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The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second best is now. In some years you’ll be 40. Time passes whether you use it or not. Try to use it. The h

• deltron3030 6y ago
  >The hard part is realizing when it’s time to become a beginner (because you’ve stopped growing) and try something new. You know it's time when you look back at things you did years ago and find them still pretty stunning. The future within that discipline can only hold different variations of that feeling. The only way to change this is by branching out and come back with fresh perspectives.
• paulpauper 6y ago
  no, it would be 9 years ago, 8 years ago, etc. That is my favorite rebuttal to that overused quote
  • sethammons 6y ago
    Reminds me of, “war is not the answer.” It really depends on the question! “What is a three letter word for...”
• hotcrossbunny 6y ago
  -> In some years you'll be 40 ...noting value for "some" may not necessarily be positive
  • Swizec 6y ago
    Yep, 10 years ago I wouldve used “30”. It’s a useful mindset at any age. You aren’t done until you say you’re done.
    • bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
      The original quote is 20 years so seems like there is agreement!
• thrwaway1412 6y ago
  With respect, speak for yourself. :) I fully plan on having a last enjoying a bottle of something tequila and then promptly hanging myself off an tree in a nice quiet grove somewhere before then. Gotten everything I set out to do done in this life, so at this point I'm still around by the time 40 rolls around, then something has gone really awry.
  • hombre_fatal 6y ago
    I remember when I was 19 and 40 sounded depressingly old and impossibly far away. I assume you're around the same age.
    • thrwaway1412 6y ago
      35, actually. I've got a mild form of arthritis in the hands that makes working with them for more then an hour or two unpleasant. Something is wrong with my left knee that makes physical exertion painful. Walking is okay but it really doesn't take a whole lot to make it painful enough that I have to sit down for 4 or 5 hours to recover. Something else wrong in the chest that makes breathing uncomfortable most days; like I was lying down and like fully grown St Bernard is sitting on of me. Occasionally feels like God taking a long thin ice pick and just jabbing it slowly through the ribs. I can manage most of it with aspirin and alcohol but obviously that brings with it a slew of it's own risks. Add in deteriorating eyesight, constant fights with insomnia that leave me tired most day, and teeth that are wearing away fast enough that it's scaring my dentist. It's not that 40 sounds depressingly old. It's that I'm already old and now getting older. It's been a good life mind you, and I've gotten everything that I was supposed to out of it; university degree and a job. There's little else that I care enough about to make me want to stay beyond for what I have to.
• borroka 6y ago
  "The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second best is now." - I have many problems with this often-repeated sentence. The best time was 10 years and maybe right now is a terrible time to do it and the good times passed and it is much better to move on.