Yes, it's not actually a law, but a (perhaps cynical) heuristic. Possible interpretations: * People do not want to sound too optimistic but they hope to see so

Yes, it's not actually a law, but a (perhaps cynical) heuristic. Possible interpretations: * People do not want to sound too optimistic but they hope to see some improvements before they die; * People hope they are dead before someone proves them wrong; * People deal with temporal magnitudes in the order of the human lifespan and close multiples. The last one, and then the first, are my guesses.