How Far is Too Far to Think Ahead?

[Coriolis]

Some Native American societies advocate thinking ahead 7 generations. This way, you assess the impact of your actions (or inaction) well into the future, to avoid saddling future generations with your generation's short-sighted mistakes.

 

[TenebrousReflection]

My normal mode of thinking is to imagine what things could be like anywhere from several months from now to five or more years from now (my vision of what could happen / what I want to work toward). To me, thinking about a month or two from now is what I call short term planning, thinking about a year or two from now is fairly normal, and then on less frequent ocasions I think further out than that if I'm not happy with my current direction based on what I think the future will be like on the current path. Nearly any decision that I think is an important one I do think in terms of lifetime tho (not a specific number, just will I be happy with this decision over the course of my lifetime).

But how far is too far to think about? I'd probably say a couple hundred years (its good to plan for future generations, but of course the further out you go, the less predicable things get), but if medicine gives us imortality in my lifetime I suppose I'd have to re-evaluate that.

 

[lunalum]

There's too far? There's news to me...

I don't think there is too far to look ahead but there may be ways to think far ahead that are not appropriate and so cause anxiety.... or thinking in the future so much that you don't exist at all in the present.

 

[ThatGirl]

I tend to think too far ahead. I cant right now, because I want to later.

I am learning I need to provide for the moment. Its weird, counter intuitive.

 

[Synapse]

Well if you think in linear time than everything is too far. Now if you start to understand that life is none linear and time is only a thinking construct of the mind then you stop wasting your energy on thinking that there is a time limit on thinking too far or too litte. For as time is of the mind then it is the projection that is created from the illusion that is seen before the physical vehichle that is the hologram of this reality. However once you factor in that time is meaningless in the real context of how ones spirit evolves then it is infinite and you realize you are more than the sum total of everything your mind could ever think about and hence there is no such thing as thinking too far, its a limited belief of the mind.

 

[ThatGirl]

Well if you think in linear time than everything is too far. Now if you start to understand that life is none linear and time is only a thinking construct of the mind then you stop wasting your energy on thinking that there is a time limit on thinking too far or too litte. For as time is of the mind then it is the projection that is created from the illusion that is seen before the physical vehichle that is the hologram of this reality. However once you factor in that time is meaningless in the real context of how ones spirit evolves then it is infinite and you realize you are more than the sum total of everything your mind could ever think about and hence there is no such thing as thinking too far, its a limited belief of the mind.

Time is not a construct of the mind but an observance of life spans. Everything has a life span. We grouped time, but life spans and opportunities, window frames, still exist beyond our willing them to fall into our expectations.

 

[mikamickmac]

I'm still keeping my options open about what I'm going to do tonight.

 

[Synapse]

Time is not a construct of the mind but of observance of life spans. Everything has a life span. We grouped time, but life spans and opportunities, window frames, still exist beyond our willing them to fall into our expectations.

Then let them fall out of expectations. Then one changes the point of reference that life span as an observance means to be physical. When one let goes observance and the mental construct that there is a finite finality paralyses that we live to die then you are changing towards action, that we are alive to live.

As the action font that creates the momentum to live as freely as you can for then time stops limiting doors of perception. Rather the illusion of different futures changes to living in the present and acting without hesitation on absolutly all there is to act upon without being bogged down in thinking about windows of opportunity, you are there living thoes windows of opportunity rather than thinking about them, measuring them, expecting them.

Words, this too is thinking, when one stops thinking does action and instinct start taking place. No longer constrained by thinking too far or too little ahead.

 

[Mole]

The Break Out

It depends what we identify with. We may identify with ourself, our family, our tribe, our State or our Civilization.

If we identify with ourself, we can look ahead four score years and ten, but if we identify with our civilization, we can look ahead three thousand years.

And our happiness depends on identifying with something larger than ourself.

Unfortunately we are coming to the end of literate individuality and so most of us are imprisoned within ourselves.

So how can we break out of the prison of ourself?

 

[Such Irony]

I think distantly into the future. I think alot what my life will be like when I'm really old and I think about what life on the planet will be like long after I'm dead. I know I can't do anything about the latter but I still think about it alot and am concerned for the state of mankind.

I make some long range plans, like making sure I have enough saved up for retirement. I also have enough foresight to know that what I do in the present could have long range implications. If I eat healthy now, I'm more likely to be healthy in the future.

On the other hand, I know that some planning is futile because there are too many variables and things come up. The further ahead you plan, the more likely it is that the plans will change anyway or your priorities will change so the trip you were thinking of taking or the house you were planning on buying may not end up being as much interest to you. For most things, I don't plan more than a few weeks or months ahead.

 

[EcK]

When thinking ahead constantly means creating a set of problems to fix instead of actually facing stuff coming at you from the environment. If we all did that we'd pretty much all be living in virtual words of our own, some kind of de facto solipsism through the sheer size and topography of the mediation space between individuals.

As technological beings it is only natural that we modify the environment but it should go in the direction of lessening our various ills rather than turning a straight line into an inextricable puzzle that can only be solved with the help of a labyrinth's map that is constantly in the making.

I'm sure that type of image could be used to describe humanity at large as well but well, metaphors are made to be overexploited

The issue is the tools we create, mental and physical pretty soon become our environment and new sets of problems (in the neutral sense) emerge from these and then we troublefix it and adapt but the same thing happen again and again and again. A bit like windows, no matter how much u want to make it bug free the very nature of the system means that you are building everything upon a stack of cards.

