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You are not running out of time

rahulbijlani.com

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Re: You are not running out of time

#111

Post by jodrellblank »

bad_user wrote: post #98
pjscott wrote: 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…

Advocates of immortality are completely oblivious to the social challenges this will bring.

Not oblivious to them, but social challenges are so much more fixable than being dead that it should be a no-brainer.

Re: You are not running out of time

#112

Post by dasil003 »

orangecat wrote: post #106
dasil003 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Forest for the trees.

Let me put it this way: Octocentarians clinging to life and hoarding resources to themselves would be a tremendously ugly thing in my eyes.

Re: You are not running out of time

#113

Post by eavc »

michaelochurch wrote: post #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 starte…

Great comment.

As a 27-year-old who has had several false-starts in my career, I'm already feeling some of that pain.

It strikes me that, since there are some important elements of human personality that can change over time, there are some 'geniuses' that blossom later or who are late to really get going for some reason.

This might be a point worth reflecting on for hiring in competitive fields. You could find some A+ candidates that have slipped through the cracks.

Re: You are not running out of time

#114

Post by [deleted] »

mmatants wrote: post #6

I generally agree with the sentiment, but it seems like the author never really shed the dependence on having an arbitrary material goal. I think a more Zen-like direction is to just apply the "friend in a pub" test - if you can describe your motivations and actions to an (intelligent) peer and have them nod in approval, then that's it. And yes, there are many such choices, which is the whole point - it doesn't reall…

[deleted]

Re: You are not running out of time

#115

Post by samspot »

Let's not get mixed up by calling it the "Game", the right term is the "Rat Race". Comparing ourselves to others excessively is the highway to unhappiness. The secret to the rat race is that you can never win... as the author says, the goalposts keep moving. There is always someone richer, someone more recognized, someone happier.

Do your best at the things you enjoy doing, and make time for the things that are really important you.

Who would have thought a key secret to happiness is found in the 10 commandments: "Thou shall not covet"

Re: You are not running out of time

#116

Post by dkrich »

michaelochurch wrote: post #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 starte…

Good points, but I disagree. Mark Zuckerberg is the exception, and not the rule. People were founding and running businesses long before Facebook, at much older ages, which is why Facebook is such an incredible story in the first place.

I do agree that his lore is almost entirely due to his age, and that VC's would have had a harder time investing in a social network that was intended for college audiences were the founder well out of college. However, that is something that I think is limited to social networks, and not more common, dare I say, relevant businesses.

Whatever your age, calm down, enjoy your life, and realize that we humans suck at predicting. Do what makes you happy and ignore the outside pressures.

Re: You are not running out of time

#117

Post by bad_user »

jodrellblank wrote: post #111
bad_user wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Advocates of immortality are completely oblivious to the social challenges this will bring. Not oblivious to them, but social challenges are so much more fixable than being dead that it should be a no-brainer.

Personally I think fixing death problems is only a matter of technological progress.

And in general technological problems are much easier than social ones as social problems sometimes do not admit technological fixes ;)

With the problem I outlined above, modifying humans to not feel the need for children would make us much less human than replacing our body parts with pieces made from silicon.

It is easy imagining living a 1000 happy years, but would you experience happiness at all if you were less human? And I am aware that happiness could be faked, but then what incentive would you have for living a good life and accomplishing stuff instead of living like a vegetable, as many drug addicts are doing?

And if you can't be happy, since that's the ultimate goal of everybody, than what's the point to all this?

In my humble opinion, cheating death is the easy part.

Re: You are not running out of time

#118

Post by bergie »

michaelochurch wrote: post #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 starte…

On the other hand, if you're bootstrapping your startup, then age may be a benefit. Especially in B2B sales are easier when you're not regarded as a "kid".

And obviously VP at 50 doesn't matter when you have your own company.

Re: You are not running out of time

#119

Post by orangecat »

dasil003 wrote: post #112
orangecat wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Forest for the trees. Let me put it this way: Octocentarians clinging to life and hoarding resources to themselves would be a tremendously ugly thing in my eyes.

clinging to life

Curse those doctors and cancer researchers.

hoarding resources to themselves

The economy is not zero-sum. If we cure aging, 80 year olds will be producing goods and services of value rather than living off welfare.

Re: You are not running out of time

#120

Post by chipsy »

eavc wrote: post #113
michaelochurch wrote: post #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 starte…

Great comment. As a 27-year-old who has had several false-starts in my career, I'm already feeling some of that pain. It strikes me that, since there are some important elements of human personality that can change over time, there are some 'geniuses' that blossom later or who are late to really get going for some reason. This might be a point worth reflecting on for hiring in competitive fields. You could find some…

26 years old today. Definitely reflecting on this. I recall once reading that there are two kinds of breakthrough successes - younger "rockstar" successes driven by narrow, intense passion, and older "masters" who have accumulated an unmatched breadth and depth of experience. While I can see elements of both in myself, I can see the door for the first closing rapidly.
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