The speaker reflects on how they possess many items that were gifted to them or purchased with intentions of enjoyment, but have not been used or appreciated. They realize that their focus on future happiness through saving things for the 'right time' may be hindering their present joy, emphasizing the importance of appreciating and utilizing what one already has.
We often do things now that will make our lives more difficult or stressful in the future. We spend money, when we should save. We eat junk food, when we should exercise. We agree to commitments, when we should protect our free time. We act so thoughtlessly that it's almost like we hate our future selves.
Dr Laurie asks UCLA's Hal Hershfield to help her find the happiness balance between listening to what she wants now, and the preferences she might have in the future. And she steps into an AI time machine to get some happiness advice for herself decades from today.
Try talking to the "you of tomorrow" using the MIT Media Lab's Future You chatbot at https://futureyou.media.mit.edu/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.