Society

Marshmallow Test B.S.

Sometimes I have the doubtful pleasure of interviewing candidates. As like to figure out if I am dealing with someone who is not completely useless breather, I tend to ask one or two open-ended questions that give those people an opportunity to think on their feet. The other day, I asked some soyboy about the most interesting concept or idea he has recently come across. Sometimes, those people feel encouraged to virtue signal to the hilt, and if you nod and give them an interested smile, some regurgitate Reddit talking points at a level you would not believe.

The candidate claimed that the most interesting idea he recently came across was the — yawn! — marshmallow test, according to which a simple test consisting of giving small children the choice between one marshmallow now and two at some later point reveals a lot about their ability to delay gratification, correlating quite well with success later in life. So far, so boring. However, some academic pointed out the racist nature of this test and explained that, akshually, the marshmallow test has nothing at all to do with intelligence or the ability to delay gratification. Instead, the issue is that kids who grow up in unstable environments want the marshmallow now because they, quite rightly, apparently, could not trust that they would get two marshmallows if they agreed to that. Thus, those kids are not stupid or losers but instead act smart by taking one marshmallow now as their choice is not between one now and two later but one now or none later.

Those liberal academics are so incredibly stupid. Yet, because nobody puts them in their place, they smugly spout their bullshit. Obviously, the provided explanation is even worse as it invalidates the environment of the child. You move the blame from the kid but this does not improve the leftist position because the new claim is that some societies (or families, depending on the scale you want to use) are, seemingly, unable to function properly as otherwise there would be basic trust and people would believe that you keep your word. If people are unable or unwilling to keep their promises, you will not be able to get much done. Somehow I think I could come up with a country or two that perfectly illustrate this problem. Thus, you need to conclude that the parents lack long-term planning ability just as much as the child in this setting, and if this is an ever-present issue in enough households, the entire country is probably a shithole.

As I pointed out to the candidate, speaking of groups A and B because I am not a racist, if people in group B are unable to build a society, or a stable familiy, in which basic trust exists, this seems to imply that those academics want to blame the environment, which may entail that everybody in it will be diagnosed with the flaws ascribed to only the test taker in the original experiment. Thus, it is not clear how this argument is supposed to improve anything as you just move up one or more layers of abstraction. Consequently, this oh-so-smart lefty argument makes things worse. The soyboy seemed quite embarrassed by this.

I do not think that is is possible to properly “explain away” anything undesirable while remaining coherent. The left has reached the peak of their reasoning with “magic dirt theory”, claiming that all those enterprising illegal immigrants could not build a successful society in their home country but as soon as they have American soil under their feet, they surely will. Of course, we all know how well this has been working out. Then again, people making such claims do not want to convince you logically. They do not care about truth at all. Instead, they want to lie to you and take away your ability to explain to them that they are morons.

32 thoughts on “Marshmallow Test B.S.

  1. How would you answer your own interview question? I would have tough time since the interesting ideas I come across are a bit… “much” for liberal companies.

    1. In my view, it is a grave mistake to let your guard down in a job interview, even if the interviewer seems congenial. I was asked similar questions before. If this happens in a b.s. HR interview, I start by asking the chick if she likes cats, and after her inevitable wide smile and affirmative response, I tell her that I was really surprised when I recently read that domestic cats spend 70 to 80% of their time sleeping and easily 10% grooming themselves, followed by an anecdote about a friend’s cat who seemed to always have been sleeping. This is basically the intellectual ballpark of those ditzes. In contrast, in a hiring manager interview, I use such a question to demonstrate awareness of business and the economy (I’m in STEM and most people in this field are surprisingly narrow-minded), normally by talking about something noteworthy I came across in the earnings report of a company I recently read. I would advise you to look up your interviewers in advance, if at all possible, and prepare a few talking points they may find interesting. However, do not fake interest as people tend to see through that.

