The Temptation of Now: How to Outsmart Temporal Discounting
Update: 2025-10-09
Description
This episode dissects temporal discounting, the psychological force that makes immediate rewards more appealing than larger future gains. We see this tension in the Terrence the tortoise and Harry the hare analogy. Our “stone age brains” struggle with modern finance, leading us to ignore opportunity cost. Key culprits explored include loss aversion, present bias, mental accounting, and optimism bias. Strategies to outsmart these biases include using commitment devices (automatic transfers), setting clear goals, practicing mindfulness to pause before spending, reframing decisions via opportunity cost, and implementing the overnight test for impulsive buys.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drryana.substack.com
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