Scientific Definition
The relative valuation we place on rewards now vs. later — and how steeply we discount.
Plain-English Definition
The relative valuation we place on rewards now vs. later — and how steeply we discount.
Feynman Explanation
A dollar tomorrow is worth less than a dollar today. By how much reveals the person.
Core Principle
The relative valuation we place on rewards now vs. later — and how steeply we discount.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
The relative valuation we place on rewards now vs. later — and how steeply we discount.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Capital allocation, R&D, and ESG decisions all bend under discounting.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
A dollar tomorrow is worth less than a dollar today. By how much reveals the person.
Examples
- Hyperbolic, not exponential, discounting in most real-world choices.
- Capital allocation, R&D, and ESG decisions all bend under discounting.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Make the discount rate explicit. Justify it.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Make the discount rate explicit. Justify it.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
How much we value the present over the future.
How vividly we connect to our future self predicts long-term decision quality.
Creative work needs blocks of hours; managerial work runs on 30-minute slices. They destroy each other when mixed.
A present-bias kink (β) on top of exponential discounting (δ): immediate rewards get a bonus, all future rewards trade normally.
Our decisions are influenced by when events occur or when we evaluate them.
Pre-allocate every hour to a category before the day starts.
Tad James's extension of NLP working with how the unconscious organizes past, present, and future spatially to release stuck emotion.
Small advantages, applied consistently, become uncatchable.
An automatic action triggered by a stable cue — built through repetition.
A single habit whose adoption cascades into many other behavior changes.
Where you can go is constrained by where you've been.
People preferentially process experience visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically. Match the channel; match the mind.