Marshmallows

So marshmallows are disgusting, if you ask me. But let's just use them as a stand in for "something really appealing that is immediately available, but could be doubled if you resist enjoying it right away," as the famous Stanford scientists did. At my workplace, I am surrounded by people who probably all would have aced the marshmallow test. I am one of them, or would have been, as 5-year-old; delayed gratification, after all, is necessary for academic success in most cases.

After a brief conversation with one of the partners the other day about vacations and work, it hit me that in an environment that demands giving up as much short- and medium-term pleasure as a high-pressure wall street law firm or bank, the most successful people are not simply those who "pass" the test and gobble up the two marshmallows five minutes later:

    
No. The winners in this system are those who, after dutifully waiting to double their reward, would have hidden away the double dose of marshmallows in a secret place and locked them up...only to be found all shriveled up and inedible many years later. They are the uber-delayers.