Psychologists and economists love to talk about the notion of two selves: present self and future self. It's a nice way to explain the tendency to have one preference about the future, but a very different preference when the future becomes the present.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the discrepancy between our present and future selves, illustrating how our preferences can change over time.
In this quote, Daniel Goldstein discusses the concept of the 'present self' and the 'future self,' emphasizing how individuals often make choices that align with their aspirations for the future, yet when those future moments become the present, their preferences may shift. This reflects the complexities of human decision-making and the struggle to align immediate desires with long-term goals, often leading to conflict and regret.
In practice
In a talk about long-term planning, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of aligning short-term actions with long-term goals.
One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go.
Worrying about scarcity is our culture's version of post-traumatic stress. It happens when we've been through too much, and rather than coming together to heal (which requires vulnerability) we're angry and scared and at each other's throats.
I hesitate to use a pathologizing label, but underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.
The psyche of the individual is commensurate with the totality of creative energy. This requires a most radical revision of Western psychology.
A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
Our lives are determined less by our childhood than by the traumatic way we have learned to remember our childhoods.
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