#or delayed [gratification's antonym]

[dustedmagazine]

Tapefeed — Anterograde (Houndstooth)

Photo by Laia Flynn

Anterograde is both an antonym of retrograde and a form of amnesia characterized by an inability to retain and absorb new information. Italian duo Alessandro Boni and Rick Vayo AKA Tapefeed flirt with this contradiction on their new EP. Holding a residency at forward-looking London club Fabric marks the pair as tastemakers who are also receptive to the entertainment needs of their audience. It’s a fine line that Tapefeed negotiate with some finesse. On Anterograde we are treated to a kind of greatest bits of hits from the mutating history of UK bass music. Boni and Vayo hurtle through a funhouse mirror hall, all refractions and reflections of what is and has been rather than a new way of seeing. It’s a well-constructed and dynamic set which mixes breakbeats, dubstep, garage and trance along with touches of anthemic big beat singalongs of the like unleashed by Underworld and The Prodigy.

The only snark here comes from the track titles. “Snakes In Suits” is all finely diced vocal samples hiccoughing over febrile hi-hats and a hollow kick drum playing against a repetitive synth motif. It’s a confusion of tempo that dares the well-dressed to sweat like the dancers on the floor. “The Chosen One” ties rave arpeggios to a leaden beat for five minutes of tauntingly delayed gratification. Tapefeed bring everything down at the midway point. “Morgana’s Dream” overlays airy synth pads with random bits of cosmic squelching and mechanical malfunction. It winks at Skam’s late 1990s esoteric melodic ambience—think Bola and Gescom for instance. “Superspreader” has the nagging, viral insistence of festival EDM, all stabbing synths, insinuating singalong vocal bits and pedal to metal beats designed to take full advantage of a crowd united by MDMA. Superdumb but supereffective. “Analog Monkey” doubles down on the euphoria, incorporating the kind of jump cut methods of Prefuse 73 and Luomo, whilst seemingly having a graceful dig at the format snobs of the world. 

More a keepsake of a grand night than a statement of artistic intent, Boni and Vayo navigate their way through all this with an enthusiasm, wit and concision that understands that sometimes you just want to let go and have some fun. Mission accomplished. 

Andrew Forell

[conceptsnest]

FOLLOW THROUGH BEHAVIOURS: THE AKRASIA EFFECT

A brief story: 

In the summer of 1830, Victor Hugo was facing an impossible deadline. Twelve months earlier, the French author had promised his publisher a new book. But instead of writing, he spent that year pursuing other projects, entertaining guests, and delaying his work. Frustrated, Hugo’s publisher responded by setting a deadline less than six months away. The book had to be finished by February 1831. Hugo concocted a strange plan to beat his procrastination. He collected all his clothes and asked an assistant to lock them away in a large chest. He was left with nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking any suitable clothing to go outdoors, he remained in his study and wrote furiously during the fall and winter of 1830. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published two weeks early on January 14, 1831.

Procrastination is usually a “yes” or “no” question”

For more conventional instances, consider addictive behaviour patterns or compulsive traits like over-shopping and blowing the budget, or manic media use; maybe even something like starting an argument one “knows” one will regret and that will lead to trouble or grief.

Having an explanation seems good because it suggests some kind of intervention based on that knowledge, but in some cases, it just doesn’t work. Yet we still feel the hypnotic pull toward explanations, even if the terms being explained are just accepted in a very uncritical way. 

When we make a decision to do something or not, our brain usually has a “gut instinct” answer of yes or no, before the words even come out of the mouth. We consider what benefit it has first, and then what benefit it may have for another person. Then we consider other criteria like time, strength, and effort it will take before we actually decide what it is we are going to do. This all happens in a split second before we commit, and the answer comes out of the mouth.

Often, procrastination occurs when you have decided to complete a task, but you keep postponing until later without consciously choosing to do it then. Not all procrastination is bad procrastination. There are two types of procrastinators- active and passive.

