Delayed Gratification

For the past few months I’ve been struggling with the principle of delayed gratification. Delayed gratification is the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. I believe I’ve been impressive with my impulse control. I have been dependable taking care of the right responsibilities. There is a point though where I can no longer delay gratification. I want what I want. I believe it’s become a need and I deserve a reward for being good. I think it‘s time to buy a new laptop.

I came across an interesting study that was done in the 1960’s by Stanford University psychology researcher Michael Mischel. His study demonstrated how important self-discipline is to success.

The study began with a group of children 4 years old. He optionally offered them one marshmallow immediately, but instead if they could wait for him to return later, they could have two marshmallows instead. He left for approximately 20 minutes. His theory? The children that could wait would demonstrate they had the ability to delay gratification and control impulse, both significant and important traits for attaining wealth and being financially successful. As you would expect, some children took one marshmallow, and other children decided to wait and received two later.

Fourteen years later, the simple study demonstrated the significant differences between the two groups of children. The children who delayed gratification and waited until Dr. Mischel’s return were more positive, persistent when faced with life difficulties, more self motivated and were able to delay immediate gratification in order to pursue their longer term goals.

The children who chose 1 marshmallow didn’t fare as well. They were more indecisive, mistrustful of others, less self confident and often more troubled in general. They were more obviously unable to delay immediate gratification.

Comparing the SAT scores of the 1 marshmallow students to the 2 marshmallow students showed that students that chose 1 marshmallow scored an average of 210 points lower than the 2 marshmallow students. Why? 2 marshmallow students are able to sacrifice immediate activity in the interest of more focused study time for a longer term benefit. The one marshmallow students were far more impulsive resulting in higher distraction and less focus on their school work. They fell for the old “Hey let’s go out, you can always study later“.

Lack of impulse control has proven to result in less successful marriages, low job satisfaction, bad health, overall frustration in life. All of these result in something that has significant negative impact on being wealthy: low income.

Responsibility

Everyone has responsibilities. Some are more important then others. It’s the choices that are made toward these responsibilities that determine a responsible or irresponsible person. It can be difficult being responsible in determining what are the right choices. I can pay rent or take care of a health problem. What’s the best or responsible choice in this situation? They both had to be and were done. Responsibility becomes the decision between want versus need. Taking care of the needs before the wants. 

The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the adult from the child. It's the great leap forward into maturity. Responsibility is the quality of the fully integrated, fully functioning human being. Responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization. It's the absolute minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life. 

Our great aim in life is to develop character. Character is composed of self-esteem, self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, and the willingness to accept full responsibility for our life and everything in it. The more we say to ourselves, "I am responsible," the stronger, better and finer a person we become. And every part of our life will improve at the same time.

Silver Bullet R.I.P.

My laptop is coming to its end. I've had trouble over the years, but lately it has gotten fatal. A couple weeks ago while working, the dreaded blue screen appeared telling me of a fatal error. I tried to shutdown and immediatelly restart which has worked in the past, this time it didn't. My hard drive was corrupted. I did backup a lot of the hard drive so it didn't hurt too much. What hurt me was I didn't get around to backing up my rails Trading Journal project I've been hacking. OUCH! I will also miss all my bookmarks of websites I discovered. I hope to discover them again. I got my laptop up and running a week later and was off to work again with a fresh start. A few days later my screen became choppy then went black. Silver has been in a coma since. I don't have a backup computer so I've been borrowing others to continue with my trading. I have not been able to do any hacking. It is time to get a new computer and a backup.

Before I roll out and buy a new laptop, I would like to know what happened to Silver and how long it will be before my new computers are affected and can I prevent it. My laptop was old which probably led to overworked and run down components. I must have caught a virus or two and been overrun with spyware. I have read that many lock-ups and blue-screens-of-death can be traced to insufficient power supplies, low quality RAM, and the like. Does that mean old components cannot handle new applications that continue to come out? Will I need a better Motherboard or Processor or whatever every year? So, if I have lock down security, update drivers and increase everything my computer should live forever.

