1 00:00:01,390 --> 00:00:05,810 In this section we're going to talk about self control. 2 00:00:05,810 --> 00:00:10,774 There's an older gentleman whose about to undergo surgery, and as it happened his 3 00:00:10,774 --> 00:00:16,500 son is the physician whose about to go and perform the surgery. 4 00:00:16,500 --> 00:00:20,110 And just before he goes under he says to his son. 5 00:00:20,110 --> 00:00:23,701 Remember son, if I don't make it out of this surgery, your mother is moving in 6 00:00:23,701 --> 00:00:29,10 with you[SOUND]. What is self control? 7 00:00:29,10 --> 00:00:32,760 Self control is all about the problem between now and later. 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,410 There are many problems of this nature and they're all around us. 9 00:00:36,410 --> 00:00:40,502 In the world and in this section we'er going to learn both about what causes 10 00:00:40,502 --> 00:00:44,760 these problems and also about how to fight them. 11 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:48,99 And if you start to understand what role self control, both the self control 12 00:00:48,99 --> 00:00:51,438 problems and solution whave to play with our lives, all of a sudden you would 13 00:00:51,438 --> 00:00:58,216 realize how much better you could get. And what kind of things you could do to 14 00:00:58,216 --> 00:01:03,430 overcome some of the challenges in our environment. 15 00:01:03,430 --> 00:01:06,930 [MUSIC][MUSIC] 16 00:01:06,930 --> 00:01:23,180 So today, I want us to talk a little bit about self-control, what is the problem 17 00:01:23,180 --> 00:01:39,380 of self-control and what can we do about it. 18 00:01:39,380 --> 00:01:42,944 So to get us thinking about self control I want to tell you a personal story about 19 00:01:42,944 --> 00:01:46,380 one of my biggest struggles with self control. 20 00:01:46,380 --> 00:01:50,280 So when I was in hosptial I got some blood transfusion. 21 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:53,997 And one of those blood transfusion had liver disease within in and I got this 22 00:01:53,997 --> 00:01:57,758 liver disease. And as you can imagine it was bad enough 23 00:01:57,758 --> 00:02:00,266 to be a burn patient, getting a liver disease on top of that was not eh, 24 00:02:00,266 --> 00:02:04,310 something to look forward to. And at that point in time they didn't 25 00:02:04,310 --> 00:02:07,742 know really what was the liver disease, they just saw my liver function eh, shot 26 00:02:07,742 --> 00:02:10,966 up eh, and they had to slow down treatment, rejected some transplants, all 27 00:02:10,966 --> 00:02:17,200 kinds of bad things had happened. But they couldn't identify what it was 28 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,196 and there was no treatment. A long, long time after that, so I was in 29 00:02:21,196 --> 00:02:24,710 grad school already, I had another flare up of my liver. 30 00:02:24,710 --> 00:02:29,520 I checked myself into hospital and they told me that I had Hepatitis C. 31 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,520 By that time, they could identify the particular virus I had, so this was 32 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,276 Hepatitis C. And there's also a trial done by the FA 33 00:02:36,276 --> 00:02:40,698 or under the FDA rules to see whether a medication called Interferon was going to 34 00:02:40,698 --> 00:02:46,68 be effective for hepatitis c. Interferon was a medication that was 35 00:02:46,68 --> 00:02:49,664 originally approved for[UNKNOWN] leukemia, a really awful disease that 36 00:02:49,664 --> 00:02:54,130 nothing works for, but they approved Interferon for that. 37 00:02:54,130 --> 00:02:58,220 And now the question was would interferon also work for hepatitis C? 38 00:02:58,220 --> 00:03:01,660 And I asked him what happens if I don't take the medication? 39 00:03:01,660 --> 00:03:05,8 What happen if I don't go on the trial, and they described to me what it might 40 00:03:05,8 --> 00:03:09,660 look like to die from liver cirrhosis, which is an awful way to go. 41 00:03:09,660 --> 00:03:15,321 So I opted for this trial. The problem was that this trial involved 42 00:03:15,321 --> 00:03:19,740 three times a week a very unpleasant medication. 