Last Updated on October 20, 2021
This is related to my musing/crisis around identity.
The Different ‘Yous’
I notice this phenomenon quite often, but I don’t yet have a good name for it. Hopefully in my mental model quest I will track the right name down and I won’t have to use this placeholder.
The phenomenon occurs when I look back at an earlier version of myself, e.g. yesterday, and I can’t really identify with that person. It’s generally a time colored by some kind of emotion, e.g. maybe I am currently feeling excited and optimistic, and previously was feeling really tired and maybe more pessimistic. The difference in me yesterday vs. me today can appear vast. Maybe it’s just a strange interaction between emotion and perceived identify? Or it’s just a realization of the power of emotions on perception?
I don’t know if this makes any sense, I guess I’ll just categorize it as exploratory journalling for now.
It reminds me a bit of Neurons Gone Wild which is a really great blog post you must read.
Also related, my post on perception vs. reality.