Background
I had to live in all sorts of weird and disgusting places in order to distance myself from my dysfunctional family. This was basically most of my 20's, while everyone around me was thriving, I had to deal with this instead. My salary at the time could not afford me proper living spaces, so it was rooms in a shared flat, most of the time, but there were others where I lived alone, such as an attic apartment where I nearly died from respiratory infections.
Anyway, in one of those flats, there was a 60 year old dude. Short just like me, overweight, wore glasses. Hated his job. Always swung between depression and anger... One time it was early morning and I dropped items in my room shelf; because this was a shitty old flat, the walls feel like they're made of sand, so obviously he heard the noise. He came storming out of his room seething "PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING" etc. Although later that afternoon he apologized fwiw.
He wasn't super successful with relationships. In fact he only recounted one, like 20 years prior. He also had not bought a house, which is why he was there, this was a common point of frustration, because he could've bought in 80s,90s, late 00s at most.
Why "Life Expectancy" is a misleading concept
Do you want to be 60 years old?Moreover, do you want to be LIKE this 60 year old man in particular?
I sure as shit don't, that sounds fucking depressing.
I'm not sure where this obsession with life expectancy comes from. Perhaps the false notion that quantity beats quality (you'd be surprised that even in the IT industry in 2026, this is still a common notion).
In any case, this was the second canary in the coalmines, and it horrified me that I could end up like this guy OR WORSE. I have since taken measures to slightly alter fate but I'm still paranoid about it.