43 00:03:19,740 --> 00:03:23,68 Now think to yourself, imagine that you had a medication in your hand, and you 44 00:03:23,68 --> 00:03:27,160 asked yourself whether you want to inject yourself. 45 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,644 And theoretically if you inject yourself three times a week for a year and a half, 46 00:03:30,644 --> 00:03:34,350 you might not get liver cirrhosis in 30 years from now. 47 00:03:34,350 --> 00:03:39,310 But for sure you would spend the next 14 hours with side effects. 48 00:03:39,310 --> 00:03:41,750 Headache, vomiting, shaking, stuff like that. 49 00:03:41,750 --> 00:03:46,130 Not as bad as liver cirrhosis, but certainly bad in now. 50 00:03:46,130 --> 00:03:50,554 Ask yourself whether you would be able to give yourself This, this medication. 51 00:03:50,554 --> 00:03:54,608 Now, for me, this was a real decision that I faced many, many times. 52 00:03:54,608 --> 00:03:59,284 But, for you, it's hypothetical. So let's think about less hypothetical 53 00:03:59,284 --> 00:04:02,862 decisions. Let's think about things like, how many 54 00:04:02,862 --> 00:04:06,766 of you, for example, and try to be honest, have eaten in the last week, more 55 00:04:06,766 --> 00:04:12,600 than you think you should? Raise your hand. 56 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,504 I mean even though you're just watching this, raise your hand and tell yourself 57 00:04:15,504 --> 00:04:20,66 whether you've done that. What about under exercising? 58 00:04:20,66 --> 00:04:25,312 How many of you have exercised not as much as you hoped you would in the last 59 00:04:25,312 --> 00:04:31,340 month? How many of you procrasitinated? 60 00:04:31,340 --> 00:04:37,846 With class material, for example. How many you have, have you have em, 61 00:04:37,846 --> 00:04:43,112 texted while driving? Eh, another example that you can think 62 00:04:43,112 --> 00:04:49,186 about is how many you, of you have ever eh, had unplanned, unprotected sex? 63 00:04:49,186 --> 00:04:52,446 Right? Now, the interesting things with all of 64 00:04:52,446 --> 00:04:56,576 these examples is that not only do we recognize that we have done many of 65 00:04:56,576 --> 00:05:02,403 thems, but we also recognize that we'll keep on doing them. 66 00:05:02,403 --> 00:05:06,323 Procrastination, for example, many people start the semester or start the new year 67 00:05:06,323 --> 00:05:10,80 by saying, this time everything will be great. 68 00:05:10,80 --> 00:05:13,920 We take clean notebooks and we say we're going to do all the reading and all the 69 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,940 homework but then other things come and eventually we fall, we fall off the path, 70 00:05:17,940 --> 00:05:21,720 and then again next year it's a new time and we don't learn from the past and we 71 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:28,652 hope that we will do better this time. So me, by the way, one of my current 72 00:05:28,652 --> 00:05:33,760 struggles is with sleep. I work until usually very late at night. 73 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:36,210 And then I ask myself what do I need to do. 74 00:05:36,210 --> 00:05:39,864 Should I think about the current, my current needs, the things I really need 75 00:05:39,864 --> 00:05:44,0 to do right now, or the fact that I need to go to sleep? 76 00:05:44,0 --> 00:05:47,498 And I delay my sleep, and delay my sleep, and delay my sleep until eventually I, I 77 00:05:47,498 --> 00:05:50,784 don't get a good night sleep, if you see black shadows under my eyes you know 78 00:05:50,784 --> 00:05:56,582 where it Where it's coming from. So self control is a genearl problem when 79 00:05:56,582 --> 00:06:00,870 it's about what's exactly now and what's in the future. 80 00:06:00,870 --> 00:06:02,830 And the future does not have to be very far from now. 81 00:06:02,830 --> 00:06:07,330 It could be quite close like tomorrow morning, but the current future is 82 00:06:07,330 --> 00:06:11,942 incredibly powerful. And we call these sometimes the present 83 00:06:11,942 --> 00:06:15,919 focus bias, that we focus on what is the. Present. 