Friday, June 18, 2010

It should be available over-the-counter

Self-control is an expendable resource.

Don't take my pseudoscience word for it: this was discovered.  Scientifically.  By some people.  Basically, they took some "subjects" (victims) and plunked them before chocolate chip cookies (and ginger for some reason (I think), but I don't remember the experiment very well).  The victims were split into two groups: those tortured with not being allowed to eat fresh, delicious baked goods, and those visited with the boon of sweet cookie-consumption freedom (I guess ginger people were the control?  I dunno).  Then, they were given an impossible problem and told to, you know, have at it.  Two amazing things resulted from this experiment; A) no one cheated, and B) people who had to restrain themselves from eating cookies gave up on the problem way faster.  In half the time, on average.  Ergo, self-control: expendable.

So I totally lost my shit at my dad today, because he took two thirds of the salad.  Let me explain.  He took two thirds of the salad: I lost my shit.

Wait, let's try that again.

Ok, so my dad took two-thirds of the salad, because he just takes the treats he likes all the time without regard for other people's shares.  It's like it never registers that others might want some tomatoes, avocado, chocolate, or salad.  Anyway, I am apartment-hunting, which somewhat poetically makes me impossible to live with, so I asked him if he took two portions of salad, because I learned passive aggression from some of the best in the business.  Well, actually, he can't be that good because he didn't notice the trap and ran right into it: "uh, yeah, twice."  I shot him my mom's dirty look (hooray submissive gesture tendencies) which he countered with some drunken bluster about how I should take all of the salad. I lost my shit.

There, vaguely less crazy.

Part of what's happening here is that I am constantly out of self control.  Another part is that I was taught lessons through shame by the people who are not living up to those lessons.  But mostly it's that I want some avocado too, dammit.

[EDIT] It's radishes, not ginger.  Thanks go to J for reminding me and for the link:
http://www.fastcompany.com/video/why-change-is-so-hard-self-control-is-exhaustible

2 comments:

  1. Radishes, not ginger.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/video/why-change-is-so-hard-self-control-is-exhaustible

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stir crazy C is so much more fun to read than 5th stage C.

    Keep up the rage.

    ReplyDelete