Granny's rule.....................................

"Granny's Rule" provides another example of reward superpower, so extreme in its effects that it must be mentioned here.  You can successfully manipulate your own behavior with this rule, even if you are using as rewards items you already possess!  Indeed, consultant Ph.D. psychologists often urge business organizations to improve their reward systems by teaching executives to use "Granny's Rule" to govern their own daily behavior.  Granny's Rule, to be specific, is the requirement that children eat their carrots before they get desert.  And the business version requires that executives force themselves daily to first do their unpleasant and necessary tasks before rewarding themselves by proceeding to their pleasant tasks. Given reward superpower, this practice is nice and sound.  Moreover, the rule can also be used in the nonbusiness part of life.  The emphasis on daily use of this practice is not accidental.  The consultants well know, after the teaching of Skinner, the prompt rewards work best.
-Charles T. Munger, as excerpted from The Psychology of Human Misjudgment