84 00:06:15,919 --> 00:06:19,430 And this, by the way is the Adam and Eve problem. 85 00:06:19,430 --> 00:06:24,455 You can ask yourself how many of us would sacrifice eternity of, in Garden of Eden 86 00:06:24,455 --> 00:06:28,510 for an apple? Well it turns out we do it, we do it all 87 00:06:28,510 --> 00:06:31,518 the time. Now to take all of these examples, and 88 00:06:31,518 --> 00:06:35,404 think about them together as a general class of problems between what's good now 89 00:06:35,404 --> 00:06:41,558 and what's good in the future, I want you to ask yourself the following question. 90 00:06:41,558 --> 00:06:46,430 Imagine I gave you a choice, and I said, what would you rather have? 91 00:06:46,430 --> 00:06:51,620 A half a box of chocolate right now or a full box of chocolate in a week? 92 00:06:51,620 --> 00:06:54,644 And imagine the chocolate was just in front of you, and you asked, what would 93 00:06:54,644 --> 00:06:58,489 you rather have? Half a box now or a full in the week? 94 00:06:59,610 --> 00:07:02,294 I suspecting that most of you would say give me the half of box of chocolate 95 00:07:02,294 --> 00:07:05,246 right now. It's not worthwhile for me to wait 96 00:07:05,246 --> 00:07:08,800 another week for another half a box of chocolate. 97 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,180 But imagine I pushed the choices to the future. 98 00:07:11,180 --> 00:07:15,428 And I said what would you rather have a half a box in a year or a full box in a 99 00:07:15,428 --> 00:07:20,426 year and a week. Now, of course, you realize it's the same 100 00:07:20,426 --> 00:07:22,620 decision. It's the decision of whether you're 101 00:07:22,620 --> 00:07:26,199 willing to wait another week for another half a box of chocolate. 102 00:07:26,199 --> 00:07:29,853 Not only that, but you recognize that in a year from now, the second decision 103 00:07:29,853 --> 00:07:33,565 would look just like the first one, where you could say, I could have the half a 104 00:07:33,565 --> 00:07:38,455 box of chocolate now, or I could wait another week. 105 00:07:38,455 --> 00:07:41,911 But phrase this way and looking at it far in advance, as if it's a year from now, 106 00:07:41,911 --> 00:07:45,313 I'm willing to bet that all of you are willing to wait a year for the,a year and 107 00:07:45,313 --> 00:07:50,993 a week for the full box of chocolate. You're willing to wait now another week 108 00:07:50,993 --> 00:07:53,800 for another half a box of chocolate. Why is that? 109 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,380 It's because in the future, we are wonderful people. 110 00:07:57,380 --> 00:08:00,955 We will exercise, we will diet, we will not procrastinate, we will not text and 111 00:08:00,955 --> 00:08:05,160 drive, all of those things would be fantastic in the future. 112 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:07,970 The problem, of course, is that we never get to live in the future. 113 00:08:07,970 --> 00:08:13,660 We get to live in the present, and in the present we make mistakes. 114 00:08:13,660 --> 00:08:16,935 So now that we understand the problem of self control. 115 00:08:16,935 --> 00:08:21,280 I want to go back to my story with interferon and hepatitis C. 116 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,460 I want to tell you what, what I did in this particular case. 117 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:28,390 As I took the medication for a year and a half. 118 00:08:28,390 --> 00:08:31,147 An a year and a half later I had another biopsy. 119 00:08:31,147 --> 00:08:35,691 My doctor, Dr Kilberg told me that I cleared, the disease which was fantastic 120 00:08:35,691 --> 00:08:39,226 news. A little while later the FDA approved the 121 00:08:39,226 --> 00:08:43,230 interferon for hepatitis C, which was also good news. 122 00:08:43,230 --> 00:08:46,702 And finally he told me that I was the only patient in this protocol that took 123 00:08:46,702 --> 00:08:50,471 their medication regularly. Now you might ask yourself how could I 124 00:08:50,471 --> 00:08:52,948 take it? How could I be the only patient in this 125 00:08:52,948 --> 00:08:56,820 very large protocol who took their medication regularly? 