”In this situation, **any decision I make, to do anything at all with my time, is already radically limited**. For one thing, it’s limited in a retrospective sense, because I’m already who I am and where I am, which determines what possibilities are open to me. **But it’s also radically limited in a forward-looking sense, too, not least because a decision to do any given thing will automatically mean sacrificing an infinite number of potential alternative paths**. “**As I make hundreds of small choices throughout the day, I’m building a life—but at one and the same time, I’m closing off the possibility of countless others**, forever. (The original Latin word for “decide,” decidere, means “to cut off,” as in slicing away alternatives; it’s a close cousin of words like “homicide” and “suicide.”) **Any finite life—even the best one you could possibly imagine—is therefore a matter of ceaselessly waving goodbye to possibility**.” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[momento-mori]], [[priorities]], [[making-decisions]], [[opportunity-cost]], [[attention]], [[personal-values]], **Source** -- [[202410130434 - B - Four Thousand Weeks]]