Starting at 16 years old I wrote a letter every birthday to my 30 year old self with ideas of who I want to become and how I ought to judge my success. I hoped when I turn 30 to open all of them up and realize how much I accomplished would be satisfying.
Through the project, I actually discovered two things. First, I estimated a rate of progress that exceeds the real possible magnitude of accomplishment by about two lifetimes. Second, that the storylines I want in my life and the opinions I have about them are stable across time, even if they are dormant for many years in a row. Whether this is the effect of personality or an ability to maintain memory beyond the capacity of attention I don’t know. But then again, maybe those are both the same thing.
Through the project, I actually discovered two things. First, I estimated a rate of progress that exceeds the real possible magnitude of accomplishment by about two lifetimes. Second, that the storylines I want in my life and the opinions I have about them are stable across time, even if they are dormant for many years in a row. Whether this is the effect of personality or an ability to maintain memory beyond the capacity of attention I don’t know. But then again, maybe those are both the same thing.