The Idealism of our Future Self

Back when people maintain a queue with Netflix of the movies they wanted mailed to them, Netflix noticed that “heavy” movies like Schindler’s List tended to get put on the list, but them bumped down the list multiple times. Speculation is because Schindler’s List is a movie we think our future selves will want to watch because our future selves will be intellectual and introspective, however when we “catch up “ to a future selves, and the future becomes the present, we realize that we’re no better than we were, and we’d rather watch Weekend at Bernies.

We sign up for social and educational events all the time, then get annoyed when the time comes to actually attend them. When signing up for them, it’s not something we would do right in that moment, but we think our future self will love it, because our future self is better than our current self. But when the time comes, we realize that we’re no better a person than we were when we signed up.