My focus now is what kind of user am I. My computer is mostly for trading and software engineering. I search the web and watch online videos and shows. I also run multilpe applications at the same time. So what computer is best for me? What's the minimum? Do I want a Mac or PC? I am not familiar with the Mac. The PC doesn't offer XP anymore and I would have to switch to Vista. From what I checked, they both work with the software I download and use.

I'm probably over thinking it. I assume most computers these days bought off the shelf will contain everything I need. Now, I just gotta figure out what it is I need. Wish me luck!

Joined

I joined my first two groups of TechHui. The first group is UH ICS Students. This group is to focus on the needs of UH ICS undergraduate and graduate students. I like the idea of this group. Every student needs some type of support. Each student enters the program with different strengths and abilities. They are all at different levels when it comes to languages, programming, and understanding. The second group is UH ICS Mentors. This group is to bring together University of Hawaii ICS Alumni (and anyone else) interested in mentoring current UH ICS students. This group gives me a feeling of trepidation. Can I be a helpful mentor? Will I myself be able to answer the different type of programming questions? Have I advanced to that level of being a mentor? I just don’t want to be a detriment to a student. It’s probably fear and I need to get over it. I’m probably further along then I realize.

I like the idea of these two communities. It would have been nice to have them around and established when I entered the program. I came in unfamiliar with languages, programming, and how to understand it. The Professors and TA’s helped some but they were responsible for many students. I tried to find a professor to be an advisor and mentor to guide me through the ICS program but it didn’t work out that way. It took me a few tries to get through some classes and move on in the program. I didn’t grasp the information of what I was learning until I met Aaron and took ICS 413 and 414. I began pair programming and learned to think for myself and not rely on others to get me started. I discovered you learn by hacking and trial and error. It would have been extremely helpful to have this when I entered the program. That’s why these groups are good.

Hello World!

It works! I got the simple Hello World program to work. I don't receive anymore errors. I can now start hacking away at my Trading Journal project. The program wasn't connecting to the database. I upgraded to mysql 5 and got it running. It began working when I changed the database name in the yml file to a database name I created in mysql.

I'm learning Ruby and using the Rails framework. I'm using NetBeans IDE for the Ruby projects. Now its time to hack away and become familiar with the Ruby language and Rails application. I'm also gonna check on what more NetBeans can do with Ruby, Rails, and the database.

Positive Focus

Throughout the day, week, and month while living life do you remember the positive happenings or the negative ones. Have we been programmed by newspapers and the news who report more negative then positive stories as well as people around us that let us know more about our mistakes or something we've done wrong then our positives. At the end of the day, what do you remember more? I went to listen to a speaker who talked about positive focus. At the end of the day discuss with family the positive things that happened during the day. And of course, saying positive things to others can only help. I always try to be positive about everything but when asked to name three positive things that happened to me over the past 30 days, it took me a while. The three negative things that happened to me came quicker. So, let's focus on the positive.

Home of the Future

Disney has teamed up with Microsoft, HP, software provider Lifeware, and home builder Taylor Morrison to create an attraction featuring digital home technologies of the future. The home of the future is suppose to open this month at Disneyland in Tomorrowland. Disney’s new ‘smart’ house is set to look like a normal suburban home outside, but inside is set to feature cutting-edge hardware, software and touch-screen systems to simplify modern living. Lights and thermostats will automatically adjust when people walk into a room. Closets will help pick out the right dress for a party. Counters will be able to identify groceries set on them and make menu suggestions. The system will allow residents to transfer digital photos, videos and music among televisions and computers in different rooms at the click of a button. Other applications still in development could include touch-screen technology built into appliances, furniture and counter tops. The home will also feature new uses for devices that many people may already own, as well as technologies that are still five or 10 years down the road.

I find this fascinating. The technology that is here now and possible for the near future is exciting, knowing what is coming. But isn't this technology here and now. Is this the "Home of the Future" because we have to wait for the future before we can afford the technology to put in our home? Are there more futuristic ideas out there for the "Home of the Future" that can be thought of? No matter, I still like the idea of the technology.