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Thank you for this comment! I'd like to add another detail, which is that people generally accept the idea that "deathbed perspective" is a highly privileged p
by z5h 5y ago
Thank you for this comment!
I'd like to add another detail, which is that people generally accept the idea that "deathbed perspective" is a highly privileged perspective, but with no real justification for this position. Here's a good article that questions this idea: https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-considered-so-valuable https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-consi...
- wnolens 5y agoI always thought it was kind of silly to live your life so that for 1 day at the end of 80 years, you have some pleasant thoughts (assuming you are know you will die and aren't absolutely in miserable pain anyway). I get that it's more a heuristic for living a good life. But life is so uncertain and your goals subject to change significantly every 5-10 years.
- BeetleB 5y agoYou don't need to wait till you're at your deathbed. You can do this assessment every 5-10 years. When you're past 40, you've lived quite a bit. You can look back and see what was worth it and what wasn't. For me, stuff I regretted wasting time on while younger (e.g. too many video games) bring back much better memories than doing things I (mistakenly) thought had more value. Quitting gaming in my early 20's was, in retrospect, not a great idea. But yeah, I agree with you somewhat. A lot of people who live to a fairly old age actually have said that if you live long enough, you'll realize that "nothing matters". So probably not best to put too much weight on their perspective.