In this book, Walter Mischel distils more than 50 years of research into a single narrative about self-control centred around the marshmallow test. Over the course of the book he discusses nature and nurture, commitment and planning, hot and cold thinking, present bias and psychological distance, and other topics in the context of the famous test were discipline is so important.

I enjoyed the book and the different topics covered, but can’t help but feel that Mischel does himself a disservice by only paying passing reference to the role of context and the environment in the amount of self-control that is shown in the test, especially in more recent replications. Recommended reading on self-control, but please check out the latest papers on the topic too.