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You are Doomed (almost) by Your 30 Minute Brain

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Our brain is the most fantastic machine the world has ever known, but it has also set you up for failure. In today’s post, I tell you why and what you can do about it.

UPDATE 2013/10/29: In the comments, some have questioned the role of the limbic system in the role of decision making. I welcome the criticism and Carla very correctly points out that I didn’t provide any sources. I’m a science guy myself, so I can completely relate to Carla’s concerns and I appreciate her calling me out. Shame on me.

With that said, I do believe that we aren’t wired to think long term. Delay of gratification seems a concept that is lost on most.

In any case, feel free to provide links backing up what I say or telling me that I’m full of hot air.

Example of a bad decision by me. I blame my brain. Bad brain, bad brain.
Example of a bad decision by me. I blame my brain. Bad brain, bad brain.

I was listening to Jason Hull speak recently. Part of his excellent talk was about the limbic system in our brain. The limbic system is a group of brain components that influence our behavior. Jason mentioned that because of the limbic system, we are programmed to think only 30 minutes out.

Now, consider the human life span. The average first world person is living to be 80 these days. Consider this math:

60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days * 80 years = 4,000,000 minutes

I’ve given you two important numbers, 30 and 4,000,000. On the surface, these numbers are difficult to reconcile. I’m telling you that you will live 4,000,000 minutes, but you are programmed to think only 30 minutes out. Stop and think about it for a moment. This is a very bad way to live. Take a look at the news and you see the direct results of this 30 minute wiring:

  • We have an obesity crisis because we can’t pass up unhealthy food
  • Criminals commit crimes for a couple hundred dollars
  • People spend money on frivolous junk
Some bad decisions courtesy of our 30 minute brain
Some bad decisions courtesy of our 30 minute brain

The Big Mac we eat today may very well contribute to a heart attack in 20 years. Robbing the liquor store could get us a lengthy term in the lock up. Our 30 minute brain is condemning us to bad decisions.

The 30 minute brain was really good 10,000 years ago

So now, you’re probably wondering why our brain functions like this. Next time you’re out in nature, observe the life of any other animal. Animals primarily do one thing when they’re awake, look for food. Squirrels are trying to find nuts. In the Rocky Mountains that are close to us, the elk graze all day. Seagulls have decided to give up their seagoing lifestyle for a career at the trash dump or Walmart parking lot. (If gulls were honest, they’d rebrand themselves as trashgulls.)

Now consider humans. We have only been domesticating plants and animals for 10,000 years. However, we’ve been around much, much longer than that and prior to our farms, we were just like any other animal. Our waking hours were spent wandering the plains looking for food. Our ancestors didn’t care about tomorrow or next week. They cared about their next meal. We are wired to think 30 minutes ahead because it was necessary to survive.

To compound the issue, long life is a very new phenomenon. A person born in 1850 couldn’t even expect to live beyond 40. Life was basically grow up, reproduce and work, then die. Retirement? Yeah right!

What you can do about it

I’ve given you some important knowledge about a major problem with the brain. I’ve told you that despite the long life you know you’re going to live, your brain is programmed to only have you think about the next 30 minutes. Now that you have this knowledge, you can do something about it. That fast food may taste good and be convenient, but is it going to damage your heart in 25 years? Riding your motorcycle at 125mph* is a lot of fun, but may not bode well for your longevity. Think about everything you do today; just think in terms of years and not minutes.

 

*Ummmm, guilty**.

**It was a long time ago…

 

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Comments

  1. I pegged my motorcycle at 148mph (GPS said I was only doing 140), but It was on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway main straight so it was sort of saferish… but your point is a valid one. I guess it could all be boiled down to “make good choices”

    • Oh, racetracks are much safer. You have all the gear on and there usually aren’t hard objects to collide with should you lose it. Just slide out and stand up once you stop moving.

