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Beware of immediate rewards (temporal discounting)

When you make a decision that gives an immediate reward at the expense of some larger but longer term reward, this is temporal discounting.

It’s easy to value immediate gratification and hard to put a value on amorphous future rewards.

For example, if you eat too much every day now you get fat later. If you spend all your money now you have nothing left for retirement later. If you have the drinks tonight, your mental well-being and performance suffer tomorrow.


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