Great article with some hard earned wisdom.
Engagement part clicked well for me.
I am disappointed in how YouTube and facebook feeds work. It feels like they capture some self serving and destructive type of engagement. One closer to an addiction which makes us engaged and happy short-term but makes things worse long-term and makes us crave more for that short term fix… And so on going deeper in to weird conformation bias bubbles.
But recently I read that YouTube is making changes to their engagement metrics towards more meaningful and lasting satisfaction. And I recently noticed how it serves me mind-blowing-expanding-changing lectures more often that are not entertainment and impact my life. If they can optimise for that somehow that would be dope.
Other part was that choice of death if you choose to be a loner and how we are social creatures. I seen firsthand how old people without meaningful engagement with the young drift toward dimentias and other mental quirks of old age waaaay faster. While in contrast pair of my grandparents who engage with the young lot more and are active, keep beautiful summerhouse in the summer. And grandpa, who is 80, enjoys moderate slalom/skiing and plays table tennis with friend weekly, plays chess on computer and surfs internet.
I also heard if research that close and strong friendships are a predictor of long life.
As for children. Yes they take time and other resources. Yes having them makes your life better, later in life. But what I found I have not heard before was that they give you power to stand up for yourself way more then it was when you were on your own. Sense of responsibility and what is at stake is way different. I remember a friend said once, when we were close to 30, that he did not felt adult. 30 was not that different than 16. I would agree. Now it seems to me that until you took responsibility of a growing a child, you did not experience adult life. All in all they change your life stronger then you expect, and everything else starts to seem easy in comparison.