      There is a lot of really weird shit in the world, in case you have not noticed. The other day, I looked up some model on Wikipedia and read this in her early life: “Her mother is a lesbian and her father is gay; [she] and her younger brother, Oliver, were conceived through IVF”. This is reality, but it just makes me laugh. The model is Josephine Skriver. Thankfully, I have this blog because otherwise it would be quite difficult to share such findings.

  2. I was thinking about the marshmallow test today actually – and how our propensity for delaying gratification is frequently hijacked and used to benefit others at our expense. One example is staying in a job you hate, but telling yourself it’s only temporary and something better will come along – and yet years later you’re still there, miserable, but benefiting your employer. Or even better, “two weeks to thin the herd”.

    I guess what I’m saying is, left unchecked, delayed gratification regresses into a shoddy defence mechanism – waiting it out. There are people out there who know this and know how to use it to their advantage.

    Of course there are likely more advanced tests that would cover one’s ability to check themselves before they get stuck in this regression. A society made up of people who would score well on that test would not make for good wagies, or go along with lockdowns so easily.

    1. I think may have misunderstood the marshmallow test, Parker. The point of the test was that humans have a propensity to go for instant gratification, and that it takes effort to delay gratification in return for a greater future reward.

      People staying in bad situations and making no effort to improve things is most likely simple inertia. It’s not because of an innate propensity to delay gratification.

    2. I do not think that this is true. Some humans have a propensity for instant gratification, others do not. There is a most unfortunate correlation with race, though, which leftists have been trying to deny, and rather humorously, I might add. Also, there is a big difference between people staying in a bad spot simply due to inertia or because they are hoping for a payoff in the future. In my view, Parker’s application of the principle of delayed gratification in these examples is correct. After all, the kids cannot know for sure that they will get two marshmallows later if they reject one now. Similarly, the promotion your boss promises if you stick around may happen or it may not.

    3. Aaron,
      “…the issue is that kids who grow up in unstable environments want the marshmallow now because they, quite rightly, apparently, could not trust that they would get two marshmallows if they agreed to that.”

      1. Sounds like the fast life history trajectory?

      “For instance, if you have only ever lived in a big city apartment but think that you are going to live in a house on the countryside, chances are incredibly small that you will really pull this off.”

      2. Why is this? I figured that once I’m ready to retired I moved to the countryside and enjoy my last few years there. The other option would to be to put in a transfer and relocate to the state I planned on retiring. However, getting a transfer isn’t easy since there’s a lot of politics and favoritism involve with the type work I do.

      “…because they are hoping for a payoff in the future.”

      3. On a related note to the article, “Admitting that it’s not going to happened”, I’ve notice that when a woman is leading you on, guys aren’t able to walk away since she managed to ensnare you emotionally. She sells you the illusion of hope that one day you’ll get laid and that payoff is not too far in the future. As days go by, you keep on investing financially and getting emotionally attach as she plays with you. One minute she pushes you away then she pulls you in. Its quite the emotional rollercoaster hoping to get a payoff in the future similar to gamblers. Unfortunately, men keep on digging themselves into a deeper whole unable to return. Once you made a financial investment you want your return no matter what. Its hard to walk away from a loss.

    4. 1) Correct.

      2) I was talking about a general phenomenon. You are clearly above-average in intelligence as well as methodological. If you decide to retire in the countryside, I am inclined to believe that you can quite easily do it. In contrast, there are people who merely talk about their grand ideas, without realizing what they entail.

      3) I think most men have experienced this at least once. At some point, they should realize that they are wasting their time and money. The sunk-cost fallacy is difficult to deal with, though. Partly it is due to the time investment, but partly the reason may also be a false sense of pride, i.e. those guys do not want to admit to themselves that some girl is leading them on.