Active procrastination involves making a deliberate decision to procrastinate, to use the pressure of acting under a deadline as motivation to complete a task. This form of procrastination leads to positive outcomes, since it helps people be more efficient while they work.

Passive procrastination involves procrastinating due to an inability to act in a timely manner. In short, putting off one task merely because your lazy or cannot make up the mind to do it because of some of the other distraction.

Though you may be convinced by this that you are an active procrastinator the truth is most of us are actually passive procrastinators. We delay our work just because we can and with no justifiable reason.

Maybe it is better to try to “own” the behaviour rather than blaming externals. So, it is not necessarily a useless idea. The concept of Akrasia is a sort of promise the executive self makes to itself about self-control and autonomy. And it is also the basis for promises one makes to other people about accountability, or rather, explanations for the occasional breakdown and exception.

The Ancient Problem of Akrasia

Human beings have been procrastinating for centuries. Even prolific artists like Victor Hugo are not immune to the distractions of daily life. The problem is so timeless, in fact, that ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle developed a word to describe this type of behaviour: Akrasia.

Human behaviour is complex, and we interpret through a network of concepts which themselves are cultural and philosophical constructs. If the typical definition of “akrasia” is “weakness of will”, then what is will? If will is some vaguely defined power of “mind”, then what is mind? If mind is an active presence within “self”, then what is self? … and so on.

Akrasia is the state of acting against your better judgment. It is when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. Loosely translated, you could say that akrasia is procrastination or a lack of self-control. Akrasia is what prevents you from following through on what you set out to do. Why would Victor Hugo commit to writing a book and then put it off for over a year? Why do we make plans, set deadlines, and commit to goals, but then fail to follow through on them?

Also, akrasia is loss of self-control, in the sense of action contrary to reason. In akrasia, there is an ingrained habit in an individual, of the non-rational elements of the soul subverting the rational capacities. Action is usually guided in a range of ways by reason. So akrasia is interesting because it involves a departure from a norm. Why We Make Plans, But Don't Take Action

One explanation for why akrasia rules our lives and procrastination pulls us in has to do with a behavioural economics term called “time inconsistency.” Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of the human brain to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards. When we make plans for ourself — like setting a goal to lose weight or write a book or learn a language — we are actually making plans for our future self. We are envisioning what we want our life to be like in the future and when we think about the future it is easy for our brain to see the value in taking actions with long-term benefits.

When the time comes to make a decision, however, we are no longer making a choice for our future self. Now we are in the moment and our brain is thinking about the present self. And researchers have discovered that the present self really likes instant gratification, not long-term payoff. This is one reason why we might go to bed feeling motivated to make a change in our life, but when we wake up, we find ourselves falling into old patterns. Our brain values long-term benefits when they are in the future, but it values immediate gratification when it comes to the present moment. This is one reason why the ability to delay gratification is such a great predictor of success in life. Understanding how to resist the pull of instant gratification—at least occasionally, if not consistently—can help you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

The Framework You Need to Beat Procrastination

Here are three ways to overcome akrasia, beat procrastination, and follow through on what we set out to do. Strategy 1: Design your future actions. When Victor Hugo locked his clothes away so he could focus on writing, he was creating what psychologists refer to as a “commitment device.” A commitment device is a choice we make in the present that controls our actions in the future. It is a way to lock in future behaviour, bind us to good habits, and restrict us from bad ones. There are many ways to create a commitment device. We can:

1)      . . . reduce overeating by purchasing food in individual packages rather than in bulk size.

2)      . . . voluntarily ask to be added to the banned list at casinos and online poker sites to prevent future gambling sprees.

3)      . . . athletes who have to “make weight” for a competition have been heard to leave their wallets at home during the week before weigh-in so they won’t be tempted to buy fast food.

The circumstances differ, but the message is the same: commitment devices can help us design our future actions. The goal is to find ways to automate our behaviour beforehand rather than relying on willpower in the moment. 

