You are not running out of time • Hacker News Board

Re: You are not running out of time

#131

Post by liquidcool » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 9:47 AM UTC

grellas wrote: post #49

In a sense, each of us lives our life in Titanic style, setting forth in the confident assumption that we are unsinkable and placing an unduly high value on our capacity to meet any challenge, panicking (or at least feeling a sense of stoic distress) at the mid-point as it first truly hits us that we are about to slam into the iceberg of inevitable aging and decline, sweating it out over a seemingly interminable peri…

For some reason, this reminds me of the Gerald Weinberg story about the optimist and the pessimist. While arguing about philosophy, the optimist cries, "This is the best of all possible worlds!" The pessimist just sighs and says, "You're right."

Re: You are not running out of time

#132

Post by michaelochurch » Fri, Jul 22, 2011, 1:24 AM UTC

dsmithn wrote: post #126

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…

I think you missed the point of the essay. You're comparing success to other people, just like Julius Caesar comparing himself to Alexander the Great. You're playing the game. If you want to climb the corporate ladder, you better enjoy every day working late nights, striving for great reviews, etc. Your title means only as much as you want it to. Life doesn't have to be a race to the top. Your Startup doesn't have to…

Interesting post, but no one enjoys the "struggles and stress of acquiring funding". Everyone I've talked to says its a degrading and consumptive process.

Re: You are not running out of time

#133

Post by yters » Sun, Jul 24, 2011, 11:47 PM UTC

pjscott wrote: post #78

yters wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll never live for ever due to entropy. Obey physics, it's the law!

I would happily settle for a few thousand years. Even a few hundred would be a major improvement over the grim darkness of the current wither-and-die-young system.

It's all a matter of what you do with the time. Back a couple hundred years ago our lifespans would be undreamed up, we're living roughly twice as long as your average medieval peasant. But it is still too short! I'm skeptical we'll ever have enough, given that we also live in the most affluent society in all of history yet we complain about not having enough.