  3. My own mother was a victim of the “Delayed Gratification will Guarantee you Success” scam.

    She worked for 2 decades (maybe more,I’m not sure) at a company she loved and was looking forward to retiring with a pension. Only to ultimately get cheated out of it because of “missing paperwork”. I do not know if it was legitimately her fault or if it was something the higher ups pulled out of their ass to avoid giving just compensation for her years of loyalty.

    That’s the problem with the common “strategy” of working for 2 decades or more for a pension. With that large of a timeframe,so many could go wrong its not even funny. And as we’ve seen with my own mother,your higher ups could very well be scumbags who will cheat you out of it even when you’ve given honest work. She’s in her 50’s now,and still works to the bone like a dog.

    Following our discussion on Meditation in the Open Thread,this is part of the reason why I’m in no hurry to get employed and would rather spend my time on self-improvement. Early next month,I will be moving to a different location where I can focus entirely on not just doing Meditation and Lucid Dreaming,but also work on trimming down. I’ve done this before and lost 50lbs in a matter of 6 months(the largest amount of weight I’ve ever lost in my life thus far). Sadly due to personal issues involving family,this got postponed. Only now do I get the opportunity to continue this again,but now I can refine the approach even further and work on other things in the mean time. I now have a couple of ebooks with low calorie recipes to diversify my eating routine for example,haha.

    I hope my Father can get his business up again soon. (we were previously doing very well until the presidential election period/event in my country threw things into chaos) I have my differences with my parents,but I would rather work under him (while trying to come up with my own business plan so I can be independent)than anyone else because I know deep down,he’s on my side. (Which is not guaranteed at all with a different employer)

    Hopefully this plan of mine works out. And to tell you the truth anyway,part of me suspects I may not live long. I’ve spent nearly my entire life on the large side. I’ve gone to Doctors and I’ve been told I’m surprisingly healthy for someone so large (Like I said before,I have no issue walking long distances or performing daily activities that normal weight people can do. Its probably a good indication that under my blubber of fat is a good amount of lean mass) but I’m not going to dismiss the possibility that perhaps spending so many years being heavy may well mean I have future underlying health issues that may hit me even once I’ve gotten rid of the excess fat,so I’m going to enjoy my life right now rather than risk getting cheated later. I don’t want to end up like that retired principal I read about who,very soon after he retired(I think just barely months after retirement…),he met his end at the hands of a reckless drunk driver.

    Anyway,that’s my perspective on all this. Aaron,you’re one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I think part of the reason why so many people get taken in by frauds and hucksters is because people want to find that there is more to life than the boring mundane way of doing things. (Not that I can really blame them…)

    I know for fact that there is indeed much more to life than the mundane. But I believe it takes a special kind of life experience to be able to identify those who are telling the truth and those who are selling lies to make a buck off of you. I’ve been in plenty of fights and have extensive experience with violence as a youth for example,and that played a big part as to how I was able to identify the legit self-defense and martial arts instructors from the hucksters. Are you familiar with the concept of “Mushin” Aaron? Its when the body goes into autopilot during a physical crisis to do what needs to be done. The concept sounds very similar to Meditation,but I can tell you for a fact that it is real because I’ve experienced it myself. Here is a reddit post of mine that gives links to give further description of this state:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/martialarts/comments/rokvdl/mushin/hpz0yiq/?context=999

    In the same vein,you’ve had the very unique experience of seducing and sleeping with plenty of women who you barely even know,and that gave you the insight to identify the crock of shit largely prevalent in the now dead PUA industry.

    Anyway,my apologies for this long (probably rambling,lol) post of mine,haha. But I felt like sharing my own personal insight.

    1. Anyway,my apologies for this long (probably rambling,lol) post of mine,haha. But I felt like sharing my own personal insight.

      It was a good read. I enjoyed reading it.

