[HN Gopher] Write a Letter to Your Future Self
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Write a Letter to Your Future Self
Author : skanderbm
Score : 152 points
Date : 2024-02-06 13:34 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.futureme.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.futureme.org)
| Retr0id wrote:
| I've used this a few times over the last decade, and while I
| can't predict the future, it's been rock solid thus far from my
| perspective.
|
| Per their footer:
|
| > FutureMe(tm) brought to you by Memories Group Limited (c) 2002
| - 2024.
|
| > Yup - we've been sending letters to the future for about 22
| years now
| OJFord wrote:
| Must've been weird at the beginning, to have presumably more
| than (chances of the first ones being for _only_ one year
| thence?) a year accepting letters but making no deliveries,
| other than to test.
| ssgodderidge wrote:
| The most interesting aspect of this is the public anonymous
| letters [1]
|
| [1]: https://www.futureme.org/letters/public
| divbzero wrote:
| I love the older letters that have time travelled "about 17
| years", "over 18 years", or "over 19 years".
|
| Apparently, this service has survived since 2003. I hope it
| will continue to exist decades from now.
| ClaraForm wrote:
| Starting at 16 years old I wrote a letter every birthday to my 30
| year old self with ideas of who I want to become and how I ought
| to judge my success. I hoped when I turn 30 to open all of them
| up and realize how much I accomplished would be satisfying.
|
| Through the project, I actually discovered two things. First, I
| estimated a rate of progress that exceeds the real possible
| magnitude of accomplishment by about two lifetimes. Second, that
| the storylines I want in my life and the opinions I have about
| them are stable across time, even if they are dormant for many
| years in a row. Whether this is the effect of personality or an
| ability to maintain memory beyond the capacity of attention I
| don't know. But then again, maybe those are both the same thing.
| runamuck wrote:
| Can you post these letters online? This fascinates me!
| davchana wrote:
| Not sure about his, but many letters are public and are
| available at https://www.futureme.org/letters/public
| ClaraForm wrote:
| No promises but maybe. At 16 my family was breaking down so
| it's all a bit too personal. I'll see if some are worth
| sharing publicly. If I do I'll respond back here again to let
| you know.
| runamuck wrote:
| I love it, thanks!
| OJFord wrote:
| I did similarly (once though, not every year) and dreaded its
| arrival - I remembered enough to know some misses/failures - it
| arrived and I instantly archived it, without reading more than
| I couldn't help but catch a glimpse of.
|
| I would say don't do it young and naive, it's just depressing,
| except that I am now at least mature enough to realise one's
| probably always too young and naive to write like that to the
| older self. What we really want is to hear from _them_ isn 't
| it, but writing's no substitute at all.
| ClaraForm wrote:
| 16 year old me got more right about the world than I ever
| predicted he could. I encourage you to read it. Especially to
| see how much about your younger self your current self gets
| wrong! The opposite effect of depressing.
|
| At the end of all of my reading even though my younger selves
| couldn't hear it I whispered to all of them: "You turned out
| okay little one. Rest."
| ericmcer wrote:
| I started doing the same thing a few years ago, but on New
| years day instead of my bday. It is way better to just see
| where your head was at and what you wanted from the year ahead
| than to make a list of resolutions/achievements. Really wish I
| had started at 16 that is invaluable.
| thierrydamiba wrote:
| I do the same thing periodically, except with voice notes.
| Whenever I feel like I am in a big moment in my life, or have
| a new understanding of a concept, I'll record a note talking
| to myself. I wonder how different these would be if I wrote
| them down with pen and paper vs an audio recording.
| HenryBemis wrote:
| I journal either on the PC (Scrivener) or on a notebook. I
| have tried audio but it is difficult to access "that one
| thing you said about that topic and you want to review it".
| Unless the messages are 30sec long, it would be annoying to
| track it.
|
| Scrivener (no affiliation) is a word processing SW for
| writers. So I am writing the book of my life (chapters,
| etc.)(imagine OneNote enhanced for writing books).
|
| You can create a 2030-01-01 Chapter (folder) and drop notes
| into that about changing your investment risk, etc. I guess
| you could leave a note to your own Calendar, but when I use
| Scrivener I flow better - I guess it's the UI that makes
| the difference.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| You know what they say, people underestimate what they can do
| in a year and overestimate what they can do in a month. Now
| switch out "year" and "month" for other respectively shorter
| timeframes too.
| rappatic wrote:
| This is a really cool idea! That said, after I sent a letter to
| my future self, it automatically signed me up for several email
| lists, tried to get me to download the app, and pestered me to
| become a "member." No site like this needs any of those things.
