I’ve been struggling with something for a while now and ironically a sitcom from the 80’s finally helped me pinpoint the problem. My TV was on for background noise and I noticed that it was an episode of Family Ties. In the episode, Elyse Keaton was having a problem. A prominent building that she designed was being torn down and replaced by a cookie cutter mini-mall. She was struggling with her “legacy” - her mark on the world - disappearing. After the building was gone, what evidence would there be that Elyse Keaton was there?
I’m facing a similar issue. I don’t like getting into my day job too much online (for various reasons), but suffice it to say that applications that I developed for decades are being sunset/replaced. I’ve developed quite a lot over the decades, but eventually it would all be replaced. Once it is, what will I have as “proof that TechyDad was here”?
How do you handle the existential crisis of our works being digital and transient versus having an actual, physical product?
I relativise: one human among billions, on a planet among 9, surrounding a star among billions, in a galaxy among trillions. Things existed before I was born, things will exist after I die and they will continue to exist for a nigh uncountable amount of time. We are infinitesimally important and life has the importance you attribute to it.
What’s most important to me is gaining more understanding and knowledge in the most comfortable manner possible, while trying to be a positive influence during my blip in universal time. A legacy is thus completely and utterly unnecessary.
Beautifully put
I’m with you on this mindset. I think to survive death and persist is an innate survival instict that only mindfulness and intelligence can overcome.