Someone asked me to talk about the relationship between long-termism and human nature. Actually, anyone who encounters "negative" things will be affected; do not underestimate their power, and do not overestimate your willpower. Pornography, short videos, emotional venting, instant feedback—these are all designed to exploit human instincts. They can attract you, not because you are weak, but because you are normal. Many people treat a moment of losing control as a failure, and then start to blame themselves. But the real problem is often not that moment of losing control, but the abandonment after losing control. Long-termism has never required a person to never deviate from the track, but to be able to return to the track even after deviation.

Emotions will take the lead, desires will take the lead, laziness will take the lead. These are all parts of human nature. The important thing is not to eliminate them, but to learn to observe them, and then slowly bring yourself back to rationality. Read for a day, waste a day, then come back and continue reading; write for a week, break for three days, then come back and continue writing. As long as the direction doesn’t change, occasional fluctuations won’t ruin long-term accumulation.
What truly destroys long-termism is not a moment of indulgence, but the self-denial caused by a single indulgence. Long-termism is not a straight upward curve, but a trajectory that fluctuates, corrects itself repeatedly, but always moves forward.