Future reflection is a philosophy of how to live that evaluates current opportunities by projecting yourself into the future and seeing how favorably or unfavorably you look on the options from that position. A simpler way of putting it is if you have a decision, just think about how you would consider each option 20 or 30 years from now. 30 years from now would you be happy that you got your ears pierced? 30 years from now would you be happy that you took a year off from college to travel with a friend?
Many influential people adhere to the future reflection philosophy including Graham Stephan, Vincent Woo, and my girlfriend. It surprises me that such important people adhere to this philosophy given that it is utter rubbish.
I will tear the future reflection philosophy apart in large part by contrasting it with my personal philosophy of worthiness.
The worthiness philosophy dictates that when you need to make a decision you should choose the option that a good (worthy) person would choose. The worthiness philosophy dictates that you must strive to be a good person. The questions from the first paragraph instead become: Would a good person get their ears pierced? Would a good person take a year off from college to travel with a friend?
The future reflection philosophy proceeds from a pretty concerning starting point – that one can know what they will be like in the future and what will be important to them. Not only is this a very difficult exercise, but it also implies assumptions about who you will be. If you imagine yourself in 30 years that person will look a lot like you do now. This can become a self-fulfilling cycle where the decisions you make are informed by who you are, which makes it hard to change.
One of the strengths of the worthiness philosophy is that we are surrounded by examples of good people to learn from. Not often do we ask ourselves “What would Harry Potter do?” But we should. Harry Potter’s story is more than just for entertainment, it is also instructive. Not all of us have it in us to do the things Harry Potter did, but we all have the ability to be good people. Just good in different (smaller) ways. Where the future reflection philosophy clouds our vision by seeing endless reflections of ourselves into the future, the worthiness philosophy opens our eyes to the good people surrounding us that we can learn from.
Although the worthiness philosophy does give us clear examples to emulate, the image of what a “good person” looks like is certainly not straightforward. As I try to be a good person I keep finding new levels of being a good person that I need to rise to. Being a good person is not a static state, it is highly dynamic to the moment and the situation. This complexity gives me confidence that the worthiness philosophy is right. it shouldn’t be easy to make important decisions and the worthiness philosophy supports that. The future reflection philosophy simplifies the world too much. Given how complex the world is, it is not possible to make good decisions based on a question as simple as “will I value this?”.
The worthiness philosophy is much harder to implement than the future reflection philosophy. To a good person, it is always worth it to do the right thing even in trivial situations. In contrast, the future reflection philosophy only values events that are memorable. If you are adhering to the future reflection philosophy, it is fine to do the wrong thing to cut small corners as long as you don’t remember it later. When we cut these corners we make the world a worse place even if it is only in small ways. I don’t think that is acceptable. Do you?