”Don't Enjoy the Present”: A Paradox - Those Who Live "From the Future" Can Approach True Freedom
- Don't decorate the scaffolding; there's something you really want to build beyond it.
- "Now" is merely a provisional, temporary interface for myself.
- Egoistic pleasure and evolutionary pleasure—even if the excitement feels the same, the substance is different
- Back in your student days, you were already living from a “future-driven“ perspective.
- Why Adults Escape into “Enjoying the Present Moment“—Education as a Blocking Device
- Dreams are not something you make come true, but something you continually asymptotically approach.
- The moment you name something, it becomes something else—a label is not an explanation, but a fixing of the field of view.
- The dilemma that people who only do "things that are useful right now" fail to increase in value: One's value is made of the multiplication of scarcity and the reverse calculation of the time horizon on which one is evaluated.
- The very idea of searching for the "right job" is wrong to begin with── Aptitude isn't determined before you enter a job, but after you start doing it.
──Don't decorate the scaffolding; the thing you truly want to build is beyond it.
"Let's enjoy the present," "Let's enjoy the present to the fullest" – I'd like you to pause and consider these words that are everywhere. Concentrating all your resources on this very moment can sometimes become the quietest trap, pushing you away from the future.
The present is, so to speak, the scaffolding for building the grand edifice of life. Scaffolding, by its nature, should be reinforced, not decorated. Nevertheless, many people adorn their scaffolding with ribbons, paint it in bright colors, and melt away their time on these tasks. They never begin the actual building that was meant to stand beyond it.
"Now" is merely a provisional, temporary interface for myself.
Thinking from the perspective of the future means treating your present self as a ”temporary interface.” Your current self is not yet complete. Therefore, investing excessive resources in your current state and enjoying it with abnormal fervor is not only inefficient but also an act that pushes the future itself further away.
Of course, this isn't a story that denies all "nows." For someone whose way of life has already reached its peak—a surfer who has stood in the ocean unchanged for thirty years, for example—the present is already a kind of finished product. The problem arises in the state of someone who has a desired self but is enjoying themselves in a way that deceives their current self.
── Selfish enjoyment and evolutionary enjoyment──Even with the same "waku-waku" (excitement), the content is different.
There are two types of excitement. One is egoistic enjoyment, which is enjoyed by the ego, an accumulation of past values. The other is evolutionary enjoyment, which is born in the process of moving towards the desired self, calculated backward from the future.
The former is merely the consumption of past achievements. A structure where one endures the day for a beer after work is precisely this. The latter is different. For those living for evolutionary enjoyment, the concept of "lack" doesn't arise in the first place. Because the present and the future beyond it are on the same path.
When you were a student, you were already“Future Beginning“lived
If you calmly reflect on it, during our student days, almost everyone lived with their future in mind. Whether it was for exams, sports results, or regular tests—no one was thinking, "Let's just enjoy the present." In fact, if we saw classmates enjoying themselves and playing in the moment, we probably thought, "They're definitely going to struggle in the future."
However, the moment many people reach the single goal of employment, their future plans fall apart. Of course, some people can continue to move forward towards the future through promotions or qualifications, but the proportion of people who can invest the same level of effort as they did in their student days is not large. Rather, many people, lacking further goals beyond that point, switch to a mode of "let's just enjoy life as it flows" as a matter of elimination. But when you think about it calmly, there's really no reason to let go of the sensitivity you had towards the future during your student days the moment you become a working adult.
Why do adults become“Enjoy the present.“Where are you running to?──The "cutoff device" of education
Why can't many people hold great ambitions or dreams? The answer is simple. They have been raised for over a decade to optimize their thinking within predetermined frameworks. The accumulation of experiences where they were scolded for trying to do what they wanted quietly builds circuits that block their potential.
That's why what's needed is the perspective that "there's still more to come." The self that has been sealed away hasn't disappeared so easily. It's just that we haven't allowed ourselves to go explore it.
『Dreams are not something to be fulfilled, but something to continuously approach.
Living with a future starting point also means constantly updating one's dreams. Dreams are not something that end the moment they are achieved, but something we continuously approach. When a dream seems within reach, we reset it further away. As long as this structure exists, one will never reach their dream in their lifetime. And that's okay. Not reaching it is not unhappiness.
What's important is to constantly ask yourself how your current actions will lead to the future. Is it consumption to relieve stress, or is it part of a day in the process of evolution? Even if you spend time in the same way, the meaning in your life will be completely different depending on its positioning. Are your current efforts decorations on a scaffold, or are they the building you truly want to construct?
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