The instant gratification of the easy answer.....

"But that isn’t what we want to hear. We want the instant gratification of an easy answer. We want to hear that character traits can be taught like algebra and geometry and that if you can resist eating a marshmallow at 4, you possess the secret to a successful life.  We want the world to be a big fluffy marshmallow, and we want to gobble it up. We want to eat the first marshmallow, but get the second one, too."
-As excerpted from this Michael Bourne essay found in the New York Times Magazine, in which he takes a closer look at the famous Walter Mischel  experiment with marshmallows, four year old's, and the choice of gratification - delayed, or not.  I loved this sentence:
"But science isn’t religion or philosophy; it’s science. And in this case, as remarkable as Mischel’s experiments were, our extrapolations from them leave plenty of room for skepticism."

thanks craig