    2. Thanks for sharing, Maou! I can relate very well to how you feel. In fact, I have friends and acquaintances in their 40s who are telling me about their grand plans after retirement. I just do not see any of this pan out, no matter what it is. For instance, if you have only ever lived in a big city apartment but think that you are going to live in a house on the countryside, chances are incredibly small that you will really pull this off. You may as well claim that you are going to give professional sports a try in your 60s. Sometimes, guys tell me about wanting to write a book once they are retired, yet they have never really written anything. It does not make a lot of sense.

      Looking back at my life, I am quite happy that I got a few good years of debauchery out of it. You surely want to do this when you are young as there is little that is sadder than seeing men and women in their middle age go out and party, or pretending to be young by having a boyfriend or girlfriend. The mother of a friend of mine is in her 70s, and for a few years now she is “dating” a guy who is about her age. While I can understand that she wants companionship, I cannot help but find this quite ridiculous. She has had her youth, and now that it is gone, why does she need to chase some feeling that will never come again? Surely, this guy is not fucking her the way some dude would have banged her in her early 20s.

  4. I think this is like everything else in life… everything can be overdone. So delayed gratification taken to an extreme can mean stubbornly not quitting when you should have quit. So obviously, a person needs to know the right spot and amount of delayed gratification to employ.

    With that said though, the extremes are not equivalent. A person who’s taking things too far on the delayed gratification side will do a lot better in life then someone who’s too impatient and can’t wait for results even a bit.

    So while it is true that ideally you wouldn’t want to take it too far, if all the “immediate gratification” in our society somehow flipped to “delay too long gratification” society would improve leaps and bounds, and so would their life.

    Instant-gratification mindset is associated with criminals, drug addicts and the worst scum of humanity. The opposite extreme just means you don’t get an optimal outcome in life, but far better than being on the other side of that range.

    1. Edit:

      So while it is true that ideally you wouldn’t want to take it too far, if all the “immediate gratification” people in our society somehow flipped to being “delay gratification too long” type of people… then society would improve by leaps and bounds, and so would the lives of those people as well.

    2. >So obviously, a person needs to know the right spot and amount of delayed gratification to employ.

      I guess a good example of this would be my previous weight loss success. I was losing weight at a rate of 2lbs a week,which in the span of 6 months,resulted in an overall of 50lbs lost. This speed is not fantastic by any means but thanks to the ebook I was following (aside from just setting the caloric deficit,they also gave info on how to absolutely minimize hunger issues through eating sufficient protein,fiber,health fat and water,etc.),I knew this was the best realistic rate of weight/fat loss I can expect without suffering through the process.

      I think a good rule of thumb is a year or two (more ideally a couple of months or less) of a “Minimal Method/Approach” should be enough to get you at least decent (if not great) level results. Anything that takes like a decade to see even an iota of results is probably not worth it.

      As another example,there are many martial arts places that will supposedly turn you into some sort of fighting machine but only after a decade or so of training. Many Aikido places are like this. But if you don’t know if what you are training is the real deal,then its a total gamble if those 10 years will actually bear the fruit that you’ve been promised or if it will be nothing more than a complete waste of time.

      (Whether or not Aikido is fundamentally effective when “trained correctly” is a subject of massive debate in the MA community,and beyond the scope of this comment. I’m just referring to how Aikido is widely trained. You are promised results in applicable fighting skill only at the END of your journey.)

      Compare this to training at a good Boxing gym. No,you will not gain great fighting ability overnight,but often within 6 months of training,the average person will become proficient enough to decently defend themselves against the average aggressive person. No,this does not mean they are fully prepared for everything violence has to throw at them(No MA can do that actually,but that’s besides the point),but they SHOULD be able to scrap decently with the training.

      You should also be gaining SOME benefits already during your journey,and not just at the end of it. I personally trained for a single month in Boxing and already developed enough power in my punches to rock my Boxing coach whenever I was lucky enough to actually land a hit on him. (Although this is with me already having substantial experience with violence prior to training) I didn’t gain as much as I could if I were fortunate enough to stick around for 5 more months or so,but I DEFINITELY gained something quite valuable already. I’m confident anyone who is stupid enough to put themselves in a position to be seriously punched by me is going to experience deep,deep pain. (or unconsciousness) haha.

