right? Um, the ability to employ a cool 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.320 cognitive system of behavior rather than a hot emotional system. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.400 So I can't like go crazy with the according and 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.120 if I'm angry and I'm not doing well and like 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.920 smash it to smithereens right, I got to stay the course. Um. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.040 And then a limited resource capable of being depleted. So 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.800 this is not something that I should probably undertake after 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.040 a day of crunching numbers, making big decisions. Um. Being 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.680 mentally fatigued. Yeah, this may remind some people of the 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.320 whole the whole idea of of ego depletion and decision 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.720 fatigue that we've touched on a number of times, and 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.320 and that the research into decision fatigue really stems from 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.360 research into willpower and temptation and and and we'll get 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.120 into more of that as as we us as we 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.640 moved through this this podcast. But you know, at this 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.719 time of year, I find like the the easiest models 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.839 that people tend to go to for understanding willpower. Of course, 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.440 it comes to do I have the will to go 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.280 out and do something I don't want to do? Exercise? 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.280 Do I have the will to resist doing something I 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.440 really wanted to eat? Chocolate or junk food? I mean 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.600 right now that in in our brake room somebody brought 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.920 in a big hanking box of like gourmet chocolates. Yeah. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.760 I think they're Harry's chocolates or something. Yeah yeah, And 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:58.560 and and I know exactly what they were doing. They're like, 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.720 I must get rid of this. The temptation is too 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:02.520 great for me to eat all of these. So they 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.599 brought them into the break room, dumped them, and just 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.120 let everyone have at it. But the thing about those 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.039 chocolates I have to at this point is that they've 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.320 probably been sitting there for six days. No, no, they've 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.520 been sitting there two days, only two days. Yeah, okay, sorry, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.560 I'll tell you that because no, okay, because I I 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.880 considered having a bite, and then I thought, you know 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:21.840 what if it's just like the other stuff, it's been 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.279 out for a while. Yeah, I put them there, and 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.039 I keep I keep sneaking them back into into his office, 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.120 and I think he was just thrown away first. And 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.039 then I started like mashing them into the keyboard a little, 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:34.839 and then he had to dig him out with his fingers. 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:36.000 And by the end of it, he's so covered with 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.919 the chocolate. He just gives into the temptation. There you go. Yeah, 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:40.719 but you know a lot of this, this idea of 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.720 like especially with chocolate things, things like chocolate. We've we've 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:45.880 discussed this before. It's something that our body wants and 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.680 our body needs. And in a simpler time it would 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.520 be harder to get that candy sugar rush. Now we 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:54.920 live in an age where you can pretty much eat 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.880 all the sugar you can possibly stand and uh, and 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:59.560 then our bodies have to pay the price for that. 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:04.599 So temptation is uh. We see it in other animals 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.160 as well, as we'll discuss. But there's there's something distinctly 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.000 human about so much of this idea of temptation and 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.680 willpower about all right, In a simple sense, our body 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.440 is wanting something that our mind knows we shouldn't have. Now, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:22.080 we've discussed the body mind connection in previous episodes, so 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:23.720 I think we all know that it's a little more 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.400 complicated than that. We're not just this brain creature living 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.480 in this flesh body creature. If we look back at 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.919 some of the philosophy of willpower and choice, if you 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.160 look back at the words of Plato, Plato argued that 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.039 the human experience is one of constant struggle between the 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:43.080 intellect and the body, between rationality and desire. So along 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.240 those lines of truth, freedom is only available when willpower 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:53.600 unchanges from bodily emotional, instinctual slavery. So okay, well, I mean, 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:55.520 you know it's I think it's one of the things 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.599 that is the tradeoff of having um, you know, highly 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.760 complex exprain. Right, is that these are all these sorts 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.800 of things will present themselves as temptations to as humans, 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.479 probably more so than other species. Right. And what did 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.320 Oscar while to say about temptation? He said, and this 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.520 is from Roy and Gray, and this is the character 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.040 in that book, a hedonistic character that shows up says 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:19.880 the only way to get rid of temptation is to 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.679 yield to it, resist it, and your soul grows sick 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.680 with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.880 So there's a bit of truth to that. It's interesting, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.920 like the Platonic model and then this Oscar Wild model, 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.320 for lack of a better description, there's the idea that 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.640 will power is the victory of the mind over the body, 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:40.400 and it's a very it's a winnable thing if you're 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.920 smart enough and you're you have enough fortitude. And then 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.560 there's this Wild model where it's ultimately this hopeless battle. 