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You were younger. Every door you opened was a seemingly infinite road in to a wondrous future. Everything existed only in the realm of possibility and promise f

You were younger. Every door you opened was a seemingly infinite road in to a wondrous future. Everything existed only in the realm of possibility and promise for you back then. Now more of your life has passed and a larger proportion of who and what you are is already behind you, fixed and unchangeable. So now your view of the future is that it short, too short, and only getting shorter. Now every door that opens is a potential waste of time and energy, which are now finite and precious resources. The cost-benefit equation changes over the span of your life. The relative value of things changes. Back then, you would spend any amount of time, just to pass the time on something, anything vaguely interesting really. But now, you would spend any resource just to have more time in which to idly do things. But how can you just idly do things? Soon you will be dust, and the things you have done are who you will have been. You can ignore that as an immortal teenager, but as each decade passes, the spectre of your own mortality looms larger. Anyway, you probably wanted more concrete answers. But for me, I try to just tap in to that cosy nostalgic feeling where I don't feel like I have to achieve anything, and just find something I can lose myself in to, with no purpose but to pass the time as if time were an infinite resource, there to be wasted. I think, perhaps, you may be getting a glimmer of that feeling from the audiobook, but your sadness about how far away that time is, is taking you out of the moment? Or maybe you just have something else going on in your life, like a soul-crushing job or something like that, and that needs to be dealt with first... Some time and space for reflection might be called for.

1996 6y ago
> Anyway, you probably wanted more concrete answers. That's the best answer! > Back then, you would spend any amount of time, just to pass the time on something, anything vaguely interesting really. But now, you would spend any resource just to have more time in which to idly do things. But how can you just idly do things? Soon you will be dust, and the things you have done are who you will have been. You can ignore that as an immortal teenager, but as each decade passes, the spectre of your own mortality looms larger. To get this spirit back, one needs to break free of routines and constraints. When you are post scarcity, resources and time matter far less. You are free to fiddle with stuff for fun!
batmaniam 6y ago
This is a really well-expressed comment. I actually felt it. You should write a novel, lol. Life priorities change, and it's precisely due to time commitments, as you said. I wish more people at my age understood that. Tech time is infinite, you can dedicate a lifetime to it and not be done (look at Stallman). Personally, I've found that while I enjoyed some of it for personal interest, most of it was dictated by corporations. That mobile app you wanted to make? Gotta deal with Apple's $90 yearly developer fee and have a mac to deploy (or deal with ugly expo). Work wants you to learn a new framework? Okay, do it but we've got a deadline in two weeks, so hurry up and learn it after work. Want a pay bump because you got lowballed and found out a newgrad was making the same as you with 5 yrs of experience under your belt? Study leetcode only to be lowballed by another company or have an even worse work-life culture. I've found personal connections have always been a source of happiness to me; to this day I've fond memories of people I've been friends with since middle school, and I expect to have them when I die. Tech isn't everything, and with the way things are going, can be detrimental to your mental and physical health. Live like a Stallman/Carmack if it suits you, but most importantly, focus on you and your happiness! Time is a limited resource. Most people understand it more as they age (like me), but if you are one of the lucky ones who understood this early, I think you can make the most out of life!
onecommentman 6y ago
“a larger proportion of who and what you are is already behind you, fixed and unchangeable” Nothing that actually exists for you today is fixed. Nothing is unchangeable. Your quote and my statements, as for all great truths, are equally true. I’d recommend living the truth of my statements over yours, because it is less constraining and less likely to lead to Depression. The big D, much worse than the big C since it steals your life immediately and directly. “the spectre of your own mortality looms larger”. That is just an idea. Your actual death doesn’t exist, for you. You can’t show it to me now. You won’t be able to show it to me after your death. And you won’t be who you think you are now at the moment of death, so you can’t show it to me then. Your own death to you is a mere idea. I don’t recommend becoming obsessed with it. See “the big D” above. “Some time and space for reflection might be called for.” A very “heady” approach. There is also meditation, prayer, singing, loving, reveling in the beauties around us and within us, or just planting a few seeds and watching them grow. Painting, sculpting, building a deck, helping a neighbor, hugging your child. Dancing with your mop or broom. Knitting a small car out of steel wool. Sometimes getting out of your head and gaining a much-needed distance from your many thoughts is the better thing. We don’t know where the original poster is coming from, so I decided to throw out some more options. Your approach for yourself is a “flow”-based approach with some observing (which could be misinterpreted as thinking) elements. The entire catastrophe of human existence is a lot broader than that...we have a lot more doors we can open.

1996 6y ago

> Anyway, you probably wanted more concrete answers. That's the best answer! > Back then, you would spend any amount of time, just to pass the time on something, anything vaguely interesting really. But now, you would spend any resource just to have more time in which to idly do things. But how can you just idly do things? Soon you will be dust, and the things you have done are who you will have been. You can ignore that as an immortal teenager, but as each decade passes, the spectre of your own mortality looms larger. To get this spirit back, one needs to break free of routines and constraints. When you are post scarcity, resources and time matter far less. You are free to fiddle with stuff for fun!

batmaniam 6y ago

This is a really well-expressed comment. I actually felt it. You should write a novel, lol. Life priorities change, and it's precisely due to time commitments, as you said. I wish more people at my age understood that. Tech time is infinite, you can dedicate a lifetime to it and not be done (look at Stallman). Personally, I've found that while I enjoyed some of it for personal interest, most of it was dictated by corporations. That mobile app you wanted to make? Gotta deal with Apple's $90 yearly developer fee and have a mac to deploy (or deal with ugly expo). Work wants you to learn a new framework? Okay, do it but we've got a deadline in two weeks, so hurry up and learn it after work. Want a pay bump because you got lowballed and found out a newgrad was making the same as you with 5 yrs of experience under your belt? Study leetcode only to be lowballed by another company or have an even worse work-life culture. I've found personal connections have always been a source of happiness to me; to this day I've fond memories of people I've been friends with since middle school, and I expect to have them when I die. Tech isn't everything, and with the way things are going, can be detrimental to your mental and physical health. Live like a Stallman/Carmack if it suits you, but most importantly, focus on you and your happiness! Time is a limited resource. Most people understand it more as they age (like me), but if you are one of the lucky ones who understood this early, I think you can make the most out of life!

onecommentman 6y ago

“a larger proportion of who and what you are is already behind you, fixed and unchangeable” Nothing that actually exists for you today is fixed. Nothing is unchangeable. Your quote and my statements, as for all great truths, are equally true. I’d recommend living the truth of my statements over yours, because it is less constraining and less likely to lead to Depression. The big D, much worse than the big C since it steals your life immediately and directly. “the spectre of your own mortality looms larger”. That is just an idea. Your actual death doesn’t exist, for you. You can’t show it to me now. You won’t be able to show it to me after your death. And you won’t be who you think you are now at the moment of death, so you can’t show it to me then. Your own death to you is a mere idea. I don’t recommend becoming obsessed with it. See “the big D” above. “Some time and space for reflection might be called for.” A very “heady” approach. There is also meditation, prayer, singing, loving, reveling in the beauties around us and within us, or just planting a few seeds and watching them grow. Painting, sculpting, building a deck, helping a neighbor, hugging your child. Dancing with your mop or broom. Knitting a small car out of steel wool. Sometimes getting out of your head and gaining a much-needed distance from your many thoughts is the better thing. We don’t know where the original poster is coming from, so I decided to throw out some more options. Your approach for yourself is a “flow”-based approach with some observing (which could be misinterpreted as thinking) elements. The entire catastrophe of human existence is a lot broader than that...we have a lot more doors we can open.