> But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too.

I suspect you're probably doing yourself a disservice but I can certainly think of numerous instances of my own idiocy. I should particularly have learned by now not to browse and contribute to internet forums whilst drunk, for example, because this tends to magnify my idiocy[0].

[0] To be clear, I'm not drunk now.