[personaldev] Keep a diary
I found my old diary from my senior year of high school and reread it. (It's a file on my hard drive. I keep everything.) Holy shit folks, it's worth keeping a diary. Not only is it useful at the time, but it also will dramatically appreciate in value as it ages. It's the intellectual version of preserving your embryonic stem cells. More than anything else, it will help weave the disparate threads of your evolving personality and mindset into a coherent trajectory through your life. Themes will recur, and you can witness the birth and propagation of dramatic changes. Blogging is great for encouraging yourself to share via social reinforcement, but the lack of self-censoring that happens in a more private setting is incredibly valuable. As for Facebook and Twitter, unless you use them *really* well, it just isn't the same. How do I know? I wrote a twitter-length summary of what I did and felt every day for a year in college, and reading it over again isn't nearly as valuable. Reading the summaries can sometimes trigger more full memories, but it doesn't give a good sense for what *I* was like back then.
One thing my past self was very aware of was that I was a work in progress that was changing over time, and that at some point a future version of myself would find it and read it. It turns out that my diary is peppered with references and bids to my future self and earlier past selves that ranged from funny to bittersweet to oddly prescient. I am not a single person but a range of people along a timeline, and strange things happen when those people talk to each other.
To make your life more meaningful:
1. Go deep.
2. Write it down.
3. Back up your fucking data so you don't lose it.
4. Wait.
5. Reread.
One thing my past self was very aware of was that I was a work in progress that was changing over time, and that at some point a future version of myself would find it and read it. It turns out that my diary is peppered with references and bids to my future self and earlier past selves that ranged from funny to bittersweet to oddly prescient. I am not a single person but a range of people along a timeline, and strange things happen when those people talk to each other.
To make your life more meaningful:
1. Go deep.
2. Write it down.
3. Back up your fucking data so you don't lose it.
4. Wait.
5. Reread.