Is trying to plan for ones idea of a "good life" (never mind that there is a a great general disagreement on what that standard would be, temporally or culturally) ever a good idea? Yes? No? Maybe? Sometime? Think Markov chain Monte Carlo methods of random sampling. Does one ever slip the economic, social, historical, familial, political, restraints on ones freedom of choice? Through much of human history this has not been the case. Perhaps trying a little of everything with no discernible narrative structure is a valid trajectory through the time line one has. (I'm speaking as a septagenarian nearing the end of his own time here.) Careers are fine, though they limit freedom; many limited stints at exclusively bending ones focus are fine too, though they limit depth of understanding...always there is a trade off, but equally always there is no final arbiter.. not even oneself. For ones own values can change through time also. Perhaps fundamental is first, exert as much control in creating a "good" life by ones own definition one can within the matrix of restraints imposed by neither being omniscient nor omnipotent (that raises the interesting question of what is a "good" life for a God?). And second: Try not to sleep through all of it. 🙂
Is trying to plan for ones idea of a "good life" (never mind that there is a a great general disagreement on what that standard would be, temporally or culturally) ever a good idea? Yes? No? Maybe? Sometime? Think Markov chain Monte Carlo methods of random sampling. Does one ever slip the economic, social, historical, familial, political, restraints on ones freedom of choice? Through much of human history this has not been the case. Perhaps trying a little of everything with no discernible narrative structure is a valid trajectory through the time line one has. (I'm speaking as a septagenarian nearing the end of his own time here.) Careers are fine, though they limit freedom; many limited stints at exclusively bending ones focus are fine too, though they limit depth of understanding...always there is a trade off, but equally always there is no final arbiter.. not even oneself. For ones own values can change through time also. Perhaps fundamental is first, exert as much control in creating a "good" life by ones own definition one can within the matrix of restraints imposed by neither being omniscient nor omnipotent (that raises the interesting question of what is a "good" life for a God?). And second: Try not to sleep through all of it. 🙂