Knowing is less than half the battle

How to close the gap between knowing and doing

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that knowing what you need to do is
not enough. It also takes smart planning to make progress

(00:24):
toward your goals. Psychologist Laurie Santos and philosopher and cognitive
scientist Tamar Jindler have written about what they call the
Gi Joe fallacy. Listeners of a certain age may be
able to guess what this is. Each episode of the
nineteen eighties cartoon Gi Joe ended with a public service

(00:47):
announcement providing a tip for making good choices, things like
don't give a stranger your address or don't tell anyone
you're home alone. Now I know, the informed child would say,
and knowing is half the battle, the PSA would conclude.
It turns out Gijo is wrong. According to these experts,

(01:07):
in a lot of domains, knowing is actually less than
half the battle. Hence the fallacy. Knowledge alone isn't enough
to make good choices. We are more influenced by the
situation and our habits and emotions. I think if you
think about it, this will seem pretty clear. Most people

(01:27):
know that to lose weight. We are supposed to eat
well in exercise, but that doesn't mean we do it.
We know that we are supposed to save for a
rainy day or for retirement. I don't think a lot
of people didn't know that saving money was a good thing.
It's just that in the moment, there are often other
things to spend money on. Knowing is part of the battle,

(01:50):
but probably not half of it. Instead, we can set
ourselves up for success by shaping our environments. If you
don't want to drink alcohol, don't have it in the house.
If you don't want to eat junk food, don't keep
it around. Stock your pantry with healthy snacks so they're
right in front of you. If you want to spend

(02:11):
less time on social media, delete the social media apps
from your phone. If you want to save money, create
an automatic transfer from your paycheck to your investment accounts
so you never even see the cash. You might also
try making a plan. You may intend not to drink
at a party because you know you have a big

(02:32):
workout planned in the morning, but if you don't have
a plan for what you'll say when someone offers you
a glass of wine. Knowing that you will feel better
if you don't drink. Isn't going to be enough? Instead,
maybe you decide in advance that you will say, Oh,
I'd love a Seltzer, let me go glab that the
gido fallacy confirms what we have probably realized from experience,

(02:55):
knowing what we need to do isn't enough, It isn't
how the battle. Instead, we are wise to also shape
our environment, build habits, and plan to set ourselves up
for success. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

(03:16):
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

(03:43):
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