Thinking about our future selves may help us make better decisions today
Q. The next time you’re trying to decide whether to work out or to watch your favorite game show, you might want to consult your future self. Explain, please. A. Thinking about Future You — for example, what you’ll be like in 10 years — may help you make better choices today about saving money or choosing a healthy lifestyle or even rejecting unethical behavior, says Dan Jones in “New Scientist” magazine. In one study, psychologist Hal Herschfield joined visual reality expert Jeremy Ballenson to bring people face to face with how they might look at age 70. “When asked to decide about current pension contributions, people who had met their virtual future selves saved more than twice as much, on average, than those shown pictures of their current selves.”
Then, too, getting to know your future self might make you a better person. Lacking a strong connection, people “are more tolerant of dubious business practices and show a greater willingness to lie and cheat.” Just being asked to consider the ways they think they’ll be the same person 10 years hence made them more critical of unethical behavior.
Concludes Jones: “So the next time you’re wrestling with a decision to save or splurge, or to hit the gym or slouch on the couch … think about Future You. They will thank you for it, eventually.”
Q. Calling all polyglots. What general theme do the following words have in common: “ohanami” (Japanese), “pretoogjes” (Dutch), “tarab” (Arabic), “morgenfrisk (Danish), “fernweh” (German)? A. They’re all “untranslatable words that describe pleasurable feelings we don’t have terms for in English,” says Katy Steinmetz in “Time” magazine. Tim Lomas, a senior lecturer in positive psychology at the University of E. London, England, has amassed nearly 1,000 words that serve as “invitations for people to experience happy phenomena that may previously have been ‘hidden from them’ or to revel in feelings they couldn’t previously name.”
Consider:
• “ohanami”: gathering together to appreciate flowers;
• “pretoogjes”: the twinkling eyes of someone engaged in benign mischief;
• “tarab”: musically induced ecstasy;
• “morgenfrisk”: satisfaction at getting a good night’s sleep,
• “fernweh”: a longing to travel to distant lands, a kind of homesickness for the unexplored. For more, search online for “positive lexicography.” Q. How are axis deer, wild boar, Asian carp, silver carp, European green crab, and lionfish all linked together? Clue: “If you can’t beat them, eat them.” A. Chefs nationwide are part of a growing movement to make invasive species palatable, says Jeff MacGregor and Daniel Fernandez in “Smithsonian” magazine. Imported to Hawaii in the 19th century, axis deer, for example, now number “more than 10,000 in Lanai alone, ravaging crops and pastureland.” Chef de cuisine Kemar Durfield at the Four Seasons Lanai offers pastrami, burgers and steaks from venison cuts, declaring “It’s a better venison, a unique meat . ... ” And at the Lonesome Dove restaurant in Texas, owner Tim Love serves boar ribs drenched in barbecue sauce or an untamed version for the more adventurous.
Have a taste for seafood instead? Head to the Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where chef Evan Mallett uses European green crab to enrich seafood stock and likes them fried: “It’s like eating crab popcorn.” Or stop by Fish in Sausalito, California, to sample silver carp, one of the Asian species ravaging U.S. waterways. Executive chef Douglas Bernstein serves crispy fish and chips, grilled tacos and steamed filets that are “so popular he had to find a new supplier to meet demand.”
At the annual Lionfish World Championship foodfest in Pensacola, Florida, chefs used the fish in fried battered nuggets, burgers and filets with cabbage slaw — tasty and very nutritious. Finally, Baton Rouge, Louisiana chef Phillippe Parola, a leader of the edible invasive movement, is marketing prepared fish cakes from Asian carp, now threatening to crowd out aquatic wildlife in 48 states. Says Parola, “Eating the problem is a great solution.”