Strategy 2: Reduce the friction of starting. The guilt and frustration of procrastinating is usually worse than the pain of doing the work. In the words of Eliezer Yudkowsky, “On a moment-to-moment basis, being in the middle of doing the work is usually less painful than being in the middle of procrastinating.” So why do we still procrastinate? Because it is not being in the work that is hard, it's starting the work. The friction that prevents us from acting is usually centred around starting the behaviour. Once we begin, it is often less painful to do the work. This is why it is often more important to build the habit of getting started when we are beginning a new behaviour than it is to worry about whether or not we are successful at the new habit. We have to constantly reduce the size of our habits. Put all of the effort and energy into building a ritual and make it as easy as possible to get started. Do not worry about the results until the art of showing up is mastered. Strategy 3: Utilize implementation intentions. An implementation intention is when we state your intention to implement a particular behaviour at a specific time in the future. For example, “I will exercise for at least 30 minutes on [DATE] in [PLACE] at [TIME].” There are hundreds of successful studies showing how implementation intentions positively impact everything from exercise habits to flu shots. It seems simple to say that scheduling things ahead of time can make a difference, but implementation intentions can make us 2x to 3x more likely to perform an action in the future. Fighting Akrasia Our brains prefer instant rewards to long-term payoffs. It is simply a consequence of how our minds work. Given this tendency, we often must resort to crazy strategies to get things done—like Victor Hugo locking up all of his clothes so he could write a book. But it is sometimes worth to spend time building these commitment devices if our goals are important to us. Aristotle coined the term Enkrateia as the antonym of Akrasia. While akrasia refers to our tendency to fall victim to procrastination, Enkrateia means to be “in power over oneself.” Designing your future actions, reducing the friction of starting good behaviours, and using implementation intentions are simple steps that you can take to make it easier to live a life of Enkrateia rather than one of Akrasia. **Source Credits: The book-  Atomic Habits by James Clear. 

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa.

[frwdmvmnt]

11:20PM PST, TWENTY-FOURTH POST: HOPE

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and that the new year has brought about new goals and continued progress. I know I sound like a Hallmark card sometimes, but it's really how I feel. I really do HOPE that every single person on this planet will set some goals and work toward them. I HOPE that every living person will evolve in some way.

hope

The word "hope" is used so often, that I think the true meaning or effect of it is sometimes lost. I was reading my devotion book and it talked about the meaning of hope; to wait expectantly. Yesterday, I went to our connect group meeting in San Francisco and so many members of our church family showed up and able to receive the message alongside me. Kelly talked about HOPE and she discussed it in a way that mirrored what I read earlier this week; waiting in anticipation of God's movement in our lives.

why wait?

I grew up in the time when the internet was still evolving. During my high school days, the internet boom happened really quickly, but it didn't happen overnight. People whose success stemmed from internet-based products or services had to put their HOPES in something that wasn't guaranteed. They had to believe that, in time, what they worked for would prove fruitful. How often does life present each and every one of us with opportunities to wait? I admit that I don't always like to wait. However, waiting has brought more gratification than being impatient ever has.

instant gratification

Now that the internet is so fast, it appears everything else has followed suit. We can get access to a ton of information or a sea of options for whatever we want in just a few seconds. These days, you can order a product from Amazon with your Amazon Prime account and receive it on the same day you placed the order! Isn't that amazing?! Not always, friends. I don't believe it's always a good thing to live in such a fast-paced, no-wait-needed way. Sure, it's convenient, especially when you tack a ton of onto your to-do lists on the regular; time is of the essence and you can't get things done if you're stuck on item number two for a more than what you planned for. We do a lot. We plan a lot. We want a lot. We work a lot. We wish a lot. We just don't wait a lot.

time

The thing I stress about most is TIME. It's a gift and a curse. I think it helps motivate me when I feel lazy, but it certainly takes years off my life when it consumes my energy and drives me nuts. I am guilty of packing a thousand things onto my to-do list for the day. I love to-do lists; checking things off makes me feel so accomplished. However, I don't always feel so full at the end of those jam-packed days. Sure, I feel productive. Do I feel like my soul is smiling? I admit that I often do, but it is NOT because of my to-do list or the number of things I checked off.

