Planning For The Future Is Pointless - Thought Experiment
| Philosophy : Thought Experiments There was so much pressure on everyone these days to always think about the future. To prepare at the age of five for the subjects and career you wanted to have when you were older, to save all the money you had for when you were older as you would want it then, and so forth. In fact you could barely think about the present you were so busy thinking about your future and your desires and wishes then. But there was a small flaw in this plan, thought Dawn, whilst twiddling a pencil in her citizenship class. The fact was, she was told to think about her future desires and ambitions when choosing what subjects to study, but she couldn't possibly have access to them. All she had available to her was her current desires and ambitions. Whilst right now she wanted to be a doctor, she knew that in five years she might have decided fervently against that career and to be a lawyer, and to re-train as a lawyer at that time. Or maybe she would marry a rich man and not want to work at all. So how could she possibly take what she wanted to be in the future as a guide to how she should act now, knowing full well her desires at that point in the future would likely be totally different to they were now? No, thought Dawn, it is completely pointless to take the future into consideration with any of my thoughts as I will want and desire totally different things now. Therefore I shall choose to do a very general mix of subjects to keep my options open as long as possible. Then I can make the choice as to what to study at university when I have to in a couple of years rather than determining my options now and living to regret them.
 Questions about thought experiment:
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