How long do I have left?
To put things in order, to prioritise, to clear the decks, few things are more helpful than to look at the context.
The bigger one.
Zoom out, too zoom in.
What's the worse that could happen?
Author Oliver Burkeman offers Cosmic Insignificance Therapy, Tim Ferriss proposes it might be more useful to define your fears instead of your goals, and a quick YouTube browse offers an infinite supply of quick time-travel rides like this one.
It all got me wondering:
how long?do I have left?
I am told
something sprouted out of thin nothing
nearly 14 billion years ago
it took 11 more?
for unfathomable unknowns
to dance violently into materials of the strange
forming and deforming potential
to make a spinny thing
left with another 2 trillion spins at best?
life formed some peculiar creatures
some tiny, some huge
most perished
I am told
should my very first forebear
whisper in my ear today
they’d seem alien from the onset
and feel oddly familiar all the same
telling me a 250,000 year old tale?
of a very small family?
running round all of the time
I am told
I am 1 in 8 billion now
and I have about 4,000 weeks to go
I am a creature of habit
with up to 66 days to form one,
10,000 hours to crack it,
2,000 or so calories to fuel what’s good,
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10,000 steps to take each and every spin
the ultimate end?
will it be an asteroid?
will it be the old Sun?
will it be our fault?
an AI turned brighter?
might we save ourselves on Mars?
how long do I have left?
is not a question one should ever get to answer
people add things up?
to shake things up
pile it together?
to see it all anew
for seeing is what matters
eases making the most of each card dealt
and helps me stay out of tatters
The point is to be free to wonder and prioritise what matters most without worrying too much about it. “It is far more important to be imaginative?than to be right” said Alvin Toffler, author of the 1960's book, Future Shock.
My dear reader, I wish you a brave new imaginative 360 somethings spins.
Inspired by
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy/4 thousand weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Scary Smart by Mo Gawdat
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
Hans Rosling’s talk: Global population growth, box by box
Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything, Even Things that Seem Impossible Today by Jane McGonigal
10,000 Hours: You Become What You Practice by Phyllis Lane
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Will humans go extinct? by Nicholas R. Longrich