What will you be doing five years from now?
Posted on Apr 17th, 2007
by 
tinkonthebrink
tinkonthebrink
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for April 14, 2007:
Due to a little glitch in the system, I've had some time to think about this one, and here's where I've gotten:
I could make up an answer, the way we all probably do when we get this standard question in an interview or application...but the truth is, five years ago I wouldn't have predicted my life today. And five years before that, not even close. And it isn't that I've undergone radical change, I've just been living my regular, sweet, juicy, surprising life. People who knew me when I was an adolescent - or an eight year old, for that matter - wouldn't be shocked if they met me now. I look back and see total continuity. But predicting the path? No way.
And I don't think this is unique to me. The world itself is changing and moving ahead at an accelerated, even exponential, rate. We educate people now for jobs that don't even exist yet. Ten years ago, this amazing connection that I take for granted, the internet, was just a baby thing. I could never have guessed that there would be Zaadz, just for example. Five years ago, I didn't even know the person who is my closest friend, my partner in life, the person who shares everything with me and who makes my life so much more amazing than I could have guessed at without knowing her. Five years ago I hadn't read dozens of books that changed my life in small and large ways. Five years ago I couldn't have guessed at this life. I would have just been making something up.
I think it's a good idea to keep an eye on where I might be heading, but what I know from experience is that anything I guess at is likely to pale beside the actual rich and unpredictable bounty of real life, no matter how big my dreams are.
For me this connects with the previous question about how old you feel; it's an idea of predicting the effects of time, of naming and containing something that flows along oblivious to my categories and definitions.
So I suppose my answer is that five years from now my life will be more amazing than I can possibly guess.
I could make up an answer, the way we all probably do when we get this standard question in an interview or application...but the truth is, five years ago I wouldn't have predicted my life today. And five years before that, not even close. And it isn't that I've undergone radical change, I've just been living my regular, sweet, juicy, surprising life. People who knew me when I was an adolescent - or an eight year old, for that matter - wouldn't be shocked if they met me now. I look back and see total continuity. But predicting the path? No way.
And I don't think this is unique to me. The world itself is changing and moving ahead at an accelerated, even exponential, rate. We educate people now for jobs that don't even exist yet. Ten years ago, this amazing connection that I take for granted, the internet, was just a baby thing. I could never have guessed that there would be Zaadz, just for example. Five years ago, I didn't even know the person who is my closest friend, my partner in life, the person who shares everything with me and who makes my life so much more amazing than I could have guessed at without knowing her. Five years ago I hadn't read dozens of books that changed my life in small and large ways. Five years ago I couldn't have guessed at this life. I would have just been making something up.
I think it's a good idea to keep an eye on where I might be heading, but what I know from experience is that anything I guess at is likely to pale beside the actual rich and unpredictable bounty of real life, no matter how big my dreams are.
For me this connects with the previous question about how old you feel; it's an idea of predicting the effects of time, of naming and containing something that flows along oblivious to my categories and definitions.
So I suppose my answer is that five years from now my life will be more amazing than I can possibly guess.
Access: Public
future
September 2008 
I bet it will be!
My guess five years ago would’ve put me pretty close to where I am now, but there have been a few detours on the way to getting here that I never would have imagined.
I’m a crazy goal setter and I always have a mixture of suprise and “of course” going through my head when I do accomplish a goal.