| SoullessSilent wrote:
| My letter never came. :( I spent ages writing it and describing
| my feelings and what I planned for my future. I had detailed my
| improvement plan for 10 years. Randomly I remembered this service
| and was disappointed since I didn't receive the email.
| jmartrican wrote:
| Maybe this service can just be replaced by a journal. Or email
| the letter now and put it in folders with names like
| "do_not_open_till_2040".
| divbzero wrote:
| Another alternative, if you use a digital calendar
| consistently, is to create a calendar event in the future and
| write the letter to your future self in the event notes.
| berlinbrowngalt wrote:
| That is one of those simple apps I love.
| ale42 wrote:
| How can you know that you'll have the same e-mail address in 20
| years?
| anon25783 wrote:
| Some people have had the same email address longer than that.
| ale42 wrote:
| Of course, and one of my e-mails also exists since almost 25
| years. But (unless I own my own domain, as someone suggested,
| and don't fail renewing it), it's hard to predict what will
| happen in such a long timespan. Not quite, but a bit like
| betting that I'll still be living at the same street address.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Your best bet is to register your own domain. Preferably with
| an unrestricted generic TLD like .com or .net as you may lose
| the right for a specific TLD at some point, for example if you
| are using your country TLD and you move.
|
| What is less certain is: will the service still work and will
| the email pass the spam filters?
| xanderlewis wrote:
| Cool and simple. Animal Crossing also has the ability to send
| letters to your fellow villagers (who might also be real people),
| including yourself. And as far as I can remember, you can specify
| an arbitrary date in the future.
| dmccarty wrote:
| I highly recommend doing this. I also highly recommend not doing
| it digitally.
|
| I recently came across an email I'd sent to myself a decade ago.
| It was a serendipitous find and could've easily been lost for all
| time among the 100K emails floating around. But the process of
| writing it is worth it, and the reading of it some time later can
| be deeply rewarding.
| suketk wrote:
| I made a service to do this physically, i.e it sends you a
| paper letter in the future!
|
| https://dearfuture.carrd.com
| netsharc wrote:
| Hah.. the Swiss Post has an app that lets you design a
| postcard and send it, it even has a "every user can send 1
| free postcard every day" that cool kids use a meme-printing
| service. I feel like they should also offer a "print-a-
| letter-in-the-future and send it to user" service. As a bonus
| they can probably track the movements of their customers
| because of their "address change" service (if you move houses
| and use this service they'll let companies know of your new
| address). And it's the Swiss Post, it shouldn't be
| disappearing any time soon..
| shaism wrote:
| A physical letter is definitely nice but can be a hassle if you
| move.
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| I remember a comic that did this. Maybe Calvin and Hobbes or
| Foxtrot. I loved the idea and did it a few times for my parents .
| genezeta wrote:
| C&H April 22nd, 2015:
| https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2015/04/22
|
| Also the following day (
| https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2015/04/23 )
| tinix wrote:
| i did this in 2006... forgot about it until now. i miss the old
| internet. glad this thing is still around though... will
| definitely send another one.
| ferminaut wrote:
| I personally write myself a letter once a year around new years.
| Covers what happened over the last year, my 3-5-10 year plans,
| goals, family/friends/health, photo of myself, etc.
|
| Then the next year rolls around and I compare the current year to
| the previous year, see if I am hitting my goals & trending in the
| right direction. Helps me hold myself accountable.
| uneekname wrote:
| I've received a few emails from myself, maybe four or five years
| later? It was a really moving experience. I highly recommend this
| service.
| thundergolfer wrote:
| I sometimes think about the problem of sending a message to
| someone in the far future such that they'd be guaranteed to
| receive it, regardless of their location on earth or
| attentiveness to the arrival time of the message.
|
| It's a fun creative thinking exercise.
|
| You can 'cheat' a bit by thinking of ways of sending a message
| such that ~everyone on earth would get it at the delivery time,
| including the intended target. But personalizing the delivery
| (thus adding privacy) makes the problem far, far more difficult.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| There's a calendar that will show you how many months you have
| left. https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/months.html
|
| Making a plan to make each month count is something I thought
| about recently. Something to remember each month by. It's a big
| enough chunk that you could for example take a trip somewhere,
| lose 10 lbs, or learn a new skill.
|
| It's a bit of a change of perspective to think of your life in
| terms of months.
|
| Kind of like not to think of the world as countries, but inter
| connected cities.
| zubairq wrote:
| I sometimes do write a letter to my future self. I should do it
| more often though!
| suketk wrote:
| Inspired by this, I built a way to send you a PAPER letter in the
| future. Check it out!
|
| https://dearfuture.carrd.com
| hammycheesy wrote:
| For me this link leads to what looks like a domain squatting
| page. Is something broken?
| suketk wrote:
| My bad, fixed!