  2. Loved the pictures! The tattoo and the bear mauling in particular…

    This 30-minute brain is an interesting one because clearly the vast majority of people are short-term thinkers, which is why their finances are in such disrepair. But then there magically is this group of people who can think long-term, and I’m not sure what differentiates them on the surface. It sure would be nice to know though!
    Brad @ RichmondSavers.com recently posted…How Much Does Your Car Payment Really Cost You?My Profile

  3. I like to think I’m a long term thinker, but then I go spend $10 on a pizza last night. Cravings are the worst for me. Gotta satisfy them or they will spiral! No, I’m not pregnant, just like food.
    I think most people are short term thinkers. I once asked my mom why she didn’t set long term goals, and she said she didn’t want to be disappointed in the future when she didn’t accomplish them. It was a hard answer for me to understand. She has always push me to have goals, but she herself can’t lay down concrete goals.
    SavvyFinancialLatina recently posted…How to Be SuccessfulMy Profile

    • I am guilty of food cravings myself, even the Taco Bell* that I often make fun of.

      That is a bit sad about your mother. If we don’t have hope and optimism, what do we have?

      *I’m very embarrassed to admit this, especially to you, but transparency, right? However, last time I went to the Bell, it DID NOT agree with me. It is going to be a long, long time before I set foot in one of those again.

  5. I think there is a balance to be had. When so entirely focused on the future we can lose sight of the now. I know I am like this with my constant projections and planning and crazy designs on the future. Ultimately we do need to think ahead, but we also need to slow down, and remember to enjoy the time we have now.
    writing2reality recently posted…2013 Passive Income Goals RevisitedMy Profile

  6. This smells a little of BS. I can’t seem to find any reliable sources that back this information up (this post was actually the first result in a few of my searches), and my college neuroscience professor doesn’t know of any research that indicates this. It always irks me to see stuff like this out there with no sources backing up some pretty counter-intuitive suggestions, especially from bloggers I respect. Without getting too rant-y, this doesn’t really pass the common sense sniff test. I mean, the limbic system isn’t even the part of the brain used in planning. It’s where emotion and behavior are based, while planning comes out of the frontal lobe. But, even wild animals, pets, and farm animals show some signs of planning; there’s evidence that great apes can plan long-term and exercise self-control to reach goals. And clearly our farming-and-storing-for-winter ancestors planned a little more than 30 minutes out. There’s research on impulse control and reward circuits and such (based in the limbic system) that suggest that we’re not too great at delaying satisfaction, but that isn’t the same thing as out ability to plan long-term. Sorry to go off… I just don’t like incorrect information (then what am I doing on the internet?).

    • The seagulls hang out at the trash dump, OR the Walmart parking?? Aren’t those the same thing?

      You’re right, planning has nothing to do with the limbic system, and that’s really the issue here. People aren’t planning, because instead of thinking of the long-term they’re satisfying short-term gratifications. Obviously most purchases, or acts are based off of emotion, rather than planning (ie, “I’m hungry” or “I need money”). Emotion also leads people to walk away from mortgages instead of the long-term planning of How can I pay this mortgage over the next X years?

      I think you just went into attack mode, because you read something incorrectly, rather than reading something that was written incorrectly.
      Johnny Moneyseed recently posted…How to be a foodie on $75 a weekMy Profile

      • “The seagulls hang out at the trash dump,
        OR
        the Walmart parking?? Aren’t those the same thing?”

        Hilarious! Every time I set foot in a Walmart, I feel like it takes a little bit of my soul. I had to go there to buy a funnel to change my cars’ oil. They put that stuff way in the back corner, forcing you to walk through most of the store to get to it. I don’t know what on earth Duck Dynasty is, but Walmart is filled row after row of merchandise with that on it.

    • Hi Carla –

      Let’s be clear here. The limbic system is emotional and very short-term focused (see the Stanford marshmallow experiment for a good example of this). You’re absolutely right in everything that you write; however, the point of this article, and the point of my FINCON presentation was that there is always a battle between your prefrontal cortex,which is responsible for long-term planning, and the limbic system which, in general, couldn’t give a hoot about the future. I’m not claiming that we don’t plan. I am claiming that our plans oftentimes don’t match our subsequent behaviors, and it’s because the limbic system gets in the way. The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee. If our prefrontal corticies won the day, we’d rarely have problems.

      Have you ever seen the dessert tray pass by you in a restaurant, thought “I shouldn’t eat that sugar bomb,” and then ordered dessert anyway? Your limbic system won that battle.

      We all plan. But, we also fall victim to the rationalizations that our limbic systems give us to abandon that planning and seek immediate gratification.

