Life is Short

Life is indeed short, and having children has made this abundantly clear to me. Time is a continuous quantity, yet when you consider that you only have 52 weekends with your 2-year-old or can experience only eight Christmases while they are still enchanted by the magic, it becomes evident that life's moments are finite and precious.

Understanding life's brevity has profound implications. It reinforces the argument that "Life is too short for x" is more than a cliché—it's a call to action to eliminate the nonessential. For me, the nonessential is often "bullshit"—the fake, the trivial, the time-wasters. This includes unnecessary meetings, pointless disputes, bureaucracy, and other people's mistakes.

While some bullshit is unavoidable due to life's demands, much of it is self-imposed. We fall prey to activities that trick us into wasting time, like arguing online. These activities are designed to be addictive, and as our world progresses, they become increasingly so. It's crucial to consciously avoid these addictions and seek out what truly matters.

What matters varies from person to person, and it often takes time to discover what that is. A useful heuristic is to consider whether you'll care about something in the future. True value doesn't fade over time. For example, spending time with small children or having coffee with a friend holds lasting significance.

Life's shortness often takes us by surprise, and we regret the things we didn't do—like spending more time with loved ones. To combat this, cultivate impatience for the things you most want to do. Don't wait to climb that mountain or write that book. Savor the time you have and relentlessly prune the nonessential. That's how to live when you know life is short.

The original article: https://paulgraham.com/vb.html