Bad Behavior Is Short-Term Thinking

Kunal Shah drops a philosophical bomb: "I believe all bad behavior in humans comes from being short-term, and being long-term is a big choice to make."

Think about your worst parenting moments. The screaming. The giving in. The screen time bribe. The skipped consequence. The avoidance of hard conversations.

All of them were short-term solutions. All of them felt necessary in the moment. All of them created a problem for future you.

And think about your best parenting moments. The patient explanation. The held boundary. The quality time when you were tired. The hard conversation you didn't want to have.

All long-term thinking. All harder in the moment. All building something better.

You're not a bad parent when you make short-term choices. You're human. But knowing that the pattern exists - that your worst moments are almost always about optimizing for NOW - gives you a chance to catch yourself.

The question isn't "what's easiest right now?" It's "what does the five-years-from-now parent want me to do?"