Prof. Hal Hershfield: Your Future Self | Rational Reminder 256

How does the connection we have with our future self impact the decisions we make today? And what active steps can we take to improve our connection with our future selves? Today on the show we welcome back Hal Hershfield, whose new book Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today delves into the science of our relationship with our future selves and what we can do to change it for the better. In our conversation with Hal, we discuss the concept of the self, how we change over time, and why so many of us feel disconnected from our future selves. He describes the research surrounding these subjects and their findings, including how the brain scans they performed demonstrate that we mostly see our future selves as strangers, and why this is caused, at least in part, by the fact that our future selves don’t technically exist yet. We also discuss the interventions that have been shown to improve our relationship with our future selves, like viewing age-progressed images or exchanging letters with our future selves, and why everyone responds to these interventions differently. Having a strong connection with your future self has many benefits. It means you’re more likely to make decisions that will serve you later in life, like saving for retirement, eating healthily, and exercising regularly. But Hal also warns that we risk losing sight of the present and what truly matters when we focus solely on the future. To hear all of Hal’s knowledgeable insights on this topic and what he wants to explore next, be sure to tune in today!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:46 Hal defines The Self
8:46 Aspects of the self that tend to be stable over time
11:37 What happens inside of our brains that makes it hard to connect with our future self
17:38 What causes our future self to feel like a stranger
19:07 Why we don't want our future self to feel like a stranger
22:16 How closeness to the future self affects wealth accumulation and financial well-being
27:46 How accurately people tend to predict and imagine the future
28:53 The impact the End of History Illusion has on decisions about the future
35:49 How images connect us to our future self
44:55 Behaviors that are positively affected by age progressed images
48:50 Real-world examples of age progression used to improve decision making
51:04 How effective writing to your future self is to improving decision making
55:52 What happens when we get too focused on improving life for our future self
1:01:03 The effect COVID had on our collective relationship with the future
1:05:07 FutureProof Conference Announcement
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[@rrlideracademy]

Great interviewers, thank you so much for sharing such a great interview. I already read the book, it is beyond awesome!!!

[@zakiyaelmalika]

I remember him from a Netflix series I watched on retirement/future self. I wish I came across the Rational Reminder podcast at it's inception. Want to prioritize listening to all your content, but I will be patient and take time. Every time I listen to a show since finding this podcast a month ago, I have to balance my enthusiasm and time spent consuming such informative insights through your discussions, and guests you bring on the show. Thank you Ben and Cameron.

[@sharvo6]

Layperson here, you seem to be hooking me in more and more to these episodes. This was another good one!

[@AAkCN1]

Great episode! Good listen for everybody

[@anotherpace]

interesting the conversation at the end about kids not really being wired yet to think about their future self, but otoh the first thing more extended family or parental friends ask is 'what do you want to be when you grow up?'

[@andrewfriedrichs9340]

I have the South Park "my future self and me" song stuck in my head now

[@saurabhbagai5982]

This podcast makes me question the why behind my decision. Will this future me appreciate the sacrifices of their past or say “dummy you should have skydived while you were young”. Regret is a interesting bedfellow.

[@Braden33free]

Hey! You should connect this gentleman with Jordan Petersons work called “future self - self authoring”
His work shows that writing about your future self has a significant effect on the graduation/drop out rates of college students.
This would be perhaps a more active way, as opposed to looking at pictures, to connecting with the your future self and have a relationship with them.