Re:Don't Waste the Good Days
by staticassertion on Saturday January 01, 2022 @06:23AM
(#29757436)
What if you'd die wind surfing? What if you would have cured cancer if you'd only worked that one extra day? What if you would have met the love of your life on the train to work?
Asking a bunch of hypotheticals isn't a great way to make your point. Yes, as time goes on the chance of "bad things happens" increases. But we can also make a lot of assumptions. I don't plan to die at 57, I don't plan on being expendable at 50, I don't plan for economic collapse. They're all possible outcomes, but they're also not what I consider likely at all, or things I can reasonably prepare for.
Asking a bunch of hypotheticals isn't a great way to make your point.
The hypotheticals are the point. When you're thinking about how to live your life, to windsurf or to build your savings for example, you're considering hypotheticals because you have to make a choice about which one to do. All the others are hypotheticals because you end up not doing them. Planning is all about hypotheticals.
Re:Don't Waste the Good Days
by staticassertion on Saturday January 01, 2022 @05:42PM
(#29763637)
I guess my point is that your hypotheticals are very leading and lack important context like probability. People generally don't plan to die at 57 because most people don't die at 57 (or 40). Planning your life like that isn't really sensible.
You may have a grand plan to retire at 57, but what if you love the work you're doing then? What if you die at 56? What if your employer is ageist and fires you at 50? What if the economy collapses in 30 years time and wipes out your pension fund? What if your knees give out at 57 and you're confined to your house for your entire retirement?
You're not giving up a year of fun aged 20 for 5 years of fun at 57 - you're trading a year of fun now for the potential of 5 years more fun in the future. Maybe that's a great tradeoff, but if definitely isn't a simple tradeoff. There are deep rabbit holes of probability to explore deciding whether it's worth the risk.