Delayed gratification, virtue or waste?

We had our discussion yesterday of the grasshopper versus the ant.

Should one seize the day, enjoy life to the full, treat everyday as if it is the last day one will live?

Or should we save and accumulate our resources for when it can be better used at a future date?  when we may be in more need or have a better opportunity to deploy these resources?

Rafi the economist started off with the economic idea of the interest rate applied to future value of money which should be applicable to other things as well.  One simply have to evaluate whether delayed gratification leads to a better enjoyment at a later date.  If not, then it does not make any sense to delay.

Therefore, there is no point in saving the best for last if we get just as much enjoyment out of it now.

Mark pointed out that there is a special pleasure out of the anticipation of a delayed enjoyment. That this anticipation itself can intensify the enjoyment in the end as well as the time leading up to it.

There was also the mention that one's stage in life is important.  The years left in one's life should determine whether one should be a saver or spender........ if only we know how long we are going to live.

Mano mentioned that humans have the unique ability to project ourselves into the future to imagine what we would be like then.  That these images of the future provide impetus and motivation for us to think of what we should do in the near, medium, and long term.

To me, this is significant in that it points to the incompleteness of our planning process.  We are motivated by what we can imagine and visualize.  Often outside influences pop into our minds, making us realize possibilities we were not aware before.  Our motivations are constantly changing due to this constant bombardment from outside influence of possibilities.

Motivational speakers are experts at this.  They focus our attention on things we have not thought much off before, change our picture of the future, convince us that it is possible, and tell us to do it....right now!

So maybe the grasshopper is constantly under the influence of the next outside influence and do what comes to their mind that moment.   Whereas the ant is going by habit, doing what they are "suppose" to.

Neither sounds particularly attractive.

Knowing that the world is much much more than our mind's eye,  should we not then be constantly on the look out for the areas we are not aware off, do some of the things we feel worthy of doing today, and put some of our resources aside for those future adventures that we are not aware of at the moment?

Now the hard part, how much resources to put aside for this unlimited, unknown future versus the indulgence of the limited, and known present?

We cannot balance between two things when one of them is an unknown.

The best we can do is to keep the principle in mind and keep our mind and senses open for when parts of that unknown reveals itself to us.

What a wonderful world!