X-Message-Number: 15501
From: "Jeff Grimes" <>
Subject: Choosing What to Do
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 16:05:27 +0000

John de Rivas writes:


"It is best to pace yourself and do what is useful. Everyone doing what is 
*comfortably* useful is far better than people thinking "what an enormous effort
it all is" and "it may never work anyway so why waste your life on it." "It" 
can just as well be cryonics or many other endeavours."


Well, these are very good points. I think what John is saying is that the people
who attack huge problems are not often very happy people. They are driven and 
neurotic, and haunted by the prospect of failure. If you want a more pleasant 
life, choose something that is more within your abilities.


On the other hand, we do need the ambitious, driven types to make breakthroughs.
It's all a question of priorities, especially in life extension. Do you want to
enjoy life now and not worry about death, or do you want to work (a bit ahead 
of your time) relentlessly to overcome death, hoping to benefit in the longer 
term, which is a real gamble? I tend to respect people who make the second 
choice, perhaps because I haven't lived up to that standard myself.


What I don't really like is someone who is in the first group, who expects 
people in the second group to take care of everything. That's like trying to 
have your cake and eat it. Anyone who really is counting on being woken up in 
the future might feel a bit of an obligation to do SOMETHING to help achieve his
dreams, it seems to me.


Personally I am still trying to figure all this out for myself. What should I be
doing, and how, and where?

Jeff Grimes.

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