| Interestingly, I came across this tweet from the founder of Replit: "Lots of ink spilled on the coming of age, but no one prepares you for middle age: losing a parent, confronting the reality of passing time, and the resulting reevaluation of life’s priorities. More art should explore this period of life." It struck me at the same age as you. It doesn't seem to be unique and I didn't find the solution. What I think is that there is no solution, just acceptance and making sure we do things that we feel are worthwhile whilst avoiding that "auto-mode" at work. For me, it was the fact that I live 8000km from my parents. The last 2 years were just so fast it became a blur. But seeing them grow old scared me so much that I'd rather lose out on my career but try to spend more time with them and live closer. Instead of chasing startups and VC glory, I would like to work on problems that I care about and build small things that are fun despite them not bringing full-time income even if I just do it on the side. My professional goals are around working on worthwhile things (subjective) with a small team of awesome people. The dream setup is to have 5 smart friends and work together on cool shit we all enjoy whilst earning a living. Also exploring all these emotions and feelings is interesting. I found that having dire nostalgia and melancholic feelings about the past (and hence passing time...)probably signals something. However, if left unexplored it doesn't lead to introspection. It's meta but even thinking about why the feelings that you described exist leads to interesting internal and external conversations. Journaling, therapy, SO conversations. "Spending your time well" is an art that is hard to get right. Would love to also hear about more resources on this topic. |
what do you mean by this?