Bozo Sapiens

Great article! Hyperbolic discounting is the science behind procrastination. Understanding it is fundamental to health care, because almost every healthy behavior -- exercise, diet, smoking cessation -- involves both costs and benefits, with the costs typically occurring up front, and the benefits downstream. This means we readily *plan* to be well behaved (because when we plan, both the costs and benefits occur in the future and are equally discounted), but when it's time to *act* the costs loom large relative to the gains.

But once we understand this principle, we can re-engineer choices to advantage our long-term interests. Commitment bonds, for example, are a way for us to alter the choice landscape for ourselves in a way that will help get us what we want. Check out my discussion of this issue at http://blog.consumerology.org/?p=47. Thanks!

You're absolutely right. This is the reason why gym memberships have to be expensive (to balance the pain of going), and why Leonid Brezhnev had a time lock on his cigarette case: he could control the forces of a superpower, but he couldn't control his urge to smoke – so he re-engineered the choice. As with the Save More Later benefits plan, we can turn our weaknesses into strengths – but that means avoiding all the market players who make money by exploiting our weaknesses.

i've encountered similar wisdom on the subject over the past 15 years, but none so well written. as with your book on probability (which I'm about halfway through at the moment) this was highly readable yet thought-provoking.

i was lucky to grow up with a an above average sense of financial responsibility -- from mom and grandparents -- but i too have succumbed to the power of credit consumerism. uncovering some of the deeper impulses and justifications may just be a good start to righting the ship.

thanks.

Thank you for these kind words! It's always a thrill to know for whom you're writing. The idea behind Bozo Sapiens is exactly what you've articulated here: that knowing why we act irrationally may not always stop us from doing so, but it can stop us agonizing about it. Some mistakes are simply more natural to humans than others – and are thus much more difficult to avoid. It's what makes us the wise fools we are.