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.320 Like you can think. You may think you're going to 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.960 defeat the chocolate. You may think you're gonna start going 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.720 to yoga or spin class every you know, three days 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.440 a week or whatever your your January first plan is. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.440 But wait, by the end of January, you're gonna be 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.800 facing a different story. Now this is jumping ahead a 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:03.640 little bit about we're going to discuss, but it would 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.679 be interesting to look back at Klato's childhood and Oscar 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.160 Wild and see the amount of stability in each of 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.040 their childhood's and whether or not it was a good 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:18.680 predictor of their own ability to self control. So let's 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.480 talk about willpower across species, because this is interesting. Yes, 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.600 and as we as we mentioned, certainly humans have it 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.520 more complex than any other creature because we have this 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.960 this culture and these all these ideas about what we 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.880 need to do, and we're we're more self conscious in 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.840 a very real way. But we have performed experiments to 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:45.000 see if if willpower is exerted elsewhere in the animal kingdom. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.400 So it turns out studies have shown that that dogs 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.880 can resist temptation. Chimpanzees can distract themselves from sweets with 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.040 other objects, which is particularly interesting because some people do that. 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:58.959 They try and just like, don't think about the chocolates 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.040 in the brake room. Instead, let's focus on work. Let's 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.480 buffle down, or let's listen to some music or I'm 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.520 you know, something to distract me from the fact that 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:08.440 the temptation is there. You don't want to go and 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.280 bring the chocolate to your desk because then it's going 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.400 to be even harder. Yeah, mentally, out of sight, out 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.800 of mind. And it's also been found that, like the dog, 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.839 dogs can resist temptation with a little extra glucose, and 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:20.640 we're gonna get into the glucose connection to all this 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.880 as well. But but that's again something we've touched on 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.120 when we've discussed a decision fatigue, the idea that you 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.360 can take some glucose and then that will give you 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.520 a boost that you need. Yeah, that's right, because again, 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.719 you've got a finite amount of mental resources and they 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:39.320 are often taxed when you are hungry and fatigued, and 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.040 so giving yourself a shot of glucose is a nice 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.000 way to bolster your self control. Yeah, I mean, I 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.280 keep thinking of a video game model for all of this. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:48.920 You know, where you're playing a video game and there's 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.560 like maybe there's like a life meter that fills up 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.160 and depletes a little as you're injured, and then there's 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.200 maybe a stamina meter that depletes as your character runs 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.520 around in the game world, and ultimately a that's the 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.200 way it is in the real world. You have these 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.720 finite resources that you use throughout the day, be it 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.439 physical energy or this emotional intellectual energy, this ego, this 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.079 cognitive load, and different things will take a notch out 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.520 of it. So in the same way that your life 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.880 depletes every time a Goblin statue in the gut with 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:21.000 a sword. Every time you have to deal with a 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.840 really lofty decision or small decision, or just resisting the 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.079 chocolate that's in the brake room, it depletes your your 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.440 willpower meet just a little more. And if that thing 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.920 bottoms out, then you're eating chocolate. Well, and I thought 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.080 it was interesting too. Um. In the article that you 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.120 wrote how willpower Works, you talked about how they are 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.680 different parts of the brain that respond to willpower into temptation, 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.760 and there's a couple of different parts of the brain. 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.960 One is called the ventro medial prefrontal cortex and this 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.080 is just behind the forehead. What we see is that 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.400 when people are choosing between sweets and health food, for instance. 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.600 I believe this was a two thousand and nine Celtech 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.600 study that you talked about. Um, theo who held out 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:05.280 against temptation. We're processing in this venture medial prefrontal cortex, 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.480 but they were also processing in something called the Dorso 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:14.560 lateral prefrontal cortex. And it thought that this Dorset lateral 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:19.320 prefrontal cortex allows the venture medial prefrontal cortex to weigh 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.520 both taste and health benefits. At this very same time 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.480 as opposed to the test subjects who had low self control, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.959 who were only making value judgments with the help of 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.600 the venture medial prefrontal cortex. So there's this idea that 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.040 people can differ with self control possibly because of this 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.160 greater use of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. Now, of course, 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.800 we need more studies like this to really try to 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.679 figure out whether or not these people are have just 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.360 become more adept at exercising self control and as a 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.679 result they're using dorsal lateral more, or if they are 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.280 inherently more muscled up in that area. So let's talk 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.680 a little bit about what it wears down again the 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.959 think of the video game, think of the life meter 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.640 of the stamina meter, and now think of these two 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.920 other meters, cognitive load and ego depletion. So you have 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.480 cognitive capacity on one meter and then you have ego 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.720 on the other. First, we're gonna talk a little bit 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:19.320 about cognitive capacity and cognitive load. All right, Cognitive capacity 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.480 basically affects our ability to hold out against temptation. Uh, 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.679 it's essential and working memory, which we use when resisting temptation. