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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Your Future Self summary
Hal Hershfield
How to Make Tomorrow Better Today
18 mins
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Your Future Self
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Key idea 1 of 5
Can we transform our core selves?
Take a moment to reflect on the tale of Pedro Rodrigues Filho, a man born into brutality, bearing a dented skull from his father's beatings. Rodrigues Filho, who died in 2023, was a serial killer who had murdered 71 people by 1985. Yet his story didn't end in a prison cell. He started working out, learned to read and write, and in 2007, thanks to a legal loophole, walked out of prison a free man. He began waking up at 4 a.m. daily, abstained from drugs and alcohol, shared inspirational stories on YouTube, and counseled young criminals, swearing that he was repulsed by his former self and considering himself reborn. It compels us to ask: Can we fundamentally change who we are?
Think about your sense of self. Imagine that every cell in your body was replaced over time, but you retained your memories. Would you still be you? What if your mind and memories were replaced by someone else's? How many parts of you need to change before you're considered a new entity?
Reflect on your own life. Surely, certain traits have persisted since you were a child. However, your experiences have also shaped you, your body has transformed, and even your memories have evolved.
Philosophy alone can't solve this riddle. The everyday world, as seen in a study by Professor Nina Strohminger, provides a different lens. She asked caregivers of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and ALS whether the people they were caring for still felt the same to them. Interestingly, despite their failing bodies, the ALS patients, with their intact minds, were seen as more “themselves” than the Alzheimer's patients, whose memories were fading. But the real twist came when Strohminger spoke to caregivers of people with frontotemporal dementia, a condition that leaves the body and memories intact but impairs the ability to act morally or ethically. These patients were perceived as the most alien, suggesting that our moral selves could indeed define our true identity.
So, reflecting on Pedro Rodrigues Filho, did he indeed become a new person? If we consider the concept of an essential moral self, then perhaps he did. But now, let's redirect that spotlight onto ourselves. How do we view our future selves? Will we remain the same or transform into someone new? As we delve further, we'll explore this fascinating aspect of our human existence.
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What is Your Future Self about?
Your Future Self (2023) is an illuminating journey through the complex world of decision-making, blending the powerful elements of psychology and economics. Offering a unique lens with which to view our long-term choices, it uncovers how the decisions we make today directly shape our future selves.
Who should read Your Future Self?
- Self-improvement enthusiasts seeking ways to better themselves
- Armchair psychologists intrigued by the process of long-term decision-making
- Philosophers interested in the nature of self, personal identity, and consciousness
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