| jvanderbot wrote:
| Career move: make your future resume. It helps focus intent.
| jmrm wrote:
| That's a really good idea I have never heard! I think this
| would help to focus a lot of young people if you encourage them
| to do it.
| Kagerjay wrote:
| I've done this many times and can confirm it's been helpful
| shpx wrote:
| "Your Future Self and Everyone With Access to the futureme.org
| Database"
|
| At least that's why I've never used this service and never will,
| even though I think it would be worthwhile.
| davchana wrote:
| I would write a letter in a text file, password encrypt it in a
| zip file, upload zip to Google drive, put a reminder in Google
| calendar for the date i want to open, with link & password.
| Kovah wrote:
| Interesting that they changed back their business model. I used
| the service a few times but stopped when they started forcing
| users into a monthly/yearly subscription to write more than one
| letter per year or so.
| poochipie wrote:
| Also: your children.
| DoingSomeThings wrote:
| I love this idea. My high school our english program had us write
| letters to ourself 10 years in the future. Such a joyous surprise
| when that teacher actually sent the letters 10 years later.
|
| I wonder though - How is this different than journaling? Doesn't
| a written record from the past you can refer back to in the
| future accomplish the same goal?
| GTP wrote:
| I would say that with journaling you're not guaranteed to look
| back at specific notes, you need somehow to force yourself to
| do so and have a way of easily finding that specific note at a
| specific point in the future. Sending a letter fixes this
| issue.
| gabev wrote:
| Have been using futureme for a few years now. Getting a letter
| every January 1st is a nice way to understand my headspace from
| the previous year.
|
| This coupled with my daily journal entries offers an interesting
| reflective process around the holiday season :)
| throwuxiytayq wrote:
| As a kid, using this site or some other, I wrote an email to
| myself and received it some 15 years later. That was awkward. I
| don't really know that guy.
| wanderingstan wrote:
| That's a good insight right there. I journal and use futureme
| and the biggest takeaway is how we really are different people
| at different times in life. (But with common threads you have
| to squint to find.)
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| I did this once and the resulting message was incredibly
| depressing so I don't think I would do it again. For me there is
| no value or point in engaging in such actions. It's probably only
| worth it if you have a positive outlook on life.
| barbazoo wrote:
| I was wondering too what I would use this for. I'm a bit
| worried that this would become a depressing exercise if goals
| or hopes do not come true. And boring if they do come true. I
| think I'm just not sure yet what a sustainable way to use this
| service is.
|
| Also I wish you the best and hope your outlook on life gets
| more positive.
| Ashbt wrote:
| I've done a similar thing using calendar events in the future.
|
| It's easy.
|
| Just open up your calendar app to a date like 5 years from now
| and type away.
|
| This derisks the possibility that the "future you service" goes
| under, taking your cherished letters with it.
| RajT88 wrote:
| I just use text files, with the dates stored in them. I make
| sure my folder is always backed up.
|
| I have a few that go back to 1999. It's always a trip to go
| back and reread them.
| forgot-im-old wrote:
| I like how this approach trusts your future self to look back
| at these files, while the other methods implicitly distrust
| the future self motivation to look back at your present self.
|
| Can we deeply trust the concept of our future self as being
| equivalent and worthwhile of replacing our present? Do we
| treat that future self almost like a child of our own?
| RajT88 wrote:
| I absolutely trust my future self to go back and look at
| the files.
|
| I do not think I would have started this practice without
| knowing this about myself.
|
| I do wish I made more of an effort to leave these notes. I
| have in my archive chat logs from various messaging
| services and there is contextual headspace which clearly
| has changed over the years without me really knowing it.
| For example: I had a conversation back in 2006 where it
| sounded like I thought very positively of Apple as a
| company. I have no recollection of thinking positively of
| Apple back then, and certainly not since.
| wanderingstan wrote:
| I've been using futureme for over a decade.
|
| Best use I've found is for when I have a huge decision to make.
| I'll email myself at some time _after_ the decision must be made;
| right when I might be having regrets. I explain to my future self
| how hard it is to decide right now and why the correct choice
| isn't clear. Usually with some encouragement of "I hope you know
| we made the best choice we could"
|
| Of course, I also send some occasionally on birthdays or when
| I've just give through something dramatic -- a reminder to future
| me to remember.
| Lance_ET_Compte wrote:
| This is something you can do at the post office at Burning Man.
|
| If you write to someone in the city, someone will deliver your
| letter/card. If you write to someone outside the city, they will
| pop it in USPS in Gerlach. If you write to someone no longer
| living, they'll deliver it to the temple. If you write to your
| future self, someday, someone may put it in USPS.
| 2pie wrote:
| Do they send email marketing?