126 00:08:56,820 --> 00:08:59,520 Is it because I care more about my future? 127 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,812 I care more about my liver? I've less problems with immediate 128 00:09:02,812 --> 00:09:05,590 temptation. The answer is no to all of those. 129 00:09:05,590 --> 00:09:09,620 The answer is that I invented a little trick for myself. 130 00:09:09,620 --> 00:09:13,660 And my trick was based on the idea that I love movies. 131 00:09:13,660 --> 00:09:16,16 If I had time, I would watch lots and lots of movies. 132 00:09:16,16 --> 00:09:19,180 Sadly, I don't much time so I don't watch that many movies. 133 00:09:19,180 --> 00:09:23,340 But on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which were injection days for me, on the 134 00:09:23,340 --> 00:09:27,520 way to school I would first stop in a video store. 135 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:30,922 I would rent some videos I really wanted to watch, and I would carry them in my 136 00:09:30,922 --> 00:09:35,328 backpack the whole day. I would get home in the evening, I would 137 00:09:35,328 --> 00:09:39,675 look at the videos, I would put one in, I would inject myself and I would press 138 00:09:39,675 --> 00:09:43,500 play. I did not wait for the side effects to 139 00:09:43,500 --> 00:09:47,75 start, instead what I did is I connected the movies that I wanted to see with the 140 00:09:47,75 --> 00:09:50,450 injection. Which was something that I didn't want to 141 00:09:50,450 --> 00:09:52,665 see. I would press play, I would take a bucket 142 00:09:52,665 --> 00:09:56,660 and a blanket for the side effect. And I would start a night of watching 143 00:09:56,660 --> 00:09:59,295 movies. And then of course the side effect would 144 00:09:59,295 --> 00:10:02,600 start and the evening did not end up being so good. 145 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:06,22 Now if you think about it, there's a couple of strange things about this 146 00:10:06,22 --> 00:10:09,866 story. The first thing is that if we made a list 147 00:10:09,866 --> 00:10:13,620 of what's important in life livers would be up there. 148 00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:18,564 Really really important we have only one. Side effects and injections much much 149 00:10:18,564 --> 00:10:21,794 less important. And if you thought about it in this way, 150 00:10:21,794 --> 00:10:25,174 you should think that me and all the other patients should have the medication 151 00:10:25,174 --> 00:10:28,980 all the time. But of course this is not how we think 152 00:10:28,980 --> 00:10:32,820 about it, the effect of the liver is dramatically discounted because we also 153 00:10:32,820 --> 00:10:37,76 have the time component. The liver is not, we're not going to get 154 00:10:37,76 --> 00:10:40,440 sick now. It might happen in 30 years from now. 155 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:43,920 And because of this the effect of the liver is largely discounted and the 156 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:49,253 effect of the injection looks much much larger because it is in the present. 157 00:10:50,580 --> 00:10:53,146 That's the first part. The second part is that if you think 158 00:10:53,146 --> 00:10:57,260 about my solution, the movie solution, it's kind of a strange idea. 159 00:10:57,260 --> 00:11:01,22 That solution did not involve anything with the word livers, or did not involve 160 00:11:01,22 --> 00:11:04,320 anything about caring more about the liver. 161 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:10,620 It had a little equation that says movies for injection, or injection for movies. 162 00:11:10,620 --> 00:11:14,812 And we call this reward substitution. And the idea with reward substitution is 163 00:11:14,812 --> 00:11:18,470 that there are some things in life that are too much in the future, and we're 164 00:11:18,470 --> 00:11:23,110 very unlikely to care about them for the right reasons. 