How to think about what belongs to the next generation
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The future you shall know when it has come; before then, forget it. (Aeschylus)
REALLY?
Everyone has his or her own future, and no one wants to be outdated. Everyone gets older, yet only few remain updated.
The key to remaining updated is to distinguish a delicate difference, that is, we need different mindsets to ponder about what belongs to the present and what belongs to the future.
This experience came from my angel investment career. As a beginner, I made almost every possible mistake, however, I have been aware of one single important principle I should and want to observe: I want to participate in what belongs to the next generation.
The reason that we are pursuing what belongs to the next generation is obvious: if something belongs to the next generation, it will be unstoppable, albeit it is imperfect. History proves to us time and time again that every revoluationary innovation was not perfect, yet it was much better than the previous generation, and it was doomed to be replaced by the next imperfect generation.
Once we are scrutinizing something that belongs to future, or seems to be the next generation, we should switch our focus from the negative to the positive.
It’s reasonable to focus on the negative if we are looking at what belongs to the present, because the positive aspects of them are obvious, the viability has already been proven. We do need to think hard about the negative to avoid possible dangers.
However, if we use this mindset to consider about the future, the next generation, we could miss everything. Because the future will not be perfect, just as the present is obviously not perfect, and the next generation will certainly be replaced by the next next generation, which should be also imperfect.
Therefore, when we think about the future, the next generation, we have to try hard to focus on the positive rather than the negative. Otherwise the what belongs to the next generation would seem stupid anyway.
In retrospect, when I was determined to participate the grand social experiment of monetary system, that is, Bitcoin, I was guided by this mindset. I knew I had to try hard to focus on what seemed positive rather than negative, otherwise what seems wonderful today might well seemed no more than stupid three years ago.
The future is unstoppable, it has to come, and everyone should have a nicer tomorrow, we cannot change the past, but we might well change the future by switching our mindset when thinking about the future or what belongs to the next generation.