Would you change the way you live if you knew it would soon be over?

Sure. No need to save up or plan for a future that never comes, so I'd stop saving up money and probably stop working depending on how far in the future it is. Then try to cram as many things that I always wanted to do as possible into my remaining time.

I might plan and save even more. I Have kids in college and my priority for almost 20 years has been to do my best to give them a good start in life. If I won’t live to see it, won’t have the income to make it so, I’ll live like a pauper to set aside enough for them to at least finish school

I have what may be a unique perspective here. I have a brain tumor, glioma, diagnosed August 2023. I was told I had 1-3 years to live with a 99% chance. As it turns out, I have a rare slow-growing type (oligodendroglioma) with the right mutations. I got treatment and now I still have the tumor but I have a prognosis to live for a long time.

So what did I learn? Not much, mostly cliches. But have the drink, laugh with people, enjoy the day. There is no magic revelation. Enjoy the day. If you don’t enjoy the day, learn from that and fix it.

I’d type more but there’s not much more to put. I spent time making a will, ensuring my affairs were in order. I was gonn quit my job and travel, but it turned out I need the insurance. Luckily for me I like my job and my company. Everything is ethereal.

Thank you for sharing and all the best for you!

If I wouldn't see my next paycheck, I'd stop working. No need to do so then.

Would you spend your remaining time differently than you do now? If so, why aren't you already doing it?

Others have said it in the thread, but this is simple. When your time is short (or shorter), the length of time you need to deal with the consequences of your actions disappears or diminishes significantly.

So the real question is actually, what would you do if you didn't have to deal with the consequences? And I think asking it any other way is disingenuous.

See my reply above …. Some of us do take the question differently. Some of us have unfinished business we’ll do anything to finish, even if we never see it. Done of us _only_care about the cnsequences

Yeah. I would stop studying and just focus on things I enjoy

Imagine suddenly you no longer exist, poof, from one day to the next there is no more you.

On the last day I'd throw a big party. Then as my time approached I'd say: "Attention everyone! There's something I never told you. My real name is Sergius of Proxima Centauri! I come from another planet! And it is now time for me to beam up to my spaceship. Somebody film this please...." Then I'd sit in a full-lotus position til I disappeared.

No, seriously, I'd just double-check my will and give away most my personal stuff, then go on living like always.

Over just for me or everyone?

This is a great distinction that needs further investigation.
- I thought of "you" as an individual. But lets keep this thread going...

I’d put everything on credit cards that I’m responsible for. No co signer. So when I die there’s nothing they can do. Then travel the world. Also would withdraw my 401k and have fun. That’s if I’m dead in a year. By the time they figure it out, I’m dead (that is if I’m smart about how I do it).

What are they doing to do? Dig me up and put me in jail?

In some cases your debt is passed on to your heirs. Consult a lawyer familiar with your local laws.
- This is completely illegal in the United States, and may also be in other countries.
  
  If you live in the US and a collector comes after you for your parents' debt, tell them to bite rocks (or if you can afford to, rake them over the coals in court).
- In my place, you can either accept the inheritance in full (including debts) or decline in full. So you cannot say that you keep the car but won't pay the loan.

I'd spend time with loved ones and look forward to not having to deal with gestures vaguely at the world this bullshit ever again.

Oh fuck yeah. Id hop on that website showing all dots for kiddie diddlers, and start reducing the number of dots one by one.

How about corrupt politicians who are also on the epstein list 🤔

(I mean its harder to find their location, but just hang around in DC long enough and you'll see their pattern of movement...)
- Na. Way too likely of yielding way less omissions. I'm not trying to make a fuckin political movement. I'm trying to kill as many people who fuck kids as possible.

If I knew there was nothing after next week, I'd keep doing what I do, but harder.

because you like it?
- I'll just smoke more weed and play more video games. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I don't really do drugs; I smoke weed that's it. Only other things I've even tried were mushrooms (and I didn't like them). But if I knew for a fact that I was going to die or stop existing a month from now I would be out trying everything. Cocaine, meth, heroin, crack, really try and get ayahuasca, PCP; everything. Don't care what it does to me or if I get addicted because I ain't gonna be around that long anyway; might as well fucking party. I don't have anyone in my life to make arrangements with or leave anything to (not that I have much to leave to anyone anyway).

I recommend to newcomers to try lsd before trying psilocybin. Psilocybin hits you in waves. Where you go thru the experience having moments of intense tripping and mellow tripping. It also is technically a poison in your body's regard so it can cause you to have wierd stomache sensations. Not really like a nauseous feeling but more of a feeling like your stomache is doing flips.

Lsd is a much more stable experience that slowly escalates to a long plateau of tripping. Your experience is the result of your brain using different pathways than it normally does.

Not trying to persuade anyone into doing drugs for the first time. Just wanted to provide my anecdotal experiences with psychedelics.