      To get back to the weight loss example,like I said,I was losing 2lbs per week. Those are initially tiny results that build up overtime. In most pursuits,you should probably be seeing something like this to determine whether or not whatever you’re doing is worthwhile.

      I guess if we’re going to use the comparison of a Job vs a Business,your income is fixed and the only way to improve it is to officially get a raise or promotion from the boss. No matter how hard you worked or how good your performance actually is,the final decision is still in the hands of another.

      But with a business,if you work hard and work smart (and with some degree of luck),you get in what you put out. If you did fantastic,the profit is all yours to enjoy.

      Although I’m aware that succeeding at Business is more complicated and has more risk factors than succeeding in something like Weight Loss.

    3. Although I’m aware that succeeding at Business is more complicated and has more risk factors than succeeding in something like Weight Loss.

      I think it’s the opposite, business is a lot easier than weight-loss. In fact that’s why you see so many fat businessmen.

    4. A different angle is that there are many more fat people than there are successful business men.

    5. We can also look at it in terms of success-rate. There are far more people who have tried to build a business and succeeded:

      – managed to get one business to survive*
      vs
      – people who are trying to lose weight and manage to keep it off (lose weight and keep it off for life)

      *I say survive because you often hear stats like most businesses fail, it’s kind of like how most diets fail. But most people who have one business fail then try another one and that one works. With people in business is like have 0-2 failed businesses before one works. With diets it’s like do 57 diets and then you die fat.

    6. Hahaha. You know Alek,I’m legitimately nervous about my plan on getting a business going,but to hear you talk about how it may well be easier than losing and keeping weight off for life kinda relieves me a little bit. 😀

      If you’d allow me to make an advertisement (the dude deserves it),the only specific e-book I would recommend for the purpose of Fat Loss is “Superior Fat Loss” by Aworkoutroutine.com (Jay). In the first chapters,it hammers home the point that a Caloric Deficit is the one absolutely vital requirement to make one weight/fat loss happen,but the rest of the book is giving you guidelines to set your diet in a way to minimize hunger issues and make sure that as much of the weight you lose is fat rather than muscle. (Consuming sufficient Protein for example greatly helps with both goals. My target weight is 200lbs and so I was eating 200g of protein in the form of food.)

      Any other e-books you should have are cookbooks that list both overall caloric content and macronutrients of a specific meal. (This was my missing piece back then,but now I have them and intend to make use of it. This was pretty much the only downside of Superior Fat Loss that I could identify if you believe that should be counted as a legitimate flaw in a diet e-book.)

      The e-book is rather expensive at almost 50$ nowadays and the advertisements on the website might turn you off(He’s like 60 years of Challenge with his ads),but I can assure you guys that the content is GOOD. I could share it for free over here (I got a hold of his e-book for like less than a fraction of that price) but I cannot in good conscience do it.

      Except for you,Alek. With all the free information you’ve shared over the years,I’d be more than happy to share the e-book with you for free as a way of saying thank you for all your efforts. (and you could vouch for it later should it help you succeed) I’d just need your email and all,but I’ll let you discuss privately with Aaron if you’d be willing to reveal such information to me. Aaron can see my email address after all. 🙂

    7. As someone who would look better aesthetically with more weight (assuming it’s muscle of course), I’ll say it was exceedingly easy to lose weight eating low carb. I basically ate exclusively lamb, liver, beef, fish, squash, avocados, onions, olives, and garlic for 3 months. Lost a ton of weight despite not wanting to.

    8. @herkerderker

      I specifically used the phrasing “people who try to” because we are talking about people who are trying to lose-weight and for whom a natural setpoint is to be heavy, and who have to work at weight-loss.

      People who lose weight without trying don’t count in this story. That’s like counting lottery winners in the category of creating a successful business.