165 00:11:23,110 --> 00:11:27,299 But we don't have to give up. Instead, what we could do is we could say 166 00:11:27,299 --> 00:11:31,386 let us take other things, other rewards that are going to be present in our 167 00:11:31,386 --> 00:11:36,691 immediate environment. And by acting towards these rewards, we 168 00:11:36,691 --> 00:11:41,580 can behave as if we care about our liver. So think about it: What are things in 169 00:11:41,580 --> 00:11:45,210 life, in which we're just not designed to care about the final goal for the right 170 00:11:45,210 --> 00:11:49,343 reason? And are there shortcuts, are there ways 171 00:11:49,343 --> 00:11:53,887 to care about something else that would get us to behave as if we care about the 172 00:11:53,887 --> 00:11:59,158 final goal. So, let me let us think together about a 173 00:11:59,158 --> 00:12:04,60 couple of examples like this. The first example I want you to think 174 00:12:04,60 --> 00:12:07,657 about is global warming. Global warming is very far in the future 175 00:12:07,657 --> 00:12:10,695 and you can ask yourself whether people can wake up in the morning, and feel 176 00:12:10,695 --> 00:12:15,914 energized to care about global warming. Now, I don't know what you personally 177 00:12:15,914 --> 00:12:19,450 think about global warming. Let's not worry about it for now. 178 00:12:19,450 --> 00:12:23,155 Let's just assume that global warming is a real problem, and let's think about 179 00:12:23,155 --> 00:12:27,56 whether under those conditions people can either care. 180 00:12:27,56 --> 00:12:31,550 The answer is probably not. It's probably going to be incredibly 181 00:12:31,550 --> 00:12:33,600 tough. In fact, if you took this problem and 182 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,454 looked at it from the other way. And you said, let's create the problem 183 00:12:37,454 --> 00:12:41,599 that would maximize human apathy. You would probably come up with global 184 00:12:41,599 --> 00:12:43,160 warming. Why? 185 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:47,308 Because global warming is far in the future, would happen to other people 186 00:12:47,308 --> 00:12:50,480 first. We don't see it progressing. 187 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:53,230 We don't see any particular person suffering. 188 00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:57,180 And anything we would do as individual is a drop in the bucket. 189 00:12:57,180 --> 00:13:00,978 Under those five forces of empathy, can we care? 190 00:13:00,978 --> 00:13:04,540 Very, very unlikely. It's almost like a perfect storm of 191 00:13:04,540 --> 00:13:06,640 apathy. So, what can we do? 192 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,215 If people are not going to care for the right reason, can we create other things 193 00:13:10,215 --> 00:13:13,809 that would get people to behave as if they care? 194 00:13:15,510 --> 00:13:19,542 So now the challenge for us to think about all the things that could motivate 195 00:13:19,542 --> 00:13:23,638 human beings, and which one of them we could tie in a rewared substitution way 196 00:13:23,638 --> 00:13:28,876 to global warming. So you could say what if we pay people, 197 00:13:28,876 --> 00:13:31,647 right? We can either pay people or tax them to 198 00:13:31,647 --> 00:13:34,156 behave well. That's one approach. 199 00:13:34,156 --> 00:13:38,384 Another approach could be let's make it more easy, more convenient. 200 00:13:38,384 --> 00:13:41,884 That's another way. You can also think about something like 201 00:13:41,884 --> 00:13:45,450 reputation or prestige, or making something look cool. 202 00:13:45,450 --> 00:13:51,56 You can think about giving people points. or making them feel that they are making 203 00:13:51,56 --> 00:13:56,134 some progress something. gamers by the way Really understand 204 00:13:56,134 --> 00:13:59,600 reward substitions. Gamers want you to work for them for a 205 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,940 long time playing their games with no money whatsoever. 