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:29.320 But also it's something we use when stay holding a 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.840 string of numbers in our heads. And this is this 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.679 is where it gets really fascinating. There was a study 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.520 from the University of Iowa, specifically Professor A. Bob A. Shift, 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.400 and he found that people task with remembering a two 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.240 digit number held out better against temptation than people remembering 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.839 a seven digit number when tempted with chocolate cake. So, 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.640 so again, there people are walking down the hall somebody 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.560 comes out and says, all right, this is the number 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.400 you need to remember. You remember the number twelve. You 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.959 you're remembering the number. You know seven, it would have 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.880 to be a million, wasn't it a million and something? Right? 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:08.960 And nine? One? Two? Yeah, that sounds good. You gotta 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.160 remember that. And then they walk a little further down 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:12.920 the hallway and then somebody comes out with a big 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.320 chocolate cake. You know, it's Cindy's birthday in the office. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.880 Here have some cake. And then you have to continue. 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.160 And then at the end of the hallway, see if 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.880 you remember those numbers that were given to you. So 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.440 the idea here is that if if you distract the 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.079 brain with a more difficult task memorizing seven instead of two, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.200 it becomes harder for the participant in the study to 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.480 make a healthy food choice, you're having to hold seven 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.640 numerals in your head. Your cognitive capacity is depleted enough 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.560 to wear that chocolate cake may just do you in. 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.200 Whereas if you're only having to remember too, then your 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.680 meter is less depleted and therefore you may be able 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.800 to take the punch, take the hit of resisting that 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.160 chocolate cake. So that's why I think ego depletion also 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.280 comes in because it's a nice sort of counterpart to this. Right, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.439 We've talked about this before. Roy F. Baumeister, he's a 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.280 psychology us at Florida State University, and he's done quite 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.360 a bit of work on ego depletion. And here's a 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.760 pretty good example of how he proves its existence. He 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.600 had students sit down next to a plate of freshly 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.480 baked chocolate chip cookies. Okay, so imagine the smells wafting 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.320 into your nose. Some were allowed to snack away and 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:24.000 others were ordered to abstain from the cookies. And afterwards, 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.160 both groups were asked to complete difficult puzzles. So it 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.280 turns out that the students who had been forced to 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.000 resist the cookies had so depleted their reserves of self 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.760 control and trying to do that that when they were 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.240 faced with this task, this puzzle, they quickly threw in 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.920 the towel, whereas their cookie chomping counterparts were able to 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.200 conserve their willpower and work on that puzzle. So again, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.480 what you're seeing here is the finite mental resources and 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.640 how to use them best. And this, you know, I 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.200 think this also gives me a lot of insight into 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.200 how I work. Like I find we have a fair 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.000 fairly nice teleworking policy at work, which means, you know, 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.320 we can work from home or from a coffee shop 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.760 or whatever. And I enjoy working from the actual house 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:12.600 a little bit, but I can't do it all the 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.720 time because there's just so many temptations I have to resist. 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.040 And they're not all like bad. It's not just like 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.200 should I drink alcohol at nine am? I mean there's 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.520 something like that, Or should I just sleep all day? 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:25.680 Not that kind of thing, but biscuit, isn't it. Well, 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.480 there's that there's like should I go check on the 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.520 cat and then and then in the afternoons when the 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.600 cat is running wild and and that's also competing for 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.480 my attention or you know, temptations to to walk around, 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.640 temptations to go ahead and have lunch a little early, 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.520 temptations to to go and turn on the TV for 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.040 a minute or something. You know, They're just all these 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.040 things that I could do, and I'm having to resist 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.320 all of them, and it kind of builds up. Um. 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.880 Where I put myself in a and say the workspace 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.920 here at work, or in a limited space like a 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.760 coffee shop, then I can focus more on the opposite. