In one of my university philosophy classes the professor was talking about someone who espoused the theory that we have a limited amount of willpower we can really exercise before we get too tired to stop ourselves from making impulsive decisions (this sounds silly since it’s obviously true, but philosophy is all about people spending years figuring out things that everyone else already knows). Anyway, he said that you should try to take actions that limit the temptation you face.
An example he gave was that if you get a sandwich with a bunch of fries and you think you probably shouldn’t eat them all, realize that if you just sit there you will probably eventually eat them all, because the work of not eating one more fry is going to overwhelm you. So instead, immediately smear mayo on half the fries.
A friend of mine put his hand up:
Friend: “You know that some people put mayo on fries intentionally as a condiment, right?”
Prof: [stunned for a moment] “Well I think he was assuming we’d all descended from the trees!”
