The usual story is that we are careless calculators. The better story is that we are careful about the wrong things. The measure that matters is not what people say about patience but what they do when nobody is scoring. Ask most people why they did what they did and they will give you a reason; ask them again a week later and the reason will have quietly changed. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder.
The cost of being right
Every one of us runs the same shortcut, and every one of us believes we are the exception. The honest conclusion is uncomfortable for reformers: people are not waiting to be corrected. Consider the last biscuit. It is a small thing, and small things are where habits live. Institutions know all this, of course, which is why the last biscuit is so rarely left to chance.