If I had one year left without slowly feeling worse because of some sickness I think I would just continue what I’m doing already but with an extreme deadline.

make sure I make the best with my family
finish my dissertation, a year is doable
organize my archival/datahoarding material to be accessible to family and backed up
make my will very clear
maybe the biggest change I would make would be to divorce my partner so I can max out my credit cards traveling with them to see family and friends in three countries.
maybe try to take more seriously meditation, an hour a day
I’m not sure I would want to do anything that could hurt my family, their opinion of me, or separate me from them during that year.

Five years is such a significant amount of time I really don’t know if that could change anything. The deadlines would feel so far away.

A month would feel crazy fast. This might cause me to make more radical changes.

I already know it will soon be over, that's one surety in life.

If that were really true, then spending time on Lemmy is part of your answer.
- claro que si

Would you spend your remaining time differently than you do now? If so, why aren't you already doing it

I'd go on a big trip around the world. I love traveling but my budget is limited, and also that thing called a job, even tho I have a lot of PTO it's not easy to take more than a couple of weeks at a time

Would you spend your remaining time differently than you do now?

If so, why aren’t you already doing it?

Probably not as I am already stuck.

I am not aware of what I would do differently, where I would go, how I would reliably get there, and I don't have much money. Also I don't really have much contact with anyone.

And y'know, things aren't looking great with the news but that's all I'll say.

A low-poly, vertex color-only model of a tail-less gecko, pathetic-looking and purple under its eyes. The origin lines from the software Blender can be barely seen

My own life only? Not everything?

One year? And I am healthy for it? Maybe quit working, spend the retirement money traveling for awhile. Maybe.

Five years, and I am healthy for them? And only I know this? Increase my life insurance each year, keep working but take longer breaks, try to make sure that my husband can pay off the house and stuff with the life insurance.

Why am I not doing these things? Because they are short term plans that would be harmful over a longer lifetime. The first, obviously, but the second would be expensive and unsustainable as well. Like it or not, I have to plan for a long life, keep healthy, keep my job, and I am pretty happy already.

I would try, but I doubt I'd have success.

It's a question I've thought about a lot. Not only to me but the limited time I have left with my parents.

YOLO'ing only works for those without responsibilities to others or foresight. If you actually knew your life was ending, that certainly changes priorities. Life becomes a sprint instead of a marathon.

To those who say without knowing the future, "Live every day as if it were your last," I like to tack on, "... But there's a fair chance you may actually live for another year or more!" Stay grateful; seize the day, sure, but you still need to tread water.

There is no way to know whether changing the way you live would still kill on that death date. You wouldn't know whether because of the changes you make, you die on that day. Also you wouldn't know if not making a change kills you earlier.

Yes, yes i would.

But I'm not poofing, so I'm not willing to go to prison.

Yes

I'd put more effort into recording family history. Why aren't I doing so now? Because it's a lot of work and I don't have anyone to help me with it. It includes scanning photos, scanning negatives, and labeling and organizing all the pictures; converting reel-to-reel takes, mini-cassettes and audio cassettes to digital, and labeling those; converting VHS to DVD and labeling those; finding and transcribing family recipes and organizing them into an annotated cookbook; transcribing old letters from the early to late 1900's in various handwriting styles, and every medium from faded pencil to blotted fountain pen to hurriedly scrawled ballpoint, in everything from tissue-thin airmail paper to fragile student notepaper to cat-pee'd-upon cards; and writing a short biography of the various people who are pictured, recorded, written, etc, in all the various media.

Get it done now so you don't have to worry about it later.
- I said I'd put more effort into the work, not that I was putting no effort into it. Like, my grandad was an amateur photographer and I have all these negatives of his work. I can't afford the money to get them scanned professionally (so many negatives!), but I bought a pro-sumer grade negative scanner and am scanning them myself. Unfortunately, as I said, there are a lot of negatives, and it takes me around one hour to process each roll. It's gonna take me another year to scan all the negatives.
  
  Then I have an entire bookcase of photographs that need to be scanned (only a small subset of these are granddad's work). Again, I can't afford to get them scanned professionally, but I have a decent scanner for the PC, so that's what I'm working with, but it'll take a long time to scan in and process all those photos.
  
  My uncle was a professor and the university taped some of his lectures; a different aunt was a very small-time actress and has maybe 200 VHS tapes of her performances. Granddad was a local musician, so we have some audio tapes of that. Etc, etc, etc.
  
  Everything needs time and concentration, and I'm only one person. It's gonna take me years to finish everything.

I'd probably carry on life as normal, but start peppering my conversations with things like "I'm finally looking forward to spending time with my family," and "I just nailed a huge promotion," and "I finally just had an offer accepted on a house," and "I just beat cancer, so we're finally going to get married!"

If I see my death coming and there's nothing I can do about it, I want it to seem like the most unfortunate, tragically timed event possible.

I'd kill myself because I hate anticipation. good or bad don't matter.