What Would You Do If You Had 10 Years Left to Live?

I think I would go through my giant list of ideas and projects and figure which 1 or 2 are truly important. 10 years is long enough to do just about anything, but probably only one thing to a serious extent.

Not worry about it. Ten years is an entire marriage for some people. Just live.

Many of us don't have ten years left and don't know it. Live. Live now. Whatever that means to you, quit waiting on something to happen. Do it.

Seek out strange new worlds?

become a president and destroy any nation and everything that brings joy to others[/S]

Load up on life insurance with a ten-year term.

I once knew someone who was given a short timeline. Strangely, it didn’t just change their life; it changed mine. Ten years sounds like a gift, but it also redefines what “later” really means.

I stopped thinking of time as something to save up, and started treating it like something that leaks away whether you notice or not.

The haunting part isn’t the final day. it’s the missed days you can’t get back.

As Seneca put it: “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.”

So for me, the question isn’t what I’d do with 10 years. It’s whether I’ll avoid wasting today.

Finally get around to buying my rock etcher and find every cave made from solid hard rock high and low to carve the contents of my offline blog into along with a template to help future civilizations interpret English.

The lack of a clear date to your expiration allows you to blissfully live without dealing with the question of God simply because you can procrastinate on it. You don’t really need to digest what happens as you fade to black, and even if you did need to, you can just push it off since tomorrow may not be the day you have to deal with it.

With your expiration date set, you can now properly imagine closing your eyes and imagine entering into nothingness. This exercise is necessary to have a true meditation on God (as in, no other thought experiment without this context adjustment, where your death date is set, can elicit a meditation of that quality. All other prior attempts will have been amateur attempts).

So, I’d probably focus on that.

Depends. Am I guaranteed the ten years?

See, I'm 63. My current life expectancy is more like 18 years, so 10 years would be... maybe a bit short? But not so short that I can claim to be really ripped off. But the other side is, a guarantee that that I'd make 10 years is better than my pessimistic scenarios, so that would be a step up.

What would I do? Probably retire today. The problem with retirement planning is that you don't know how long you're planning for; if you did know, it would simplify a lot.

I'd make an effort to spend more time with my kids. It's not just that I only have 10 years - they also have only 10 years to have me around.

I am a Christian. I'd try to pass on some of what I've learned to the younger generations. (I mean, maybe more in general too, but what I've learned about coding, say, isn't going to change anybody's life.)

I'd probably watch what I eat less. That piece of chocolate cake won't be what kills me.

I'd hopefully be more patient toward people. There are a lot of things that aren't worth getting mad at them over.

Probably no need to work anymore so will quit next Monday.

And then do some financial planning for the family.

And then…kinda sad that I actually don’t have a strong passion to pursue. I’m soulless. I have some hobbies and claimed that I wanted to do a lot of things but never had passion for long term.

This is how I'm acting now because of my p(doom)

Turns out, I don't act any differently.

Hiking the PCT has been a dream and I’d use the time to train and finally do it.

I would travel with my loved ones as a way to make some lasting memories with them.

I would finally visit every national park in the US (even the kinda BS ones like gateway arch and Indiana dunes).

I’d finally get serious about picking up my instrument again and try to play with an orchestra one more time in my life.

I've got 20 years left, on average. I'll purge everything not necessary for daily life before the end. Stuff like test equipment, parts, and other things that I had previously kept as mementos or spares will be given away, or pitched.

Don't leave a ton of shit for your heirs, they'll have to hire someone to throw it out. It's not valuable, really.

Other than that.. just try to help those who need it, and do my best to make the world a better place, one repair at a time.

Is that 10 good years followed by sudden death or is that 10 years of gradual decline? Makes a difference!