Ever present present

Brian Knutson wrote a great piece about how the goddamn web is hijacking your future self.

How when you step in front of the screen with the best intentions in the world of researching one fact and end up three hours later not even remembering what you started out looking for but somehow overflowing with information after clicking through seven million sites (only spending a few seconds on each site because you don’t want to waste time surfing).

It’s the instantaneous high of a new piece of information. It doesn’t really matter what the information is. As long as you’ve never seen it before, it’s newness sparks your brain’s dopamine levels for a couple of seconds, and you’re happy knowing where the last the king of Tutila was born.

Click, high. Click, high. Click, high.

You don’t even have to think about it. Instant gratification.

Why think of the future when you can be so absorbed in the very present? This constant awareness of your present self gives less connection to your future self. Instead of thinking about your future, you’re lost in the present.

Gratifying the present self at the expense of the future self is short sighted.

If you can’t see where you want to go you will never get there.