Time Preference

This is perhaps one of the most important concepts I’ve come across. It is called the concept of time preference.

I was first introduced to this concept in the Bitcoin Standard written by Saifedean Ammous.

So what is time preference?

Time preference is simply a person’s preference for actions that feel good now versus actions that will make you feel good 10 years from now.

High time preference = “I want to feel good now.”

Low time preference = “This may not feel good now, but I will thank myself for this a few years from now.”

High time preference habits:

• Spending on materialistic goods.
• Smoking.
• Alcohol consumption.
• Tattoos.
• Spending hours surfing the web/social media.
• Working as a wage slave.
• Watching television.
• Putting large amounts of energy into politics.
• Watching pornography.

Low time preference habits:

• Saving/Investing.
• Exercise.
• Writing/producing content to help others.
• Eating healthy foods.
• Building a business/working for yourself.
• Reading a book.
• Putting large amount of energy into building a skill.
• Fulfilling hobbies.

All time is a seed. This is the belief I have tried to instill in myself to become a more low time preference man.

Each Day, hour, minute, and second is a seed that you can either plant in this now moment to reap the rewards at a later date OR you can feel good now and let the seed go to waste forever. 

Of course we will all let some seeds go to waste, this is not a success porn blog. Rest can be a low time preference habit too.

Strive to become a low time preference man. It can be the difference between “Where did the time go?” and “I made the most of this past decade.”

We are already 1 year into this new decade, just thought I’d offer a little reminder heading into the new year.

Talk to you soon brothers.