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.480 When I'm at work, it's harder for me to concentrate 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.360 because there are people round and I would like to 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.280 talk to them, and so it takes more willpower for 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:06.960 me to bout down the hatches and really focus, Whereas 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.040 if I'm working from home, then I just turned up 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.080 the music, um, really loud, and then just sit there 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:16.400 and focus and blaze through. But again we're talking about 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.400 distractions here to say nothing about the Internet, of course, 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.440 I mean that's that, yeah, that comes with its own 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.480 set of rules, right, Um, all right, So how do 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.640 you bolster it right? How do you make willpower become 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.080 more central to what you're trying to accomplish. There's something 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:38.160 called closing the loop or the Zigarnic effect. Really interesting. Now, 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.840 for those of you who are sci fi fans and 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.600 you've cut the movie Looper, there's closing the loop in 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.600 that movie, which involves killing your future self when your 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.680 future self is sent back in time to your past self. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.320 It's kind of complicated but also kind of cool. But 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.240 the idea is that there is a loop that is closed, 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.560 and that that just closes the book on you as 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.800 a time travel into wind hit Man, and so this 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.880 is a sort of similar thing. The idea is that 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.400 we create these these various open loops in our life, 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.040 and that The example that comes to mind and solely 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.000 to me, is that I'm telling somebody about a movie 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:13.479 or a book that I really dig, and I'm like, hey, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.000 I'll bring in a copy of knowledge of borrow it. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.800 And then if I don't do that, if I don't 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.280 bring in the copy of that book or that that movie, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:22.320 or whatever it happens to be, then that's always on 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.760 my mind. I'm thinking, Oh, I was going to bring 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.040 in a copy of this novel for Matt to read, 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.199 and I forgot to bring it. And so that's the 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.520 first thing that enters my mind every time I see 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.879 or think of that person. Well, and I've got a 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.720 good example of my friend Maria. I finally wrote her back. Um, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.560 but it's been a couple of months. She lives in Germany, moved, 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:43.000 so I don't have a chance to talk to her 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.720 as often two months to to email her. The reason 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.800 is because she writes this beautiful like eighteenth century missives 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.399 that are like very intelligent and thoughtful. Once I always 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:54.520 feel like I really need to give her something back 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:59.520 that email. This this email, although saying eighteen century missis 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.200 was no. No. But here's the thing. For the past 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.399 two months, nearly every day I thought, I've got to 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.160 write Maria, write Maria. And what we're talking about again 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.520 is my brain trying to close the loop, my unconscious 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.639 serving up thoughts to my conscious self to say, hey, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.480 you need to do this. In the Zigarenic effect, this 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:20.800 closing the loop actually has its roots in the nineteen 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:25.280 twenties at the University of Germany. The reason it's called 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.439 the Zigarnic effect is because one of those students was 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.879 very intrigued by this experience she and how other students 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.639 had when they went to a restaurant and there was 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.040 a large group of them and the waiter took their order, 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.760 but never wrote anything down, and he delivered every single 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.000 order to every single person. He matched the order to 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.880 the face. Um. She went back later because she had 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.440 left something behind, or rather one of the students did, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.480 and that waiter looked at her blankly and did not 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.159 recognize or did not know what group she was talking about, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.080 had absolutely no memory. And she was amazed, and so 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:05.400 how could you so quickly forget me but have remembered 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.880 all the detail orders of this large group of people. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.120 And he said, oh, well, once I you know, once 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.679 the order is delivered, I don't have a memory of 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.399 anything anymore that has to do with that or to 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.359 clear out that that bit of cognitive space. Yeah, so 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.200 bloomas Arnick, the student in her mentor said, okay, well, 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.280 I wonder if human memory makes a distinction between finished 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.959 and unfinished tasks. And so their research, as well as 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.720 decades of other pure research, resulted in what they called 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.160 this like arnic effect that says, yes, indeed, the unconscious 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.480 mind is like a small child kind of uh, you know, 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.080 sitting there and tugging at the sleeve of the adult, 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.880 the conscious saying, hey, you need to really pay attention 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.680 to this. And so the idea is that self control 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.600 comes into play when the nagging thought is met with 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.960 an action plan and you can then begin to close 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.320 the loop. So this is one of those things in 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.440 your own life. It's kind of you just have to 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.160 figure out the action plan, the the step to take 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.280 that will continue to close the loop. Because if you've 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.520 got a lot of loops open, you know that that 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.800 is first of all, I'm going to be depleting your 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.119 mental resources right right um. And second of all, you 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.640