What it is
The end-of-history illusion is our tendency to underestimate how much we’ll change in the next ten years. We can see how much we changed in the last ten, but we believe our personal history has ended, that we’ve become who we were meant to be.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert’s research found that because we expect our preferences to stay stable, we overpay for them now, and our future selves aren’t always thrilled with the decisions we made for them.
How it shows up for me
Turning 40 made this obvious. The me of ten years ago would not recognize my habits, my values or my house. I try to make decisions my future self can undo, and to hold today’s certainties a bit more loosely.