My only issue with this, is that the kids may all be four, but they are not all the same age. Some may be four turning five, and others may have just turned four. It sounds like there are quite a few variables.

I was tickled when I heard the idea of "rhyming events." Because, if they are so, than that makes life... poetry.

It's clear that life is some variable confluence of "fate" and will (which itself is influenced by other forces). And will power isn't the ONLY psychological factor that affects outcomes (and also the diversity that can enrich a society). Certainly an interesting peek into an age-old topic.

It is reported that self-control can be taught through delay of gratification.

I wonder, as some hinted, what were the environment of these children. I am willing to bet children whose parents taught their children to behave and to be patients are the ones who waited longer to take that marshmallow... I also believe that this self control is not hard-wired is the study trying to imply. It does say, however, that this is an indication of the child may have issues in the future. If the parents now this, they may be able to turn arround that...

I don't think it's right to claim that one is "screwed" for having a lower-paying job and/or IQ.

Perhaps part of the problem with today's society is we think everyone needs to have a professional job, thus there are negative connotations with any other occupation (e.g. garbage men, mailmen, maids, food service, etc.).

The rest of the study should be focused on how they are raised prior that. Kids are smart and know how to get what they want and have strategies to acheive. My theory is that how a child is raised determines how well a child progresses through the cognitive phases prior to 14. If parents give in to their kids demands easily a child doesn't learn coping strategies. I believe it is likely that this is just hitting home the importance of good parenting. I feel this is more important than good education.

Re the hotel room shared by two generations over a wide time span, (and many other important things tpeople don't talk about because they don't want to be considered insane; one thing I like about yr program), check out C. G. Jung's concept of Synchronicity. i.e. meaningful coincidence. And read his interior memoir, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", great book that deals with much of what you did on this program and much much more and more profoundly. No, he wasn't anti-semitic, wrote and drew The Red Book, shown at the Rubin Museum. He saw Europe awash in a sea of blood predicting the two world wars, for example.

And according to Buddhism there is no
inherently existent "self". We and all things coexist interdependently. ("dependent arising"), so the idea that ten thousand things could influence a person, is an under estimation. Everything affects everything else. In Hinduism, Indra's Net, in which all reflects all, as in drops of rain in an infinite spider web. Similar or same things happen simultaneously w/o temporal spatial connection. As Va. Woolf, Joyce, and Einstein coming up with similar ideas simultaneously. The upshot: Things are MUCH weirder than we think. That's a main part of your beat and why I love your program!

April In Manhattan

Disappointed that it was given as fact that Wayne Gretzky at 2 years old loved ice hockey because he cried at the end of games he'd been watching on evening TV. As a mother, I would bet that more likely he cried at the end of the evening program because he knew that now he had to go to bed!

Re: Auster's comments at the beginning: Didn't we already go over this with the Stochasticity episode? The F over middle C and apartment stories seem really meaningful until you consider all the coincidences that fail to happen throughout our lives. Auster's a fantastic writer, but perhaps he should stick to fiction.