    9. @Maou I’ve read hundreds of books on weight-loss, as well as hundreds of scientific studies, and have probably also written thousands of pages on the subject. I bet I know more than the author of that book.

      The reason people are fat is not because they can’t lose weight, the trick/complexity comes in keeping it off whilst still having a life and balancing it with other things in life.

      There is no magical diet where you’re always happy with what you eat, losing weight and have to expend no willpower or energy on applying it. That doesn’t exist. You know how you know it doesn’t exist? If someone came up with it, they would be a billionaire, overnight.

      It’s the part where you move onto other life-goals and need the energy/willpower for other things that you gain the weight back.

      and have to expend no willpower or energy on applying it.

      This is what naturally thin people are blessed with. They naturally have smaller setpoints/appetites/neat (and a dozen other factors I won’t go into). They don’t have to expend willpower energy in producing a caloric deficit.

      The people who struggle with weightloss (and where the complexity comes in) is the people who have to choose between weightloss and running a business. You can have one or the other, but not both. Unless you come up with a way to combine both, and this is where the complexity comes in.

    10. ___________________
      The reason people are fat is not because they can’t lose weight, the trick/complexity comes in keeping it off whilst still having a life and balancing it with other things in life.

      There is no magical diet where you’re always happy with what you eat, losing weight and have to expend no willpower or energy on applying it. That doesn’t exist. You know how you know it doesn’t exist? If someone came up with it, they would be a billionaire, overnight.
      ______________________

      Yeah,this is the tricky part. I also imagine that the ultimate answer is going to differ for everyone based on a number of unique factors as you’ve mentioned.

      I think that if you’re rich,the best way may be to have a personal chef and pre-scheduled set of meals (complete with being pre-weighed on the food scale. Set number of calories per meal) per day. Of course,I realize not everyone has that kind of money to spend (Even I don’t as of now) so assuming most of us here are middle class,we’re going to have to figure out some other way.

      I consider myself in the fortunate position (nowhere as fortunate as the people who aren’t prone to being fat to begin with,but I digress..) of having a taste for protein rich meals like meat,chicken,fish,etc. I can make the SFL strategy work because most of what I can eat is actually meals that I love. (Hence why I’m able to eat 200g of protein through food with ease. I don’t need to supplement) Guys who have a sweet tooth (I’m not saying I never crave sweets,just that its not on my mind most of the time) on the other hand or simply junk food in general devoid of meaningful macronutrients have it much rougher. They can only afford about 30% of their everyday meals to be of that variety. (Assuming they care about Satiety. The Twinkie diet has been shown to work and is the holy grail proof that Calories is the most important factor,but good luck being satiated on those things…)

      1 last thing that needs to be mentioned…Not everybody is capable achieving a male model type of body with 6 pack abs. (without extreme suffering to maintain it) Its been discussed that 15% BF is probably the gold standard to achieve here,but there may well be a couple of us here who can only get to 17-20% at best. (Slightly chubby on the latter end) I think that’s perfectly fine though. Better than being obese.

      ________________
      The people who struggle with weightloss (and where the complexity comes in) is the people who have to choose between weightloss and running a business. You can have one or the other, but not both. Unless you come up with a way to combine both, and this is where the complexity comes in.
      _________________

      Yeah,this is what I have to look forward to. I’m working on weight loss first however. Aside from doing it for my own well-being,I’m doing it to gain the support of my family for when I decide to embark into business. Getting from between 15-20% BF (I’m around 40% right now) after having been obese all my life is pretty much the best way I can make them believe in me. (I should say that I’m in possession of a Business Course provided by someone I feel is a trustworthy source,but it’ll be awhile before I can truly put that to the test. I don’t want to go into this ordeal blind.)

