The Value of the Past

Savings allows us to lower our time preference. Instead of living for right now, we start planning a little more for tomorrow, making plans, pursuing dreams and taking steps toward our goals. Doing so requires a good deal of introspection and strategizing. What do I want? How do I get it?

We find ourselves thinking a lot more because accomplishing worthwhile goals is not easy. In thinking about the future we find ourselves drawn to the past, that is, things that have lasted, the evergreen stuff. Instead of amusing ourselves with content, we look for more substantive fare.

The obvious reason to study the past is to find what's worked. We want to know how to get something we want, so we look for effective strategies. But less obviously, we also study the past to find out what's worth doing. There have been lots of men and women with different goals. Which dreams inspire? Which pursuits fit your personality and skills?

The pop content is a lot more pointless in that regard. They amuse, entertain and even inform, but any motivation is manipulative and political. To look at the past, and the stuff that's lasted is to find the evergreen goals and desires.

High time preference content ages like milk. It's only ever mentioned for ridicule. But low time preference content is evergreen and those are what we are drawn to as we lower our time preference.

Savings widens our view, not just toward the future, but to the past, because it's in the past that we find not just tactics, but inspiration.