Yes, it really does. It makes me want to do things. If I wasn’t tracking that some percent of my natural lifespan is gone now, I might be inclined to just hang out and do whatever, like when I was a kid.

I actually still do want to leave some kind of legacy, although who knows how much of one is realistic. It just seems like a reasonable goal, when there actually are no defined goals. There’s a moral dimension to that, too; if the world is just ever so slightly better because of me, that’s good.

(Since I’m about to concede morality is not actually very strong, I should make a note that an individual person still can follow a moral system. You tend to pick a worldview that allows you to do what you want, though, and most people, who aren’t fixated on minutiae, will juggle a few)

Failing that, seizing the day, and learning or experiencing everything I can is important.

I don’t consider myself depressed but after seeing and reading what humans do to other humans I don’t trust the better angels of our nature can make the world a better place.

The interesting thing about history is that it demonstrates very starkly that humans have no firm morality, but it’s also ended (as in, so far) with a couple hundred years of actual progress. Clearly, we don’t have to actually be good, or at least naturally be good, for good outcomes to happen.

Don’t take that the wrong way, it still all could go terribly. But, it’s more complicated than just “we build what we are”.