THE MISMATCH BETWEEN IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED

REWARDS

Imagine you’re an animal roaming the plains of Africa—a giraffe or an

elephant or a lion. On any given day, most of your decisions have an

immediate impact. You are always thinking about what to eat or where

to sleep or how to avoid a predator. You are constantly focused on the

present or the very near future. You live in what scientists call an

immediate-return environment because your actions instantly deliver

clear and immediate outcomes.

Now switch back to your human self. In modern society, many of

the choices you make today will not benefit you immediately. If you do

a good job at work, you’ll get a paycheck in a few weeks. If you exercise

today, perhaps you won’t be overweight next year. If you save money

now, maybe you’ll have enough for retirement decades from now. You

live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you

can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff.

The human brain did not evolve for life in a delayed-return

environment. The earliest remains of modern humans, known as

Homo sapiens sapiens, are approximately two hundred thousand years

old. These were the first humans to have a brain relatively similar to

ours. In particular, the neocortex—the newest part of the brain and the

region responsible for higher functions like language—was roughly the

same size two hundred thousand years ago as today. You are walking

around with the same hardware as your Paleolithic ancestors.

It is only recently—during the last five hundred years or so—that

society has shifted to a predominantly delayed-return environment.*

Compared to the age of the brain, modern society is brand-new. In the

last one hundred years, we have seen the rise of the car, the airplane,

the television, the personal computer, the internet, the smartphone,

and Beyoncé. The world has changed much in recent years, but human

nature has changed little.

Similar to other animals on the African savannah, our ancestors

spent their days responding to grave threats, securing the next meal,

and taking shelter from a storm. It made sense to place a high value on

instant gratification. The distant future was less of a concern. And after

thousands of generations in an immediate-return environment, our

brains evolved to prefer quick payoffs to long-term ones.

🟢📚هایلایت قسمت ۱۲۰ کتاب عادت های اتمی 📚🟢

✅ roaming : گشتن، چرخیدن

✅ giraffe : زرافه

✅ elephant : فیل

✅ decision : تصمیم

✅ immediate : فوری

✅ Impact : اثر

✅ Predator : حیوان درنده، شکارچی

✅ constantly : دائما

✅ the very near future : آینده نزدیک

✅ environment : محیط

✅ instantly : فورا

✅ deliver : رساندن

✅ outcomes : نتایج

✅ switch : عوض کردن

✅ society : جامعه

✅ benefit : فایده رساندن

✅ immediately : بلافاصله

✅ paycheck : چک پرداختی

✅ overweight : اضافه وزن

✅ retirement : بازنشستگی

✅ decades : دهه ها

✅ intended : مورد نظر

✅ payoff : نتیجه

✅ evolve : تکامل یافتن

✅ homo sapiens : انسان خردمند

✅ approximately : حدودا

✅ relatively : نسبتا

✅ in particular : به خصوص

✅ responsible : مسئول

✅ function : عملکرد

✅ roughly : حدودا

✅ hardware : سخت افزار

✅ ancestors : اجداد

✅ recently: اخیرا

✅ predominantly : عمدتا

✅ compare: مقایسه کردن

✅ brand-new: جدید

✅ savannah: دشت بی آب و علف

✅ ancestors : نیاکان

✅ take shelter from: پناه گرفتن از

✅ gratification: رضایت مندی

✅ concern: دغدغه

✅ generation : نسل

✅ long-term : طولانی مدت

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🌟اگر واستون مفید یا جالب بود لطفا به دوستاتونم معرفی کنید❣️

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