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You are not running out of time

rahulbijlani.com

101–110 of 133 posts

Re: You are not running out of time

#101
Yes and no.

The good news: if you're in your 20s now, you have 60 or 70 years of life left, and scientific advances being what they are, they'll probably be mostly good years. That's a lot of time. Also, the common trope about poets and mathematicians peaking at 20 is the exception, not the rule, and doesn't apply to modern times anyway (mathematics is so specialized that modern mathematicians are just getting started at 25-30). The actual cognitive peak is somewhere around 50, and the drop-off after that is health-related rather than hard-coded, so if you stay healthy, even into your 80s the decline will be slight to nonexistent. Using vocabulary as an example, you probably won't gain many words from 50 to 80, but if you're healthy, you won't lose many either. So yes, if you're 25 or even 50, you have a hell of a lot of time left.

The bad news: society is incredibly ageist, and as you get older, the amount you need to have achieved in order to be taken seriously ratchets up. Do you think Mark Zuckerberg (who is as much a VC invention as most celebrities are Hollywood inventions) would have gotten the support, mentoring, and funding that he did if he were 36 instead of 20? Almost impossible. Being young is a hard-to-tap (if you're not perceived as being exceptional, you'll be typecast as a "young pup" and not taken seriously) but extremely powerful asset in business: the "boy wonder" archetype. Perhaps it's utterly moronic that it works, but it is very powerful when it hits.

This is even worse in the big-box corporate world than in technology, where your age and job title define who you are as a person. In big-box corporate, VP at 35 means you're serious, whereas VP at 50 is a consolation prize. This is why people in that world bump their college degrees up 5 years and pay for plastic surgery, the latter being an investment that pays itself off immensely. It's not just that people want to appear younger; it's that they benefit immensely by the appearance of being in their current position at a younger age.

So, you are running out of time, not because of biology, but because of the general shallowness of most people. At age 40, you have one-fifth as many options as you did at 22. It sucks, but that's the way the world works now.

Re: You are not running out of time

#102
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed the author's point. The article wasn't about gaining more (or infinite) time. It was about maximizing your joy in life by living in such a way that you can be proud of your accomplishments without being overwhelmed by the need to continually out-do yourself or others. How long you live is completely irrelevant to that point. And if you are not enjoying your life because you're feeling so pressed an…

If reasonattlm is right, it may be worthwhile for me to work my tail off and sacrifice peace of mind in the short term in order to live forever in the long term. So what he says is somewhat relevant.

You're assuming "working your tail off" has something to do with becoming rich. I've seen little evidence to that effect and a great deal that contradicts is.

No one worked harder then the miners and few died poorer.

Re: You are not running out of time

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll have to explain a little harder how the great suffering currently afflicting hundreds of millions of people due to aging is both beautiful and good for them. Or the hundred thousand people who died from aging in the past 24 hours: was it good for them as individuals? How about their families and companions? In short, I don't think you've thought your position through particularly carefully.

Children only come into their own after their parents have left the picture, however it is that happens. Can you imagine being a part of the younger generation when immortality is discovered or extended longevity? Would jobs ever open up, or promotions be available? Nobody will retire at the top, so there will be extremely little turnover. How can the young hope to surpass the old if the old hold all the keys and nev…

Evolutionary explanation for the origin of aging: we age because the world changes.

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/03/we-age-because-th...

And the fundamental mechanisms of aging got their start in single celled life, very early on.

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2005/02/aubrey-de-grey-5....

None of which is a good reason for suffering aging when we could do something about it: it's just the mechanistic explanation for what is.

Re: You are not running out of time

#105
Ah, the game of life, where nobody ever ends up alive. What a stupid game to play, yet we all play it betting all our hopes on being the only winner this time. Thank god I got my loaded dice somebody sold me in a dark alley for a kidney. My turn to roll...

Re: You are not running out of time

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey reasonattlm, I just read through your comment history and it looks like every single comment is about life extension. While I sorely hope that your optimism turns out to be warranted, I also hope that you're living and enjoying your life today, on the off-chance that it's not.

I hope his optimism is unwarranted. While I certainly would have a hard time turning down the opportunity to live longer, I don't think greatly extending peoples lives will be good for the individuals, society or the planet. Life and death is a beautiful cycle; not something to be defeated due an overwhelming fear of death.

Life and death is a beautiful cycle

Octogenarians wasting away in nursing homes unable to feed themselves or remember their children is the polar opposite of "beautiful".

Re: You are not running out of time

#107
post #50

It's hard not to compare with your peers, colleagues, and classmates. I was a year into my first job as a developer before being laid off and am now planning my next steps. At 23 this sounds fairly ridiculous but the feeling of running out of time weighs heavily on my mind. Here's what I'm struggling through. 1. Following the steps of alumnus a tried and true path seems to be going back to grad school for a masters d…

I don't have the answer to your problems but here's a friendly reminder that your life is not defined by an illustrious career or the size of a bank account, unless that is your personal choice. Richard L. Evans said it best:

"May we never let the things we can’t have, or don’t have, or shouldn’t have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness, let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot or should not have."

Re: You are not running out of time

#108
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would only rich people get to live longer? Advanced technology has tended to get cheaper over time, often dramatically. I'm not saying that things wouldn't be scary and tumultuous for a while, but the alternative is to slowly sicken and decay into oblivion before you've had even a single century of life. This should not be a tough decision!

Advanced technology has tended to get cheaper over time, often dramatically That's because as far as technology in the software industry goes, the bottleneck has been our own knowledge. That's why space travel to inhabitable planets is nothing more than an utopia right now, because for achieving the speed of light we need efficient fuel that can power a space-ship for several years. As far as this problem goes, our k…

Let me humbly suggest this video: http://vimeo.com/17513355

Re: You are not running out of time

#109
post #56
post #7

> what do I want to see grow? What do I want to build? The problem is that in the vast majority of cases, unless you managed to build something successful by the time you die, then your work will die with you and nobody will care. The article makes the tempting assumption that progress is monotonic, and that the work that you do will eventually find its use. I don't think this is right -- the vast majority of stuff e…

I like this quote by Isaac Newton "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Sums up the futility and the selfish enjoyment of a life of intellectual pursuit for me.

I read it as saying that throughout his life, he continued to experience child-like wonder at the richness of the world, and is trying to be humble about the size of his contribution to history. YMMV.

Re: You are not running out of time

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children only come into their own after their parents have left the picture, however it is that happens. Can you imagine being a part of the younger generation when immortality is discovered or extended longevity? Would jobs ever open up, or promotions be available? Nobody will retire at the top, so there will be extremely little turnover. How can the young hope to surpass the old if the old hold all the keys and nev…

Evolutionary explanation for the origin of aging: we age because the world changes. http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/03/we-age-because-th... And the fundamental mechanisms of aging got their start in single celled life, very early on. http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2005/02/aubrey-de-grey-5.... None of which is a good reason for suffering aging when we could do something about it: it's just the mechanistic…

Interesting articles, sure, but I wish you'd addressed societal and generational impact (you can skip overpopulation concerns).

Sure, we age because the world changes, but in case you haven't noticed, the rate of change in the human world is accelerating. It strikes me as a bad idea to bet on trends that are on a collision course by their very nature. Maybe there is a way to reconcile extreme longevity with human society, but if there is, I sure haven't heard it or found it on that website.

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