Our Fickle Minds

By Daniel Miessler on August 1st, 2007: Tagged as Biology | Psychology

psych

I read news items by opening them in background Firefox tabs from Google Reader. I go through the feeds that I’m reading at the moment, open all that are interesting, and then close my reader app.

What’s interesting about this is that if I leave for a bit before reading my open tabs, something strange happens — none of the tabs are as interesting as they were when I clicked them. There’s a very specific reason for this. Our desire for an object is directly affected by whether or not we own it. This is the reason that you’ll watch Braveheart on TV (in lower quality — with commercials) even though you own it on DVD. It’s also why the girl you have is never as attractive as the girl you don’t.

The movie on TV is going off soon, and you aren’t in control of it so you feel compelled to watch. Similarly, the stories that you opened tabs for would have gone unread (gasp) had you not clicked on them. But once you own the DVD or already have the actual stories open, the content isn’t as interesting. It’s a mind game.

There’s not much we can do about this affliction as it’s likely deeply rooted in evolutionary biology. But we can at least be aware of it.:

  • http://robbycolvin.info/ Robby

    I am the same exact way. I usually star all of the stories that I’m interested in, and then I’ll go back later and see if I really want to read them. Most often I still want to, but there are many times where I wonder why I even starred it! My wife does the whole TV movie thing too…

  • http://robbycolvin.info Robby

    I am the same exact way. I usually star all of the stories that I’m interested in, and then I’ll go back later and see if I really want to read them. Most often I still want to, but there are many times where I wonder why I even starred it! My wife does the whole TV movie thing too…

  • http://kenswain.com/ Ken

    I have started applying GTD to reading RSS. So that means I copy the text to a plain text file that I then place in an inbox to be processed. I then decide how to deal with it.

  • http://kenswain.com Ken

    I have started applying GTD to reading RSS. So that means I copy the text to a plain text file that I then place in an inbox to be processed. I then decide how to deal with it.

  • http://www.suntornado.com/ Derek

    I dunno…I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the Braveheart analogy being made or even the general articulation hre. To me, this is more an issue of being less interested in that which you “own”. That is the basis of our innate desire to “conquer”. To put it in a more positive light, people tend to be less focused on things they have done and more focused on things they want to do :)

  • http://www.suntornado.com Derek

    I dunno…I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the Braveheart analogy being made or even the general articulation hre. To me, this is more an issue of being less interested in that which you “own”. That is the basis of our innate desire to “conquer”. To put it in a more positive light, people tend to be less focused on things they have done and more focused on things they want to do :)

  • http://slashback.org/ Tim F.

    Hell, usually by the time I’m done with Google Reader, I don’t remember clicking on half the stories I chose to read.

    I’ve also found a weird bug with google reader (maybe firefox)? that only occurs in windows. If I use ‘v’ to view a certain number of stories (changes pretty much every time I cleck my feeds), it works fine — page loads in a new tab in the background. At some point, though, reader decides I have a pop-up blocker and won’t let me use ‘v’ to open hits… instead I have to click the link with my mouse (which works properly, it’s just a pain in the butt).

  • http://slashback.org/ Tim F.

    Hell, usually by the time I’m done with Google Reader, I don’t remember clicking on half the stories I chose to read.

    I’ve also found a weird bug with google reader (maybe firefox)? that only occurs in windows. If I use ‘v’ to view a certain number of stories (changes pretty much every time I cleck my feeds), it works fine — page loads in a new tab in the background. At some point, though, reader decides I have a pop-up blocker and won’t let me use ‘v’ to open hits… instead I have to click the link with my mouse (which works properly, it’s just a pain in the butt).

  • http://www.twitter.com/mikonawa mikonawa

    Ah. This explains why I have this urge to buy new books while my previous purchases lie unread. Do you have a source for this, by the way? I could use another evolutionary psych book.

  • Mikonawa

    Ah. This explains why I have this urge to buy new books while my previous purchases lie unread. Do you have a source for this, by the way? I could use another evolutionary psych book.


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