There are two versions of you: the experiencing self and the remembering self. If you only pleasure the experiencing self then you make lots of short term decisions e.g. it's the experiencing self who enjoys the cake, but the remembering self gets almost no benefit from it. Worse, they have to deal with the consequences of the extra calories.

I'd convinced myself that there were things I didn't like so I wouldn't do them anymore, like travelling for long holidays. But after hearing this idea I realised sometimes the pain and inconvenience of being away from home, and being stressed by travel is a temporary pain for the experiencing self. The remembering self however gets lifelong benefit.

I use this model to analyse the cost/benefit to each persona which helps make better long term choices.