You know, I actually think this piece is about the author's pending death and their relationship with it.
The first sentence of the piece starts:
```
I'm going to lay out a series of fascinating facts and let you decide whether the world is likely to end within, say, 100 years.
```
And then goes on to talk about nuclear weapons and Poseidons and climate change and all the terrible things that have a decent chance of happening. As an aside if you're looking at doomsday weapons I'd go for the dual vector foil from the Three Body Problem series.
Anyway, one thing is pretty much assured in the next hundred years: You will die. I will die.
And thinking about it that way helps reason about the rest of the piece. Why are we living, how can we get involved and make a difference? The author argues we should become better at politics, less tribal, and find the poetry in nature. I agree. I agree with it all.
I've been reading the biography on Steve Jobs lately and the certainty of death, he said, was his greatest tool for help in getting on living. And that's what we need to do everyday, get on with the busy task of living.
As I recall the crux of the argument is that the U.S. is well positioned to weather upcoming turbulence of the 2020s - 2030s. The exact amount of turbulence is where I'm less clear but as I recall it's: demographic (falling birth rates, aging societies); climatic (obviously); political (the book was written BEFORE Russia's invasion); and maybe a few others. One of the interesting bits is how weak China is with their aging society and diminishing view of technology.
Anyway, I think the book is _generally_ on target and personally I have a much more optimistic view of the U.S.'s prospects over the next century. But that being said there will be black swan events and potentially seismic shifts from processes and technologies already in the pipeline: AI and CRISPR being forefront in my mind.
First off, congratulations! I love hearing about new people coming into the world. I'm currently doing some debugging while one of my little ones is slowly falling asleep (mine are 2 1/2 and 4 1/2).
There's a PaulG tweet about this that I'll have to dig up sometime about how parenthood changes you and yes it will change you.
The first six-months to a year you won't have decent sleep. You'll learn how to function.
Really I think the difference is that you don't have much time anymore for distraction, you don't tolerate it. You can't tolerate it. Sure, you'll still be able to browse HackerNews and play games (sometimes). But those long periods of drifting off, spacing out, taking hours to finish something...you'll learn to stop that.
You'll become more efficient. You'll have to: the baby is hungry or needs to be picked up from daycare. Dishes need washing, diapers need changing. Some young dev is dawdling on about something in their day? No. Where's the MR, here's what you need to fix. Get it done. Push it out. We don't have time for this sh*t.
Happy to see the world population growing. Unlike many here I don't believe the world is overpopulated and that we need more people to grow and expand beyond the planet.
Located in the U.S. where we could double the population without starting to feel cramped. We can and we should.
I'd be interested in hearing if parents are increasingly having a say in where children go to college.
Seems like with inflation, need for graduate studies, dating markets etc. that adolescence is lengthening. Whereas you would have been kicked out of the house to figure it out at 18 now we stay with parents longer...
Why does this essay feel so flat to me? It reads like it was written for class, or for an essay contest for the American Legion: Write about why you went to college.
I almost don't believe the author. It feels like you're lying to me.
The first sentence of the piece starts:
``` I'm going to lay out a series of fascinating facts and let you decide whether the world is likely to end within, say, 100 years. ``` And then goes on to talk about nuclear weapons and Poseidons and climate change and all the terrible things that have a decent chance of happening. As an aside if you're looking at doomsday weapons I'd go for the dual vector foil from the Three Body Problem series.
Anyway, one thing is pretty much assured in the next hundred years: You will die. I will die.
And thinking about it that way helps reason about the rest of the piece. Why are we living, how can we get involved and make a difference? The author argues we should become better at politics, less tribal, and find the poetry in nature. I agree. I agree with it all.
I've been reading the biography on Steve Jobs lately and the certainty of death, he said, was his greatest tool for help in getting on living. And that's what we need to do everyday, get on with the busy task of living.