is life really that short?

it kind of annoying when people keep saying life is too short.

do you think life is that short?
today avg people in develop countries can easily live 80 +

Life isn't short, it's the longest thing you'll ever do.

I'd say life is short in hindsight, and very short indeed if you consider the years in the grand scheme of things, but when you consider that life expectancy has increased significantly when compared to, say, 50 years ago (at least in MEDCs) I don't think things are all that bad. I think it depends on how you use the time you have, as well. It's more a feeling than anything else - you might die thinking life was too short if you didn't accomplish everything you wanted/planned to, but then, you could live a very fulfilling life and die, whilst not exactly happy about it, content that it was long enough for you to experience what you wanted.

You know, this is something I was actually thinking about making a thread on - it's really hard to say, but it doesn't feel short. I think I once read a Google questions that said "is life really too short or do we just waste it?" I may feel that people who say this are talking to people that they think are just wasting it and crying over things that are deemed stupid.

Technological pogress takes some work from you and allows you to work more for getting a better life. Unfortunately, with all the possibilities that technology gives you, in order to get a better life, you have to work even more and in the end you come to realize, that you've lost way more time, that you could have just spend having some fun.

Keiran said:

Life isn't short, it's the longest thing you'll ever do.

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Beat me to it.

Guys, life only seems short 'cause when you get older, time just goes by faster. I'm too lazy to go into detail right now, but most of you will probably get what I'm talking about.

I actually agree with this one, I can't stand that saying. I think people use it to get out of trouble, like "life's too short to hold grudges!"

Compared to most things it's pretty short, but it's really up to you and how you perceive it/want to look at it. As of late it really does seem like the days fly by and I'm starting to understand why older people say things like "in the blink of an eye I went from 20 to 40."


I'm 21 and I still can't seem to grasp I'm an adult at times, but perhaps that's just a stage of being a young adult. But idk I feel like I will be one of those middle age people who is still really a child at heart so maybe I'll never "feel" like an adult. So hopefully in that way life will seem long... but rather than long I just want it to be fulfilling/enjoyable

I feel life is too long honestly. I look at the span of how long I'm supposed to live, and just think... damn, I've already done 20 years, and I've got another, what, 60 to go? ****.

Life is too short. I can't stand the fact I'm gonna die someday and not be able to play video games anymore cause I'll be in the ground. I saw someone that was 114 on the news and I was like DAMN I WANNA DO THAT.

I think I'm not even in the right ball park.

People who say "Life is just a tiny blink in the universe." as a rationalization that life is short just make me roll my eyes so hard. All the time in the universe doesn't matter during your lifetime. Comparing your lifetime to that, of course it's going to fall short.

Life itself, in my opinion, is really long while I'm living it. Days seem to just drag on sometimes. But then, four years later, I'm like "Wait a minute... It's been four years already?" so I guess its short in retrospect, like some others have said.

Life isn't short, just the amount of time that you'll be young during it.

We don't perceive our lives as short-lived internally (assuming we age over 70) despite fear of death, a fear which has evolutionary founding.

We can however contemplate, given externally-acquired knowledge of our existence in relation to human existence, living existence (on earth), and the existence of the universe and come to the conclusion that life is short.

Further, with greater living standards and satisfaction of life, comparative to past human civilizations in a state of hunger, lacking any justice in their legal systems, few rights, little to no health care options, constant war/skirmishes, governmental stability, non-sophisticated economic system, no leisure time, very few individual rights, ect. ect. ect.

With that said, there are still conflicts, but there was essentially no potentiality for anyone aside from aristocrats or monarchs to achieve a degree of satisfaction. Well, Machiavelli would argue as well that these leaders were often foolish in this respect, usurping all pleasure from the populous which will inevitably lead to a revolution and chaos.

With that greater living standard, there are higher exit costs in death. Thus, more value in life. Once a resource is deemed more valuable, we have greater demand for it, and perceive the time we do have as insufficient to our desires.

Not to say those in the past would pass up immortality. There were just lower exit costs, especially if an individual had religious belief in an afterlife.

Prior to advanced human dialect, it's fair to say exit cost were even lower. As a person aged in a hunting and gathering society, the band would be weaker, more vulnerable to other bands as well as predatory animals. Not to mention, resources for the strong and able bodied would be "wasted" on a person that wouldn't be able to contribute. For those reason, we developed a capacity to be fine with death innately, since it's against our nature to desire to act in a way that would jeopardize our own progeny. Actually, at a certain point, there is actually an exit profit to death!

I'm not sure about my argument though...I have never really though about the perception of longevity of life over time.

EDIT:

My bad. I thought this was in D&D.

Patchisou Yutohru said:

Life itself, in my opinion, is really long while I'm living it. Days seem to just drag on sometimes. But then, four years later, I'm like "Wait a minute... It's been four years already?" so I guess its short in retrospect, like some others have said.

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You know, on this note, when I went to my brother's graduation back in May 2013, the guy who was speaking said something about how "days are long, but years pass by". What I think he meant there was that it feels like the hours of the day pass slowly, but the years themselves are into the new. Which kind of correlates to your claim here.