      If you want citations, feel free to check out my website (which Mr. 1500 was kind enough to link to). I have tons of academic citations for the articles I write. I’m not smart enough to make stuff up.
      Jason Hull recently posted…The One Skill You Can Teach Your Children to Potentially Save Them Tens of Thousands of DollarsMy Profile

      • That explanation makes sense. The way the post is written made is seem like you said that our limbic system causes us to only plan 30 minutes ahead, which is kind of disingenuous. Statements like, “Jason mentioned that because of the limbic system, we are programmed to think only 30 minutes out,” kick in the media-weary psych student who’s leery of simple statement that aren’t entirely true. I’m going to go check out your blog now (I only skimmed before)…. Do you happen to have the source for the 30 minute number? I need to learn my something new for the day.

        • Carla –

          Mischel’s marshmallow experiment is the best proxy for the timeframe of a limbic system (http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/6/2/252.short). It’s impossible to solely measure a limbic system’s response horizon, since you’d have to have a person with little to no prefrontal cortex to test this on. Thus, the closest proxy is children, since their prefrontal cortices aren’t mature enough to be able to predominate over the limbic system’s desires. If I recall correctly, the time horizon for the five year olds in the marshmallow experiment was actually 11 minutes, with the conclusion that kids who could delay gratification (thus overcoming their desire for immediate gratification) for 11 minutes to get 2 marshmallows would be more successful later in life. I don’t have time to look it up, but there was a follow-on longitudinal study that confirmed that the highest correlation between financial success in adult life and childhood behaviors was success in the Stanford marshmallow test. I know it came from Google Scholar.

          I’d have done well on the test because I don’t like marshmallows! 🙂

          Better link for Mischel writeup: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/3615/Readings/Mischel_1983.pdf
          Jason Hull recently posted…The One Skill You Can Teach Your Children to Potentially Save Them Tens of Thousands of DollarsMy Profile

    • Thanks for calling me out Carla. I’m a science guy so can relate to your concerns.

      “There’s research on impulse control and reward circuits and such (based in the limbic system) that suggest that we’re not too great at delaying satisfaction, but that isn’t the same thing as out ability to plan long-term.”

      Hmmm, I”m not sure that they are mutually exclusive thought. If one plans long term to save money, but can’t stop themselves from impulse purchases, one is definitely interfering with the other.

      In any cases, no more posts like this without links to specific information that backs me up.

      • I’m sorry if I was a bit harsh… this happens to be my area of interest/research, so I suppose my fingers are a bit jumpy. I think I’m splitting hairs a little for your purpose, though. In research, long-term planning and impulse control are different constructs because of where they are in the brain and how they’re studied. In real life of course, nothing is discreet. Roy F Baumeister has some great research on the causes of impulse behaviors and the roots of self-control. (If it’s possible to be the fangirl of a researcher, I’m it. He has some seriously great stuff.) Here’s a link to a 2002 paper he published about self-control and consumer behavior: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/338209

        Long story short, self-esteem plays a serious role in our ability to control impulse, which totally explains Mr. Money Mustache 🙂 You should be able to find most of Baumeisters stuff free on Google Scholar if you’re interested. Sorry again. I hope we can still be friends 🙂

        • Hi Carla-

          Nah, don’t apologize! I’m a science guy myself and get super annoyed when people don’t back up their ridiculous claims with solid, peer-reviewed evidence. I have family members who believe in all kinds of nonsense because they read about it on facebook and hear about it on AM radio stations. It drives me nuts, so I totally see where you are coming from.

          Thank you for the links on Baumeister. I started reading the one. This is a great line: “Somehow even these individuals manage to control their behavior when it is to their advantage.”

          I am going to go back and read the rest, but that line is something to think about. In the case of a Big Mac, the real advantage is not eating it. However, that advantage is long term. Hmmmm, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, so I’ll shut up and read the rest of the article before I write something stupid.

          Again, please don’t apologize. You taught me something (the real reason why I blog is to learn, not to preach) and intelligent conversation with an open mind is how we arrive at the truth!