... because God.

My soul smiles because whether I do one thing or ten things on that list, GOD LOVES ME ENOUGH TO GIVE ME THE TIME TO DO WHATEVER IS IN MY HEART. God is my reason; my motivation; my relief. I can write down five or ten or two things on a paper and convince myself that they are the most important things to do that day. I can wake up motivated to do this thing or that thing; go to this place; talk to this person; complete this task. However, God will dictate what and when and how because I'm on HIS time; working HIS to-do list.

that's me.

Not everyone will understand me or relate to what I'm saying. I'm fine with that because my words are not meant to convince anyone that what I believe is true. My words are meant to be shared so that IF they resonate with you, they did so in an organic fashion. Even if you don't believe in God, I'm sure you can believe in the reality of your own life. Do you stress about time? Do you stress about your "to-do" list? Do you stress at all? If you said yes to any of those questions, you can relate to what I'm saying. How you deal with that stuff is your experience and it is real because it's your life; your truth.

just wait

I've mentioned it before and I will say it again: I've shied away from sharing suggestions on how you can do life. Your life is yours; I don't believe in "should" when speaking to others. I used to give people advice and it usually sounded something like, "you should probably (fill in the blank)." Well, friends, you should probably ignore me LOL I'm not in your shoes! I'm not you! I don't know every detail of your lives; what the consequences are for your decisions or how they'll affect you. Even if I knew any or all of that, I am not the person to LIVE with the reality that comes with decision-making; that results from doing and being and feeling and saying and moving. All I know is that I've tried different methods in life; I've taken advice and applied it to myself, just to see what would happen. I've learned that the best thing I can do is WAIT until I am at peace with what I choose. I may make a choice that, for someone else, is horrible. That's okay! It's a good thing that someone else isn't living with my consequences.

Am I right?

I'm a dreamer-doer; that is a person who dreams and, eventually, does. Dreamers dream; doers do. Dreamer-doers drift between the two, sometimes hanging out on one side for longer than they hang out on the other. There are [special] times when I'm balanced; I spend the same amount of time dreaming about something that I spend doing that something. Those times are so great! I've actually experienced most of them within the last few years. What's changed? My relationship with God, which led to a change in my relationship with myself. I would dream of being something. Then I would pray about it. Then I would wait a while. Eventually, I would just do it. Sometimes, I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I felt at peace moving forward kind of blindly. It has all worked out.

blind faith

I spent a great deal of time just doing, but not quite dreaming before the actions were carried out. I was kind of random, though, eventually, it always worked. I just experienced more frustration in those times. I'd wonder, "why isn't this working?!" Well, how many times do we actually create something great without being intentional about it? There are people in the world who make decisions off a whim and find huge success or happiness. Those people are blessed! I haven't interviewed every person in the world, so I won't make a blanket statement and say that everyone acts on plans they at least slightly considered at some point in their lives. However, I can say that all of the people I have interacted with and have had the pleasure of learning more about are doing things they enjoy and find success in because they made a conscious decision to move in that direction somewhere along their own path.

forward movement

Momentum takes us far, but we can't go anywhere unless we start moving. We can set a goal and we can create a to-do list, but if we aren't taking steps to start, we will never get to the finish line. I've had conversations with people who don't believe in hope. Fine. We won't call it hope. I've seen people include the hashtag, "fuckhope," on their posts. Okay, we can do that, too. Those same people reference timing and patience. Don't those terms correlate directly to waiting? When you wait for something, isn't it attached to an expectation or a desire?

according to Google...

