turkish cat and marshmallow

Saw a Substack note about a Turkish cat who will not eat the first sardine if you promise to bring more.

Screenshot of a Substack note by Claire Polders: a tabby cat sitting on a stone surface, staring at a sardine in front of it. Caption: "If you don't eat the sardine and are patient, I will give you three sardines later."

The famous sardine test.

Naturally, I started to question whether I would have failed the marshmallow test as a kid.

I’m pretty gluttonous. It’s been a topic of conflict. But I would not have failed the test. Because rules. I would have known what the expected correct answer was, and would have suppressed my hunger. But these days...

I think I would consciously fail the test. Chose to eat the marshmallow now.

After all, the three marshmallows are not a given. People are forgetful. And they don’t care that you tried not to eat this one because of what they said they would do if you don’t. I will take the sure thing.

Sometimes that’s the actual right answer.