There are no limits when you are surrounded by people who believe in you, or by people whose expectations are not set by the short-sighted attitudes of society, or by people who help to open doors of opportunity, not close them.
We do not talk to future-us enough. And when we do, it is usually after we have already made a mess and left it for that poor version of ourselves to clean up.
This applies to so many areas of life, but let's start with the obvious one: programming.
I have mentioned this before in videos, but I will say it again. When I first started programming, I never commented my code. I figured, why bother? I know what I am doing. I work alone. I do not need to leave notes for anyone. But guess what... future me is someone else entirely. Ten years later, I look at some of my old code and think, "What the hell was I doing here?"
And if you are thinking, "I am not going to be using this same database in ten years," think again. That is what developers in the 1960s thought when they coded systems using two-digit years. Y2K was future-them's problem. And it was. And it cost billions to fix.
I am still using the same 599CD database shell that I started in 2002. That is over 20 years ago. And yes, I have modified it and updated it (and broke it, and fixed it, repeatedly), but the core system is the same. So do yourself a favor: write good comments. Not for your coworkers. For future you. Because future you is going to be annoyed when they have to decode a 100-line subroutine you could have explained in one sentence.
This goes beyond databases too. Diet, exercise, health... future you is going to live with the choices you make today. Is tomorrow-you going to thank you for that salad and afternoon workout, or curse you for the Taco Bell and tequila combo you thought was a good idea last night (I'm talking to you, Rick from 10 years ago).
Same thing with money. Are you putting away 10 percent of your income so that 70-year-old you does not have to work the night shift at Space Walmart? Or are you spending everything today and hoping the Ferengi do not repossess your shuttle? (Again, ehem, Rick from 2015).
The Star Trek universe is full of time travel episodes. Sometimes they are silly, sometimes they are intense. But there is one theme that shows up many times: future versions of the crew show up to deal with something past-them should have handled better. And do not get me started on the Temporal Prime Directive. If the Federation thinks it is important not to mess with the future, maybe we should start thinking a little more about ours too.
Future self HATES a lot of the STUDID things current did when younger. From stock trades, to "fitness", to pulling all my comments out of my code because I figured I'd recall what I was doing later on HA.
Michael Olgren
@Reply 12 months ago
Cut yourself a little slack... Hindsight is 20/20. Yes, sometimes you know something is not a good choice. Eat that salad, do that workout, but don't beat yourself up if your college roommate comes to town and you spend a night reliving those wild times. First time here, but thought I saw a post title about "set a course not a deadline."
I appreciate the advice on commenting code, since the recommendations "out there" are varied.
Joe Holland
@Reply 12 months ago
Future you has more info and experience than current you does. That's why he is wiser. The topic is on point and valid no doubt, but never underestimate the value of growth. No matter how hard we try, future us should always know more, understand more, be more prepared, be kinder, have more patience, be more balanced, etc.
I do enjoy these new posts. Keep them coming.
Sam Domino
@Reply 12 months ago
We used to have multi-generational families where wisdom was easily passed from generation to generation. Unfortunately, our current life styles have moved most of us away from this "lessons learned" transfer mechanism.
The "best" thing about being "old" is that I don't have to wait 10 years to not remember what the code I wrote yesterday was suppose to do, I just wait until tomorrow! LOL!!!!!
"What the hell was I doing here!?" definitely goes on the Rost's Words of Wisdom list! :-)
My wife said her father used to say "I can't wait until tomorrow, because I get better looking every day."
I like to say "I can't wait until tomorrow, because I get smarter every day."
And better looking. :)
Abraham Breuer
@Reply 12 months ago
Brilliant post, Richard!
Would it be possible to add a bookmark feature next to the like button on your posts? It would be great if users or visitors could save articles they find valuable. I’d love to have an easy way to access all your great content in one place without having to scroll through all liked posts.
599cd.com/blog/comment-history page you have an option to see all comments i wrote, Please add there a option to filter the liked ones as well
I've had a bookmark feature for just the moderators and myself for years; it's been part of the website. I don't know why I never rolled it out to everybody, but I just did. Thank you for the suggestion. And now at the top of every thread, you'll see a link to where you can bookmark a particular comment thread.
Richard My father had lots of silly saying, like your wife's dad. How my mom's eyes would roll up. He actually said the same one about looking better tomorrow. His favorite, whenever anyone had some level of success in a task or test, "Bring on the dancing girls!" Do they still have Show Girls in Las Vegas? I was a bit shocked when visiting family in Italy, how when a contestant won on a TV show, during the "family hours", actual topless show girls would come out of the wings and dance across the stage. Dad vindicated.
We can get a little bit smarter, the kind that IQ measures. Mostly we get more knowledgeable with hopefully, some wisdom.
I remember reading about someone famous and smart (can't remember who) that, late in life, said he found a letter to himself, that he wrote at a much younger age. He had advised himself against certain errors that he had so far committed. Dang he wrote, dang if I didn't commit those very same erros dozens more times in the intervening years.
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