Or maybe they realize that their younger self’s values and goals are no longer their current values and goals, and give in to a bit of indulgence guilt-free.
It is certainly wise to keep a diary of one’s goals, values, reasons and intentions, so that some time later one can tell whether the arguments you made when you are 20 are still persuasive when you are 40. Also reviewing one’s diary on a regular basis is likely to mitigate any unintentional value drift.
What is probably not wise is trying to lock your future self in with precommitments. After all, would you want to be constrained at 20 by what your 12-yo self thought? That’s how you might think about yourself at 20 when you are 40.
“What is probably not wise is trying to lock your future self in with precommitments.”
The outside view suggests that as I get older I will probably get less idealistic and less altruistic. For example, from something I happened to be reading this morning:
Bob’s lack of ambition, which had initially seemed so noble, began to irritate Jacqui. “Everybody else in the animal-rights movement was growing up, starting to settle down, moving out of the squats and all that,” she recalled. “He was already a lot older, and he was not progressing.” While Bob was in the pub, plotting direct actions, Jacqui was at home, worrying about money.
(In this case Bob hasn’t “grown up” because he’s actually a government spy assigned to the animal rights movement, but if anything that makes this stronger.)
I expect that morally I will still believe that we should be helping others, I just will be pulled more and more to spend money on myself and people around me. Commitment here isn’t to lock myself into the values of a much younger self so much as keep myself doing what I have all along thought was the right thing to do.
The outside view suggests that as I get older I will probably get less idealistic and less altruistic.
That may be right but doesn’t invalidate shminux’ point. The best approach seems to be to constrain the future self in ways that will be benefinicial even from the older ones point.
Or maybe they realize that their younger self’s values and goals are no longer their current values and goals, and give in to a bit of indulgence guilt-free.
It is certainly wise to keep a diary of one’s goals, values, reasons and intentions, so that some time later one can tell whether the arguments you made when you are 20 are still persuasive when you are 40. Also reviewing one’s diary on a regular basis is likely to mitigate any unintentional value drift.
What is probably not wise is trying to lock your future self in with precommitments. After all, would you want to be constrained at 20 by what your 12-yo self thought? That’s how you might think about yourself at 20 when you are 40.
“What is probably not wise is trying to lock your future self in with precommitments.”
The outside view suggests that as I get older I will probably get less idealistic and less altruistic. For example, from something I happened to be reading this morning:
(In this case Bob hasn’t “grown up” because he’s actually a government spy assigned to the animal rights movement, but if anything that makes this stronger.)
I expect that morally I will still believe that we should be helping others, I just will be pulled more and more to spend money on myself and people around me. Commitment here isn’t to lock myself into the values of a much younger self so much as keep myself doing what I have all along thought was the right thing to do.
That may be right but doesn’t invalidate shminux’ point. The best approach seems to be to constrain the future self in ways that will be benefinicial even from the older ones point.