hope/noun 1. a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; a person or thing that may help or save someone; grounds for believing that something good may happen. synonyms: aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, goal, plans. antonyms: pessimism. 2. archaic a feeling of trust hope/verb 1. want something to happen or be the case; intend if possible to do something. synonyms: anticipate, aim, intend, expect, want.

circle back

So, this "fuckhope" movement.. what is that? Is it like saying, "I don't need to wish, I'm just going to do..." or something to that effect? I don't know, friends. It sounds like you're assigning a different name to the same concept. You may not want to CALL something a wish or a hope, but you're working toward goals and ideas that aren't reality until you make them happen. The question may not be "will this happen?" so much as it is "how will I make this happen?" and in that case, the case can be made that you aren't solely relying on hope, but I do still recognize a level of expectation; a want or desire. I also recognize that there are plans made for that expectation to be met. Typically plans are based on timelines and timelines require patience.

Google to the rescue...

patience/noun 1. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. synonyms: forbearance, tolerance, restraint. delay/noun 1. a period of time by which something is late or postponed. synonyms: holdup, wait, detainment.

wait

In 1989, a study called "Delay of Gratification in Children" was completed. It states, "To function effectively, individuals must voluntarily postpone immediate gratification and persist in goal-oriented behavior for the sake of later outcomes," (Mischel, Walter; Shoda Yuichi; Rodriguez, Monica L. Science; May 26, 1989; 244, 4907, Research Library pg. 933). Psychologist, Walter Mischel, conducted an experiment with a group of pre-school aged children that tested their ability to control their impulses in an effort to receive a greater reward. To do this, he placed a cookie in front of each individual child and told them they could eat it, but if they waited a bit for him to complete an errand and return, he would bring a second cookie. If the child didn't wait, he or she would only be able to have the first cookie. For the most part, each child ate the first cookie almost immediately after he left the room. The few who waited went on to be more successful in their studies and careers, while the children who acted on their impulses went on to have more behavioral issues and had higher rates of incarceration. Click here to read the full study.

extreme example?

I don't think so. By the time we become adults, we've developed behavioral patterns and thought processes that are pretty automatic. It takes more time and effort to change what we know to be true than it does to learn something new. I believe we're each taller, older versions of our small, toddler/adolescent selves. So, if you couldn't wait when you were younger, how easy is it for you to wait now? If you can't wait for something, are you able to hope for anything? How often do you shift gears or pursue a new plan? I encourage you to answer that question in your own space; do so honestly and consider what prompts the redirection.

hope

Expectation is connected to accountability and execution is a direct result of the level of accountability you own. If you don't aim for something, then whatever you achieve on the way is random. Random isn't bad; it works for some people. However, when you live and breathe intentionally, it's hard to be random. When you own who you are and what you desire, almost nothing is random. Things fall into place when you make decisions and take action. Movement happens when you take action and momentum keeps you going once you've started moving.

My hope is that God will heal my soul of the doubt I carried with me as a young girl. My expectation is that I will let go of the shame I've held onto for the all the "dumb" decision I made in my life; of the pain I've buried because I didn't want to "be weak" or vulnerable; of the hate I felt toward myself for hurting others when I busy only worrying about my own desires. I aim to be free of my past and, in letting go and healing, my physical self will follow. I know 2017 will produce change, as I am experiencing a slight shift each day. I'm certain that the small efforts I make each day will accumulate and result in large leaps forward. My intention is to reach a space where I am completely harmonious and at peace with the who's and where's and how's of my world. I'm doing pretty good so far.

I pray that each of you also reach the places you strive to be. I pray that you become the people you want to be; are proud to be; are at peace with. I declare that your hopes will manifest twists and turns that are produce growth; that lead to happiness and love. You are what you believe. Life flows in the direction of your thoughts and you're responsible for the choices you make; thoughts, words, actions. Go out and be great.

God bless you, friends.

Peace/Love/Growth

——

E