How to Be Patient in an Impatient World

Every introductory psychology class talks about this thing called “The Skinner Box.” It sounds like something out of a Saw movie, but it’s actually a famous psychological method from the golden days of research, back when pregnant women still drank and torturing rats for science was cool.

A Skinner Box works like this: A rat or some other unsuspecting small animal is placed in this box which has a lever and a little feeding bowl. The rat sniffs around the box, and not knowing what the hell is going on (o...