206 00:14:02,940 --> 00:14:05,901 So they had to think about all kinds of ways to get people to motivate without 207 00:14:05,901 --> 00:14:09,150 paying them. And they come up with lots of ways. 208 00:14:09,150 --> 00:14:12,400 For example, having a leaderboard that tells you how you are compared to other 209 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:16,660 people. Here is one example to think about in 210 00:14:16,660 --> 00:14:19,622 this case. In the US, when the Toyota Prius came, 211 00:14:19,622 --> 00:14:24,80 which is a hybrid car, there was another car by Honda that was also a hybrid. 212 00:14:24,80 --> 00:14:28,80 And the Toyota Prius did very well and the Honda didn't do that well. 213 00:14:28,80 --> 00:14:31,69 And there could be all kinds of reasons, but I think that one of them was the 214 00:14:31,69 --> 00:14:34,545 Toyota Prius looked so different from the other cars. 215 00:14:34,545 --> 00:14:37,928 Now think about it. If you're driving your Toyota Prius, you 216 00:14:37,928 --> 00:14:41,80 could tell yourself look at me, I'm a wonderful, kind human being. 217 00:14:41,80 --> 00:14:44,740 I'm driving a hybrid car. If you're driving the Honda, you could do 218 00:14:44,740 --> 00:14:47,342 the same thing. But if you're driving the Prius, you can 219 00:14:47,342 --> 00:14:50,852 also tell yourself that other people, the people around you, are noticing how 220 00:14:50,852 --> 00:14:55,920 different your car look like. They realize what a wonderful kind human 221 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,495 being you are, and you get to bask in the reflected glory of the people who drive 222 00:14:59,495 --> 00:15:03,342 around you. Could it be that the fact that the other 223 00:15:03,342 --> 00:15:06,590 Prius created an external signal to communicate to other people what 224 00:15:06,590 --> 00:15:10,522 wonderful people we are, the Prius driving people. 225 00:15:10,522 --> 00:15:15,750 Created an extra benefit for those people, and therefore got them to behave. 226 00:15:15,750 --> 00:15:17,660 Now, this is not a great scientific study. 227 00:15:17,660 --> 00:15:19,540 It's actually not even a good scientific study. 228 00:15:19,540 --> 00:15:23,100 But I went to my friends. And I have some Toyota Prius driving 229 00:15:23,100 --> 00:15:25,234 friends. And some non Toyota Prius driving 230 00:15:25,234 --> 00:15:27,627 friends. And I asked them all, what else have they 231 00:15:27,627 --> 00:15:31,240 done for energy conservation? Changing light bulbs. 232 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,610 High efficiency appliances. Change the insulation in the attic. 233 00:15:35,610 --> 00:15:38,640 Changing what, what therm, temperature they keep the house in. 234 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:41,618 And you know what? These two group of my friends, maybe it's 235 00:15:41,618 --> 00:15:46,444 just about my friends, are no different. They are different on a Toyota Prius. 236 00:15:46,444 --> 00:15:50,14 They are no different on anything else. Now, you can make fun of course of the 237 00:15:50,14 --> 00:15:53,891 people who drive Toyota Prius. But I think the real issue is that Toyota 238 00:15:53,891 --> 00:15:58,246 Prius gave people another benefit, and that benefit made people be willing to 239 00:15:58,246 --> 00:16:04,30 invest money in that particular approach of energy conservation. 240 00:16:04,30 --> 00:16:07,874 What would happen if we had the same ability to convey to other people who we 241 00:16:07,874 --> 00:16:11,594 are, for example, but getting people to know what temperature we set our 242 00:16:11,594 --> 00:16:17,10 thermostat to or how much insulation we have in our attic. 243 00:16:17,10 --> 00:16:20,290 Imagine that your Facebook profile included those elements. 244 00:16:20,290 --> 00:16:23,881 Could you all of a sudden care in a public signaling way about those elements 245 00:16:23,881 --> 00:16:27,950 as well? I think there is a potential. 246 00:16:27,950 --> 00:16:33,800 So this was the first example, of how we can think about reward substitution in 247 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:38,575 the domain of caring about the world. 248 00:16:38,575 --> 00:16:46,828 [SOUND]