The speaker shares that they have inherited a future-oriented mindset from their parents. Their parents were focused on living in the present moment rather than thinking about the future. The speaker's memories of their parents revolve around being fully present in the current experience, whether it was through savoring food or discussing their present actions rather than future plans.
“The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.” So begins Oliver Burkeman’s new book, “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.” Make it to 80, and you’ll get about 4,000 weeks. And so, as the poet asked, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” For most of us, the answer is obvious: Get busy. Why squander what little time we have? But in this conversation with Next Big Idea Club curator Malcolm Gladwell, Oliver proposes an alternative. If you want to make the most of your time, he says, you have to stop chasing pointless productivity and embrace life’s finitude.