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Want a cool expression to toss out at a dinner party the next time you find yourself in such a socially-elite situation? I’ve got one for you.
It’s called “inter-temporal discounting.”
Sounds cool, right? I bet you’re already interested.
But what is it?
Simple: it’s a term describing the tendency of people to value current costs and benefits more than those that occur in the future. I learned about it here.
This has insanely relevant implications for the entire world. Consider:
Phrased another way: humans are mostly immediate creatures. That’s why we get obsessed with products, because we can buy them, unwrap them, and there’s an immediate satisfaction from that. In reality, your brain isn’t necessarily buying the product, it’s buying the experience that will come from the product.
Most people don’t actually realize that, though.
If you work for a place like, say, Coca-Cola … marketing is comparatively easy. There are handful of approaches to telling the story, but in general, a soda can fill an immediate need (thirst) for most people.
