31–40 of 156 posts
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Deathbeds are where people have maximum experience and low incentive to lie. Nothing magical. Louis XIV saying "I loved war too much" on his deathbed gives a perspective to his life achievements.
There is plenty of incentive to lie on your deathbed. A lot of people spend their entire lives worrying about how they’ll be remembered.
For a: - "I should have done X" (regret because X wasn't followed) there are probably as many: - "I should not have done X" (regret because X was followed and made things shit) Even the "should not have worked as hard" would be most likely balanced with others saying: "should not have been as slack or loose at work, and did something important, made some legacy" In the end, nothing really matters, and the perspective…
I am more and more getting irked by the "should not have worked so hard" crowd, or to be more precise, the ones that go "just quit and go backpacking". Great if you're young, wealthy and have a good social safety net (read: rich parents), not so much for the other 99% of the population. I tried it once, going out of my comfort zone to do the backpacking thing, but it just wasn't for me. I'm not very social, have trou…
My brother did the same thing and like you did not enjoy it. He thought it was too boring without another person. I havnt dont it but I'm very comfortable with really limited social contact and live in my own thoughts. If I had two good knees I'd likely take some type of break to try it out.
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> As usual, immortality is the solution. I’m not sure if you’re joking or not but many people are not when they say this. Immortality is impossible in this universe given known physics. The use of the word is at best equivocation and a rather desperate self-delusion. Even if we ignore physics the probability of dying by murder or suicide trend towards 1. All of us are contingent and will eventually face our death.
Nothing in physics says it is impossible. The current theory in thermodynamics is that the general arrow of entropy applied to biology is decreasing internal entropy (of the cell or lifeform) at the expense of higher external entropy. Are you prepared to bet on this?
We have a bit of time to worry about that if we manage to get rid of aging though, I'll give you that !
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe
Eh, as someone with a degree in philosophy, it’s this sort of overanalysis that has led to the field’s sidelining. The so-called folk wisdom stated by the dying might not be logically rigorous, but it’s a perspective that we would do well to remember. Being trite or simple doesn’t make something wrong. My own personal theory is that the deathbed perspective is quite similar to the childhood one: without the constrain…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Deathbeds are where people have maximum experience and low incentive to lie. Nothing magical. Louis XIV saying "I loved war too much" on his deathbed gives a perspective to his life achievements.
People lie. On their deathbeds with the sense of impending finality they will do their damndest to come up with anything at all to feel better. Lie to God (I'll convert! I'll be a better person!), lie to their spouse (I was always faithful, and always loved you!), lie to themselves (It's not that bad! I'll live.) Pack any situation with emotion and adrenaline, you'll get world-class mental gymnastics. Look at the exc…
Made sure to say what I wanted to kids, (best I could). Reached out to ones that I wanted to.
The experience definitely changes perspective. Spending time with loved ones is far more important. Work is far less, except when I need a break from loved ones.
I really stopped giving any sort of sh*t what anyone thought. So I’m much less afraid to call it like I see it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People lie. On their deathbeds with the sense of impending finality they will do their damndest to come up with anything at all to feel better. Lie to God (I'll convert! I'll be a better person!), lie to their spouse (I was always faithful, and always loved you!), lie to themselves (It's not that bad! I'll live.) Pack any situation with emotion and adrenaline, you'll get world-class mental gymnastics. Look at the exc…
People lie as in "some people lie". That sounds like a narcissist what you are describing there.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Deathbeds are where people have maximum experience and low incentive to lie. Nothing magical. Louis XIV saying "I loved war too much" on his deathbed gives a perspective to his life achievements.
There is plenty of incentive to lie on your deathbed. A lot of people spend their entire lives worrying about how they’ll be remembered.
Most people's usual incentives lead to them optimizing for the short-to-medium term future, i.e. the next couple of months or years.
People on their deathbed will optimize either for the extremely short term (finishing this conversation) or the extremely long term (the last chance to affect how they'll be remembered).
This suggests that if people lie on their death bed, they'll lie in different ways than ordinarily. Even if you can't take deathbed statements as unvarnished truth, their differences from everyday statements can be revealing.
It shouldn't be overlooked that we tend to romanticize the dying process, probably for our own mental health. Your last words likely won't be wise, witty, or even coherent. A good account from a medical professional on what the end stage of life actually looks like can be found here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/07/17/who-by-very-slow-decay... I was particularly struck by the following comment from one of the read…
> Your last words likely won't be wise, witty, or even coherent. I don't remember the last words my dad said before he passed. We had some irrelevant chitchat about my daily life, and I got him something to drink or similar. But as I left that evening and we said good night, he reached out and we shook hands, something we almost never did. And in that moment, the few seconds as we shook hands in silence and just look…