When we are presented with distant commitments, we tend to stumble on the difficulty that our brain has in placing us in the future with any degree of accuracy.
Why is that?
Because our brain evolved to make determinations about our existing environments and to predict immediate threats and rewards, it’s a stretch to gain perspective even a few weeks into the future.
Our brain is always happy to capitalize on an immediate reward.
When combined with the challenge to gain future perspective, this desire for immediate rewards nevertheless sets us up for a range of problems.
Economists call this tendency Extreme or Hyperbolic Discounting.
Scenario:
When offered a cookie today or two cookies tomorrow, waiting seems intolerable and we eat today. When offered one cookie in 365 days or two cookies in 366 days, waiting suddenly seems easy and we say we would wait.
People more heavily discount the immediate than the distant future......