Our future selves will not necessarily have the same views and desires as our current selves, highlighting the profound impact of the illusion of continuity on decision-making and relationships.
To navigate the challenge of understanding our future selves, we should actively shape and curate our future identities, embrace humility in expressing our views, and be brave in acknowledging our evolving capacities and strengths.
Deep dives
The Illusion of Continuity
The podcast explores the concept of the illusion of continuity, which refers to the tendency to believe that our future selves will be the same as our current selves. The speaker argues that while we can easily recognize how we have changed when looking back, we fail to acknowledge that we will continue to change in the future. This illusion has profound consequences for our decision-making, relationships, and societal issues like incarceration and legislation.
The Challenge of Knowing Our Future Selves
The episode highlights the challenge of knowing our future selves and their desires. It shares the story of Stephanie Rinker, who, despite expressing her preference for quality of life over quantity of life in her younger years, chose to be put on a ventilator when battling a terminal illness in her older age. This example illustrates the difficulty of making decisions for our future selves when our perspectives and desires can change dramatically over time.
Three Pieces of Advice
The speaker offers three pieces of advice to navigate the challenge of understanding our future selves. First, he suggests actively shaping and curating our future selves by diversifying our experiences and staying curious. Second, he emphasizes the importance of humility in expressing our views and recognizing that our future selves may hold different perspectives. Finally, he encourages listeners to be brave and acknowledge that our future selves will possess new capacities and strengths. By following these tips, we can establish a healthier relationship with our changing identities.
"You are constantly becoming a new person," says journalist Shankar Vedantam. In a talk full of beautiful storytelling, he explains the profound impact of something he calls the "illusion of continuity" -- the belief that our future selves will share the same views, perspectives and hopes as our current selves -- and shows how we can more proactively craft the people we are to become.
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