[cont.]So what is instant gratification?Well, any kind of satisfaction that is delivered immediately as we want it.You've probably heard of the Marshmallow Experiment, so I'll spare you the details and just sum it up nicely. Basically it goes, "baby in empty room of no entertainment or distractions, told to wait in front of table that has 1 marshmallow, if baby waits for 15 minutes he gets 2 marshmallow, if he eats it in the first 15 minutes that's all he gets." This was done on a number of babies, and later when the babies grew up, the ones with greater self-control are more successful and happy than the ones with little self-control.B-but we're talking about nofap, not making babies! Dafuq does eating marshmallow, those soft, squishy, sweetly pleasantly melting marshmallow, have to do with porn and masturbation?Just wait a little and I'll tie it all up nicely for you, you impatient baby.You've probably noticed that the longer you wait before getting the gratification, the greater the reward you get. This is true for various facets of life, and this is true even when the reward is seemingly the same. Suppose the baby badly wants the marshmallow, and only manages to hold out for 14 minutes 59 seconds (and suppose that the researchers are real assholes who like to keep perfect count), when he does reach out to eat it he would enjoy it much more than if he had put it in its mouth at first sighting.We, as human adults, are in many senses not much different from a baby having to wait for his marshmallow. Especially when we fail to wait, which is most of the time.Well, it's just a little gratification, so if I want it now, I get it now. What's so bad about it?The individual instance of an instant gratification isn't bad. Sometimes it would be perfectly fine to follow your desire and grab that beer and pizza instead of spending time in the kitchen. Sometimes it would be perfectly fine to drink up. Get that second bar of chocolate.[cont.]