In the case of human individuality and human society we often underestimate the role of pure mechanics and assume we just pick and choose everything. But it is more like a self evolved self growing and expanding stack of cards, where everything is in an equilibrium allowing the castle to be stable simply because only what worked at each step was retained and transmitted. But the system is too complex and we fool ourselves into believing OUR foreplanning and our attempts at troubleshotting have a major role in the unfolding of events when in the end it's more of a 'what works works' kind of deal, so we try to diverge the flow of the nil and only manage to lose water and crops in the process, killing peasants and putting the water flow on a sub optimal path for a few eons before it sets itself right by itself again.

 

[EcK]

I think years and years down the road, but I don't expect my plans to unfold down to the last detail. Basically, the further down I think, the less accurate I expect my plans to be.

I'm usually not thinking any more than 5 years ahead, but there are instances where I'm thinking farther than that.

Thinking in such a way also helps me in the present moment--"how much is this going to matter in 5 years?" certainly puts any worry into perspective, and thinking about a future goal mobilizes me in the present.

The trick is to plan stuff based on pure statistics and not to be too specific. But then immortality is a plus.
Like if you say '"i plan to see an alignement of 10 planets with my own eyes' u'd better not define which solar system, from how far, how you define seeing, if you mean your natural biological eyes as 'your own eyes' etc.

A working knowledge of the state of science is also a plus to differenciate the diverse type of obstacles (ranging from 'impossible based on current physics' to 'impossible because not even internally consistent'. Then there is the likelihood of said events occuring 'naturally' and the type of factors that would act as an enzyme, a catalyst to the event\situation.

 

[EcK]

I'd say it's more about knowing oneself enough to know when planning is required within one's environment. Sometimes the flow of things is sufficient. Now the difficulty is to break out of a way of doing things. To be cliché for 'Js' not to plan when it isnt needed and for Ps to plan when it is. Then we can just focus on what we're good at and create some competitive advantage or even happiness. Crazier things have happened.

 

[TenebrousReflection]

I'd say it's more about knowing oneself enough to know when planning is required within one's environment. Sometimes the flow of things is sufficient. Now the difficulty is to break out of a way of doing things. To be cliché for 'Js' not to plan when it isnt needed and for Ps to plan when it is. Then we can just focus on what we're good at and create some competitive advantage or even happiness. Crazier things have happened.

This is very true.
I plan not for the sake of planning but because I have not yet reached the daily life I want - if and when that ever happens, i suspect I will be much happier planning only when it is needed, but I think it will still be natural for me to imagine future possibilities 5, 10 or 20 years down the line, I just won't be doing it as often or doing as much planning.

 

[cascadeco]

In a general sense, I muse about decades and decades ahead (if not centuries), but that tends to be in the context of wondering how the world/society will be by that point, and whether the world will be turned upside-down such that any things that I am planning on right now might in the end be futile. (i.e. If everything turns upside down and becomes rather chaotic, then the fact that I have money in savings might be completely moot if that money in 40 years holds no value whatsoever based on how things are in 40 years. This doesn't stop me from still putting money in savings, as it is important to me to account for my future as best I can, but at the same time, in the back of my head... I'm not exactly counting on it, because who knows what the world will be like in 40 years). So: I somewhat plan for my 'survival' in the long term, but I'm not consumed with that because I think too much can change, including the fact that I might not make it that long.

Planning: I definitely have a general idea of what I want to do a year or two in advance, as far as vacations go. Sometimes I'll plan out certain trips, because with limited vacation days, I have to do that if I actually want to go to these places I want to go to. And I have to logistically figure out when I can do what. But I also leave 'flex' days available for more spontaneous things as well.

General activities/ day to day stuff? I regularly plan a week or two out, and like to know in a general sense what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks; I don't care about specifics, I just like to know I'll be meeting up with person X on day Y, and we'll figure out the details the day-of, sometimes. I also totally factor in 'do-nothing' days, though, and have plenty of those.

 

[animenagai]

There's too far? There's news to me...

I don't think there is too far to look ahead but there may be ways to think far ahead that are not appropriate and so cause anxiety.... or thinking in the future so much that you don't exist at all in the present.

You pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. Personally, I'm surprised that you're the first one to say so in this thread. As long as you're not neglecting the present, it's good to look ahead.

 

[Redbone]

Think infinitely far ahead.

Planning things? Concrete, "I will do this" about a year to two ahead. I have very long-range goals in mind but the way to get to them becomes clearer as I go toward them. Like seeing a mountain in the distance but not being able to see the exact road because there are hills and ridges to travel over first.

I don't know if that makes any sense.

 

[NPcomplete]

I forecast and speculate infinitely ahead into the future and usually have visions of what I want in the future. Then I figure out how to get there. That said, rather than planning in terms of time spans, I use "chunks of stuff to do" as my milestones. Meticulous long-term planning will only make me anxious because of the possibility that I overlooked something. Then there's always Murphy's Law. I'm also quite good at improvising so my way has worked well so far.

 

[Fluffywolf]

It's okay to look ahead as far as you possibly can without losing perspective on what is.

Compartmentalization is key.

 

[Poki]

I dont generally put timelines to my thoughts. So i really have no clue. I just have thoughts, not really plans.