Definitely eat the cake.

Some studies from this year on the ‘marshmallow test’ have made some interesting finds.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/african-farmers-kids-conquer-marshmallow-test

It seems that your decision to defer gratification is largely determined by your upbringing. Whether you eat the marshmallow depends on the culture that you live in and the mentality that you inherit from your parents. If it is not the fault of the test subject for their impatience, then we probably shouldn’t criticize them (ie. call them mindless) when they eat the treat.

I’ve found myself frustrated with some of the readings for many of the same reasons. Even at the college level, not every student is there because they want to be. And for those who aren’t, even if they are “constantly learning,” it’s going to be a miserable experience.

It would definitely be interesting to encounter material in this course that directly confronts totally miserable students. Because that’s a reality instructors face every day. A lot of this advice will work for your average college student, even somewhat surprisingly and counter-intuitively. That is great. But for other students, it might come across as glib, insubstantial or a bit hack-y.

Also, quite a lot of students are dealing with serious psychological and psychosocial problems. This is an epidemic on college campuses: depression, anxiety, substance abuse problems, eating disorders, girlfriend/boyfriend abuse…. anyone who’s taught, even just one class, has had a student in this situation. In all likelihood we didn’t know about it, and it affected their schoolwork. On the note of teaching to unreceptive and miserable students, I’d be interested in learning tactics that worked with this without having to explicitly address it. Maybe it’s too taboo to start teaching with the assumption that some kids are psychologically impaired, but it would actually be much more representative of the reality we deal with as college instructors. It’s going to be complicated to develop pedagogical tools with this in mind but the benefits could be enormous.

That was a great post — and hey, what’s wrong with being philosophical? Some of us are *studying philosophy*… ?

So to your philosophical post, a philosophical reply: one’s ability to delay gratification could be thought of as a measure of mindfulness. Impulsiveness, the constant pursuit of stimulation, and self-indulgent behavior all rise when we’re not fully aware of the way we’re feeling, thinking, and comprehending the world. On the other hand, I think PhD students are generally already aware of serious self-discipline. Constantly denying one’s immediate desire is not mindfulness, it’s a rigid program, and can become as habitual as frequent impulsivity. I think the most mindful way to live is to acknowledge your impulses fully as they arise, don’t necessarily delay gratification, but trust your mind enough to know when to eat the dessert now and when to hold out for two.

Honestly, if I’m going to eat a dessert, I would probably just do it in the moment. Two isn’t always better than one. Immediacy seems like it would be part of the fun of this, and knowing that you only have that one dessert, for that one ephemeral moment, might make it all the sweeter.

Oh, whoops, that was me… (Emma)… I admin the upcoming ASPECT conference website and posted from that account accidentally. Sorry!

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This is definitely an interesting post to me, since I do research on AI ethics, especially regarding the difference between human and robotic intelligence. Certainly mindlessness and roboticism as defined by Wikipedia have something in common! Encouraging creativity and originality will help keep humans separate from the robots, I think… but you have to start somewhere. Being too open-ended can actually be quite scary, especially for new college students. (I’ve learned this teaching an intro-level humanities course here at VT). Some of it depends on your background: if students are used to being told what to do, in an overly “open” environment they may fall deeper into mindlessness, since they don’t know how to trust themselves or articulate their original thoughts in a way that feels appropriate for academia. Others glide into this more naturally. For this reason, I think it’s important to get to know your students before trying anything too open or experimental.

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The reason of being mindless in a class may be the students do not believe this class is important to him/her instead of being lazy. Some classes are required for a degree for some historical reason and the syllabus are outdated. Adjust the syllabus and it’s possible that the students can get more engaged.

I would eat one dessert because I do not need the second dessert.
With being mindful in one’s mind may not lead to that ultimate state of mindfulness. But I think you can get a better chance if you can keep the goal in your mind rather than go with the chance.

What a happy situation! I am smiling just imagining the situation with a nice dessert made by a chef. I will definitely try to wait an hour even though I am not sure if I can resist the temptation. (Am I allowed to stay outside not seeing the one dessert in the room?) Personally, I found that I became mindful when a reward is given like the two dessert. For example, I was really motivated for working on my project last summer because it was not only a school project. I submitted that to a design competition, which pays me cash prize if I won. The result will be announced in December, and I am not sure if I can get the prize or not. But, I gained a great experience of submitting a project for a famous competition thanks to the great cash prize. Afterwards, I am trying to define the emotional or realistic rewards of my study before learning something to give me a motivation ?

Your title is poetic, five fingers and five paragraphs~! And for me or for many foreigners who take TOEFL test, the five paragraph essay would be automaton similar to the high school writing you talked about. When I studied TOEFL, many students used to memorize a template to finish their five paragraph timed writing. So, it was funny that most writings by Korean students tended to start and end with same sentences:) Now, I see English writing is not just a five paragraph essay always start with “these days” and end with “In conclusion, I believe that~.” I would like to get out of the conventional expressions, but also I am afraid of making an error or unclarity if I try to do that, because English is not my first language.

Hahaha, I am happy that she likes Korean culture as a Korean. This might be helpful for giving your grand daughter a motivation to study (?): a term “hot brain” is popular in Korea, which means a celebrity who is smart as well. Some TV shows invite idol stars graduated from famous universities, and have them solve a problem or discuss social and cultural issues. This phenomenon created a new trend among teenagers to yearn for wisdom, and think about our society in depth.