The end of history

Harvard psychologist, Dan Gilbert, created a two-question test.

From James Wallman’s Time and How to Spend It:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = no change at all and 10 = drastic and complete change, by how much have your ideas, beliefs and preferences changed in the past 10 years?
2. On the same scale of 1 to 10, by how much do you expect your ideas, beliefs and preferences to change in the next 10 years?

We’re much more likely to give a higher score to the first question, and a lower score the second.

We do change. And we see that change when we look back.

Yet when we look forward, we don’t believe that we will change. We’re done. We’re the finished product.

Dan calls this the ‘end of history’ illusion.

Change is not only inevitable, it’s helpful. Growth is one of the key factors to our happiness. And so we shouldn’t simply accept change, we should lean into it. Change is happening, and it’s an opportunity for you to make the changes you’ll look back on in 10 years time.