| habitmelon wrote:
| Don't forget to write back
| HeOwnsTwitter wrote:
| My Russian ex used this to send me a long note eight years
| later.. on Chekist Day
| jmartrican wrote:
| And...?
| doakes wrote:
| After a 4-week backpacking trip (via NOLS), you're given the
| opportunity to write a letter to yourself that they would send to
| you in the future (can't remember how long, maybe a year). After
| 4 weeks of living out of a backpack in the Alaskan mountains,
| your perspective changes. They knew this and wanted you to give
| yourself a reminder of that perspective after it has faded back
| to the complexities of normal life. You really develop a
| different, and imo healthier, mindset about life.
| tomcar288 wrote:
| i can relate to this. sometimes coming across new philosophies
| can change your life's priorties and values quite a bit: for
| instancing learning about taoism.
| class3shock wrote:
| Unrelated but how did you like the experience? I've been
| thinking about trying to carve some significant time out for
| myself to do something outside of work like a NOLS trip, hike
| the Appalachian Trail, etc.
| mckravchyk wrote:
| I have done it with the past self (no I don't have a tachyo-
| something anti-telephone, just a theoretical exercise). You can
| look at the obvious mistakes you have made. How much more could
| you accomplish or get out of life if you just applied those few
| paragraphs of instructions. Then look at it and wonder, in 10
| years from now what kind of letter would I write to my present
| self, what obvious things am I missing now...
| atonalfreerider wrote:
| There is research that suggests that the temporal distancing
| with your past self is a more powerful therapy. This is the
| only study I could find:
|
| https://iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11...
| system2 wrote:
| I sent myself many emails in the last 15 years with Futureme. I
| am reading the sad times and remember how I felt those days. It
| also fascinated me how much I improved in 15 years; mentally and
| financially. There were some about loved ones' cancer treatments
| and every year the letters got more depressing. Hopes diminishing
| in emails feels very strange. Regardless of what it made me feel
| I recommend this to my friends. I write myself every few yes with
| it.
|
| Also, their Cron scheduler must be working its ass off. God knows
| how many are waiting to be sent out.
| herbertl wrote:
| Reminds me of becoming a magician (2018):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25024132
| divbzero wrote:
| Is there an analogous service that sends out letters if you go
| missing or pass away?
| andirk wrote:
| There's a "Dead Man's Switch" that gets triggered in the
| absence of you fulfilling some action to keep it from
| triggering. Once you for whatever reason cannot suppress the
| trigger, the switch is activated and whatever actions from it
| are performed, like send a letter to a bunch of people
| detailing some secret thing. Purpose is so your adversaries are
| constantly in check and can't destroy you. An example is that I
| was hoping infamous island owner Jeffery Epstein would have one
| that would reveal all the wrongdoings of the many elites in the
| event of him being captured or dying. To my knowledge, no such
| switch though. And also people don't seem to care much about
| powerful people doing gross things.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_man%27s_switch
| andirk wrote:
| One of my favorite websites!
|
| I do similar with just THOUGHTS. I send my future self a thought,
| often a question, and I get the answer albeit vague and difficult
| to decipher. Then when that time eventually comes, I answer my
| past self because at that moment I am receiving the past
| question. I know this sounds weird but that's fine. I'm not able
| to get any answers past ~10 years from now which is kind of
| unsettling, but I guess we can't live forever.
| h9n wrote:
| I address my journals to my future biographers. I also maintain a
| Spotify playlist for my biopic's soundtrack. And I leave digital
| footprints for ingestion by future AI models.
|
| A while of doing this has shaped my thinking generally. The tone
| moves along the serious-not-serious spectrum. I can speculate
| wildly and grandiosely about my plans and ideas from a _just
| joshing_ or _just in case_ perspective, and then reconsider them
| seriously.
|
| Hello everyone!
| ainiriand wrote:
| I used this once when I was working a shitty job to remind me
| about my situation when things were not so good.
|
| I read the letter some years ago and I came a long way,
| financially and personally.
| KaseKun wrote:
| Excellent idea. I found the UX after clicking send too tedious,
| so instead i went to gmail and hit schedule send for 2029
| einpoklum wrote:
| Don't use GMail. Google mines all of your communications - for
| advertising and other commercial activities of its partners;
| and also makes those communications accessible and searchable
| by some branches of the US federal government, and perhaps
| other parties.
|
| There are less-privacy-invading alternatives - both paid and
| gratis - which you should consider. I'd particularly suggest
| trying options that are not based in the US, the UK or Canada.
|
| (The harder part is avoiding conversing with people who use
| GMail, but the more of us leave it, the more that can be
| realized.)
| phren0logy wrote:
| Ha, made me immediately think of one of my favorite songs!
|
| Future Me Hates Me, by The Beths
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVImwSb4EYU
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