--- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "curtisdeltablues" > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > Finding out if "life is here to enjoy" (tip O' the turban to > > Maharishi) or "life is here to annoy" is a person's underlying > > world view can predict their happiness level I suspect. > > Excellent way of putting it. I've always wonder what the fundamental > common denominator in people is, here's another way of dividing us > up that I read about. > > A child psychologist tried an experiment with every very young child > that came into his clinic to try and work out if there were any > fundamental personal differences that affect how we live our lives. > What he did was this; every child that he saw he offered a > marshmallow but then said that he had to nip out of the room for a > couple of minutes and but if they waited til he got back they could > have two marshmallows. > > I can't rememeber the exact ratio of forward planners to impulsive > types but 30 years later he contacted as many as he could and asked > them how their lives were going and what sort of successes they had. > All of the two marshmallow kids were homeowners with good > relationships and careers they enjoyed. The one marshmallowers > didn't do so well and were restless in life, never settling down, > unfulfilling careers, divorces etc.
Excellent! Fascinating. I would have probably have held out for the two marshmallows, but I have been restless in life and never settled down (I've probably lived in 40 different cities around the world). One divorce. But I have a fulfilling career and I think I've done fairly well. So go figure. Maybe I would have snorfed down the first marshmallow but told the psychologist that I hadn't, and held out for the second marshmallow because if he didn't give it to me that would bring up "trust issues" in a patient. :-) > Quite an eye-opener, could it be we are set on a particular track > through society by something as obviously genetic as this? The > evolutionary aspects are obvious, in our hunter-gatherer heritage > both types of personality would have had their uses. In our modern > world (that was obviously built by the one-marshers, bastards) it > aint so easy! > > All this is from memory so it may not be exact, I fear I may have > created a personal myth out of it to excuse my one-mallow > performance in life. Actually I think I would have waited ti he > was out of the room and rifled his drawers for the bag, another > category perhaps. I read this *after* writing the speculation above about what I would have done. I always knew we had devilry in common. :-)