      I guess I should probably start this kind of conversation again once I’ve actually reached my goal and maintained it for a year or two. Anyway,thanks for the great discussion Alek. 😀

    11. Yeah,this is the tricky part. I also imagine that the ultimate answer is going to differ for everyone based on a number of unique factors as you’ve mentioned.

      Yes, this the main point. It’s very different for everyone. And finding the combination that works is a very personal thing based on personal tradeoffs.

      For example one tradeoff that I use is that I can do a ton of cardio while listening to business material. I spend a ton of calories whilst doing something that’s part of my business, and then I don’t have to spend as much willpower on forcing myself to eat less, as my expenditure is a lot higher from the cardio.

      For others its the opposite. A zero cardio approach works for them and it’s easier for them to invest willpower on restricting intake, than spending willpower on forcing themselves to do cardio.

      It’s the opposite for me. I don’t have to force myself to do cardio and it doesn’t spend any willpower for me.

      I think that if you’re rich,the best way may be to have a personal chef and pre-scheduled set of meals (complete with being pre-weighed on the food scale. Set number of calories per meal) per day. Of course,I realize not everyone has that kind of money to spend (Even I don’t as of now) so assuming most of us here are middle class,we’re going to have to figure out some other way.

      Yes, because that cuts out a lot of the main issue, which is a lack of energy/willpower to worry about it. If you outsource the worrying/thinking it is much much easier.

      I consider myself in the fortunate position (nowhere as fortunate as the people who aren’t prone to being fat to begin with,but I digress..) of having a taste for protein rich meals like meat,chicken,fish,etc. I can make the SFL strategy work because most of what I can eat is actually meals that I love. (Hence why I’m able to eat 200g of protein through food with ease. I don’t need to supplement) Guys who have a sweet tooth (I’m not saying I never crave sweets,just that its not on my mind most of the time) on the other hand or simply junk food in general devoid of meaningful macronutrients have it much rougher. They can only afford about 30% of their everyday meals to be of that variety. (Assuming they care about Satiety. The Twinkie diet has been shown to work and is the holy grail proof that Calories is the most important factor,but good luck being satiated on those things…)

      The “protein trick” is like every trick on the planet. It’s just like low-carb and other “hacks” It only works whilst new to the body, and it doesn’t work for life. The body of a naturally fat person adapts and finds ways to to go back to a higher-calorie intake.

      What I mean by this is that when you first force yourself to eat only high-protein meals, it works to blunt appetite and you might go from a 3000-calorie eating person to a 2000 calorie eating person.

      However, over-time, you creep back up to 3000, even if you ONLY eat high-protein foods. It’s the same with low-carb and any other “hack/fad”. They only work when they’re new to the body. People lose a shit-ton of weight on low-carb, but ask them 3 years after that, and they’re back to their old weight, even if they eat 100% low-carb and stick to it religiously.

    12. In the end,I suppose all this leads to the unfortunate fact that people like us will have to keep track of calories for life,don’t we? SFL addressed this though,so I was already aware of it.

      >The body of a naturally fat person adapts and finds ways to to go back to a higher-calorie intake.

      I do want to ask a question though. Would you say this is a solid reason why people like us should aim to gain the maximum amount of muscle (Natural limit,not talking about steroids/PEDS) we are able to in order to account for this?

      Muscle consumes more calories to maintain than Fat. I’m aware that just a little bit of it is meaningless (talking purely about its effect on NEAT) but once you build something like 20lbs of it or more,it starts having a meaningful effect if I’m not mistaken. You now have room to eat more. (calories that will be used to maintain the muscle rather than gain additional body fat)

      Of course,to reach the natural limit naturally takes years of training(unless you are able to shortcut with drugs),but one should probably be lifting or doing some form of strength/resistance training on the regular anyway.

    13. In the end,I suppose all this leads to the unfortunate fact that people like us will have to keep track of calories for life,don’t we? SFL addressed this though,so I was already aware of it.

      Yes. The faster one accept this, the less years he or she will waste on trying to find “the hack that works to automagically make you eat less”.

