

The man you want to be does not matter - Swizec
http://swiz.ec/nHr3YJ

======
lhnz
"Past performance has very little correlation to future actions and those
thinking otherwise are using a very simple thinking shortcut."

Maybe I am using a 'thinking shortcut', but can you please source the evidence
for there not being a correlation between past performance and future
performance?

~~~
singular
What I've always hated about that is there is a sense of an immutable
judgement going forward if at some point you perform poorly. Surely it's
obvious that that idea is merely an approximation and life is somewhat more
complex?

Isn't it the case that if past performance is an indicator of future
performance then there is no hope of improving anything?

I really think there is quite serious denial of the possibility of bad things
happening to people which effects their performance and it _not being their
fault_ , often with very serious consequences for them.

I have a friend who had a family crisis occur during his A-levels; the impact
on his future prospects was huge and he has had to struggle to stand a chance
at getting a decent job. I personally had a family crisis during my degree
which several impacted my performance and has destroyed my confidence,
something which still impacts me today (though I did manage to get a 2:1
despite it all), does that mean I cannot perform well in the future?

I understand what you're saying about there being an overall correlation but I
really do think you have to be careful about it - on the whole, it may be
true, but it's the individual edge cases that matter, and adopting that
position as if it was some immutable fact is dangerous.

~~~
djm
I agree with what you're saying. A person's direction in life can change at
any time and it's unfortunate that people judge and discriminate so
carelessly.

They are acting rationally though. Take, for example, your anecdote about your
friend's employment difficulty. The employer is just trying to get the best
person they can for the job. They can't realistically predict future
performance of the person they hire so they just rely on credentialism and
base the decision on past performance/qualifications in the hope that a person
who performed well in the past will continue to do so.

~~~
singular
Sure, and it's understandable given the number of CVs companies have to filter
through, especially the more desirable places - there has to be some way of
filtering through.

I think it's very important to highlight that these judgements aren't etched
in stone, though, it's a point which is lost in that phrase, hence me not
being a huge fan of it.

------
Hyena
Path dependence works, you know: the person you were will tend overall to
shape the person you will be in the future.

You also can't just "decide to shape the future", you've got to actually
analyze your past and develop ways of deflecting your current path. The
problem people have is they think over-much and experiment too little.

------
F_J_H
"We become that with which we busy our minds."

Don't know who said it, but I love it. And I think it's a good tl;dr for this
post.

------
bmunro
Someone broke it;

"The requested URL /blog/the-man-you-want-to-be-does-not-matter/swizec/2071
was not found on this server."

~~~
seles
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jxrNNtJ...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jxrNNtJhJwsJ:swizec.com/blog/the-
man-you-want-to-be-does-not-matter/swizec/2071+swizec.com/blog/the-man-you-
want-to-be-does-not-
matter/swizec/2071&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com)

------
fiesycal
Isn't tying ones self worth to others opinion a bit dangerous. There's always
going to be people who don't like you/think you provide value etc. It's surely
not healthy to rely on others for your self esteem, or to define who you are.
This is only a small point from the article but I thought it important to
question.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
This revelation drove me to existentialism, which I lately realized was too
inwardly-focused, but it ended up balancing my perceptions in a better way.

------
ZoFreX
There are cases where thinking and not doing can help shape your future. In
particular, I don't always have healthy thought patterns and spend a lot of
time thinking about things that aren't really beneficial, often going around
in circles. I think the author of the post would agree that I need to think
about these things less! But while there may be some component of "doing" to
correct your thinking (such as seeing a therapist, or doing online CBT, in the
extreme cases) there is also a component of thinking. I've been trying to make
more time to JUST think, which I suppose you might call meditation, and by
allocating time to think, process, and move on I am reducing the _overall_
time I spend in unconstructive thinking.

------
niels
What if I don't care about being remembered, but just want to build something
useful, and have economical success?

------
bprater
I'm using Chrome on Windows. Does most of the font on this site look poorly
rendered to anyone else?

~~~
Joakal
It's a text-shadow. I remove those via firebug.

------
chubs
I love this article! Only had a chance to skim read it so far, but it looks
along the same lines as a lot of things my friends have been discussing at the
moment about making a worthwhile impact with our lives, especially the focus
on NOW and starting small.

------
forgotAgain
It held together up until the last sentence:

 _Which do you think better to be remembered for?_

If the past doesn't matter and the future doesn't matter why then do you care
how people in the future will remember you?

------
zb
This reminds me of the Italo Calvino short story "The Light Years".

<http://issuu.com/martuxa/docs/thelightyears>

------
uladzislau
It DOES matter who you want to be and healthy ambitions never hurt. There are
so many examples that hard work and time investment made someone a completely
different person.

------
Supermighty
We can't all save the world. I guess the next best thing is a web app that is
useful to our users.

------
Hisoka
can anyone post this article? Site is down..

~~~
bartmcpherson
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&biw=1154&bih=652&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fswizec.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-
man-you-want-to-be-does-not-
matter%2Fswizec%2F2071&pbx=1&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fswizec.com%2Fblog%2Fthe-
man-you-want-to-be-does-not-
matter%2Fswizec%2F2071&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=7147l8898l0l9173l6l5l0l0l0l1l237l973l0.3.2l5l0)

------
pathik
Excellent post.