  7. I love Jason Hull’s blog. The metaphor of monkey brain is something I think about all the time now.

    I like the comparison you’ve made with thinking 30 minutes out. But with hundreds of thousands of years of habits being formed with monkey brain thinking about things in the very near future, how do we best break the habit? I can try to be more forward thinking, but am likely to still want the Big Mac around 4:00…

    Hell, I want one now.
    Done by Forty recently posted…Embracing Either/Or and Opportunity CostsMy Profile

  8. Ah, the jams my 30-minute brain have gotten me into over the years. In fact, I’m certain there were times when it felt like I had a 30-second brain….

    All of that is to say that I know my weaknesses and work to combat them. For example, I know I might be tempted to spend chunks of a paycheck that would be better off used toward debt or investing, so I automate a big portion of it
    Debt BLAG recently posted…Packing bulk lunches frugally as a single guyMy Profile

    • Automation is a great idea. Bipass your bank account and put the money directly into the 401k; that is the way to do it.

  9. Interesting… I don’t think long-term planning and the ability to fritter away something in the short term are mutually exclusive. With Zimbardo’s time perspectives, I am pretty much off the charts when it comes to future orientation, but as part of our desire to make sure we’re getting more productivity out of our moments in the present, Mr PoP and I are both trying out the Pomodoro time management technique which is focused on 25-30 minute bouts of focused energy. Gotta say, this is actually helping me a lot for very short term focus.
    Mrs PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…FPL On Call – Discounts On Our Utility BillMy Profile

    • Pomodoro eh? I’ll have to check this out.

      I don’t know how I did it, but in college I could study hardcore for 4-6 hours straight. Zero distractions. Now, not so much.

  10. I don’t know how accurate the 30 minute time-span is, but there have been quite a few studies as to why people make poor longterm choices regarding money. People interested in this might want to check out some of the works by behavioral economist Richard Thaler. His general take-away message seems to be that if you want people to make good decisions you should try to make it easy for them to do so, i.e. keep the marshmallows hidden in the cupboard instead of placing them in front of the five year old. That would seem to support the limbic system hypothesis.

  11. Who says the $5 Taco Bell box is a bad idea? Okay, it probably isn’t the best but actually rememinded me of a time I went out to lunch with some friends. We went out to a mexican restaurant and one of my friends wasn’t enjoying her meal. We asked what was wrong with it and her response was “I’m sorry but I’ve been spoiled by Taco Bell”. I wept a little inside hearing that.
    Micro recently posted…Marathon Training Schedule for BirminghamMy Profile

  13. I like the comments going back and forth here and appreciate everyone weighing in. While I love science and feel that we should back EVERYTHING up with it, I have to say that our brains have evolved past eating Big Macs. We really can do it. Just don’t buy it!

    I wish I’d thought about so many things before I did them, but I didn’t (or did and did them anyway – hello six pack instead of Psych 205 class!). So now I have to own them – good, bad, ugly. Once we own them, we can make changes going forward. When we blame genetics, bad parenting, etc., it’s akin to throwing our hands up in the air and saying, “I’m not sure how this brownie got on my plate, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to eat it. Yum yum!”
    Tammy R recently posted…How and When to Speak to a SquirrelMy Profile

    • I like the comments too!

      I still have a hankering for crap food every once in a while. I keep a bag of carrots around and start shoveling them in when I get bad urges.

      One thing I like to do is push my boundaries every once in a while. For example, I like a beer or two on the weekends. However, I’ve decided not to drink until Thanksgiving. I find these tests always have a positive effect on my psyche and I usually feel a little bit better about myself afterwards.

      • I like those kinds of tests too. I never used to do them. I’d just say, Frig it! Give me the damn brownie!

        Those little successes do go a long way in helping me see that I can take on challenges. Now, that said, I will not give into the bully in our neighborhood who wants us to take up running. I will get the squirrels to dig up his flowers!
        Tammy R recently posted…How and When to Speak to a SquirrelMy Profile

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  1. […] Perhaps the biggest reason that I blog is to learn from others. I may be preachy at times, but my real goal is to hear what others have to say and learn, learn, learn. I once heard a great quote from of all people, Marilyn Manson. Some asked him what he’d do if he wasn’t a rock star. His answer was something like this: ‘I’d be a teacher. I have a passion for learning and I’d like to impart this on others.’ This really stuck with me because I am the same way. I love to expand my brain. My blog is really one big funnel. The big part is directed to you and the small part is in my ear. Just yesterday, a reader directed me to a really neat article/professor. […]