      The faster one accepts “I guess I will have to count calories every day for the rest of my life unless I want to be fat”, the less life they will waste.

      I do want to ask a question though. Would you say this is a solid reason why people like us should aim to gain the maximum amount of muscle (Natural limit,not talking about steroids/PEDS) we are able to in order to account for this?

      Muscle consumes more calories to maintain than Fat. I’m aware that just a little bit of it is meaningless (talking purely about its effect on NEAT) but once you build something like 20lbs of it or more,it starts having a meaningful effect if I’m not mistaken. You now have room to eat more. (calories that will be used to maintain the muscle rather than gain additional body fat)

      Well I haven’t done enough research to know if this is true everyone. Perhaps it is like cardio where for some people cardio raises their hunger so much that it just offets any benefits.

      For me personally the gym is the only hack that does work. Kind of ironic since I said no hack exists, but I was talking about diet-based hacks.

      Putting on muscle is a hack that works, and always works, and has worked for 20 years for me now. All else equal, if I lift weights, I lose weight without having to think about it.

      Of course,to reach the natural limit naturally takes years of training(unless you are able to shortcut with drugs),but one should probably be lifting or doing some form of strength/resistance training on the regular anyway.

      The good news is that most of the gains and benefits come in the first 6-18 months. I think the percentages are quite crazy, can’t remember exactly what they were…

      But I think it’s something like:

      – In the first 6 months you will gain all the possible muscle you can ever gain naturally
      – Within 18 months you gain like 90% of what’s possible
      – And then you spend the next 20 years gaining the last 10%

    14. – In the first 6 months you will gain all the possible muscle you can ever gain naturally
      – Within 18 months you gain like 90% of what’s possible
      – And then you spend the next 20 years gaining the last 10%

      I meant to say something like:

      In the first 6 months you will gain 50% of all the possible muscle you can ever gain naturally

      I don’t remember the exact percentages and month durations, but it is something crazy like this. It’s a very heavily-skewed situation with crazy diminishing returns. In this case though it means you get a ton of results without having to wait though.

  5. You should also be gaining SOME benefits already during your journey,and not just at the end of it.

    I wouldn’t say benefit. I’d say “progress of some kind”. Because in business some of the business models that are most likely to make you rich can be ones where you get zero benefits for years than get super-rich.

    But not zero-progress. It’s just that progress comes in other forms.

  6. Haha, despite you saying A and B, this still reads like you playing with fire. Well done for getting away with it.

  7. You could probably argue that preference for instant vs delayed gratification is actually selected for by environment.

    For example – people living in cold northern climes with little sunlight (eg Nordic countries) will have very fair skin to help absord as much vitamin D from the sun as possible in the winter. People living in warm, tropical climates with lots of sun (eg Congo) will have darker skin to protect from skin damage due to all the sun.

    Similarly, it is possible that some environments could reward being very agressive/instant gratification (say you live somewhere with food that is always abundant but requires being very decisive to get it, like a cheetah in the sahara), while other could favor delayed gratification (eg you live in a climate with a long, barren winter that you must prepare for months in advance, like a squirrel stocking nuts).

    1. Arguably, the environment you are in selects for certain traits. Yet, in the marshmallow test as well as its bizarre defenses, the environment is preselected and static, i.e. in the original test it is about advanced, industrial society and in the leftist retelling, the argument is seemingly that, yes, some people fail the test, but it is not because of them. They just react to their environment. The claim is that if there was no racism, then those people would just do as well in a that kind of society. Clearly, this is not the case as one kind of society never managed to even invent the wheel while the other is responsible for essentially all of humanity’s scientific progress.

  8. Doesn’t matter if it’s heredity or environment; only matters that a new hire brings value to the firm. And how is it racist? Classist perhaps. Does anyone believe that men like Dr. Ben Carson or Clarence Thomas are unable to delay gratification?

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