Do you ponder about the past?

Author: TheRealNihilist

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I just did and found an animated TV show I watched. For some reason I am feeling nostalgic to the show and to a part that I found worth remembering. 

It is kind of depressing given the way that story I remembered ended and how it started and it kind of confirms my mindset now. I don't know if it is a cause of who I am but just me confirming my biases then I would be asking why is my mind prioritizing what is bad for me?

Basically do you ponder about the past and give whatever detail you see fit to answer it. You can state your position on what I said in the second paragraph as well. I think it can be confirmation bias but it is a bad feeling or you think it is likely. I am not asking for you to know just simply guess. 

Thanks in advance. 
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@TheRealNihilist
Remembering and the subsequent utilisation of data is what sets us apart as a species. 

Though sometimes our tendency to wallow in the past often seems a tad counter-productive and pointless.

But wallowing in the past is what a lot of people like to do. So maybe it's inherent and unavoidable.

Perhaps inherent overuse of memory is an evolutionary regulator.

449 days later

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Yes, often when it comes to entertainment, as I can't seem to recall information so vividly as 'experiencing it again. Be it written word, audio, video, one get's the picture.
Farther in the past, choices made, thoughts thunk, that too. Even embarrassing moments, times of failure, humiliation. . .
I suppose I like considering 'who I am, and 'how I came to be.
For me at times it's just fascination with oneself, narcissism, though not 'really 'more than others, ordinary really, but that doesn't matter to a person who likes viewing themself.
Sometimes in the considering, for 'me, it's the cautioning of the present, and future. Lightly given admonishments to not be prideful, or hateful, or 'try not to be such anyhow.

Though I can't say I 'try to remember the memories I find hateful, those just pop up 'now and 'then.
Those I mainly try to push away, suppress, let pass, fade.
Though I might take them for a moment, use them in a constructive manner against momentary or future hardship.
What one's survived in the past, or might accept to occur in the future. Or mitigate in the present of future.

Ah, rambling,
why is my mind prioritizing what is bad for me?
Just my opinion, and I might have heard it somewhere else.
But seems to me 'advantageous to recall what has hurt us in the past, been unpleasant, dangerous, horrid.
Advantageous to the point of natural instinct maybe, one wants to 'avoid such stimuli in the future after all, and if one doesn't remember that fire burns, that a plant gave one a rash for a month, that Evangelion and similar anime was depressing, one might experience such again. Might not avoid it, if they don't remember it.

Back to rambling though. . .
I suppose memory can be an interesting media, a book, a daydream. Even if one can't remember perfectly, daydreaming can be interesting.
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@Lemming
Thankfully my pondering is short-lived or I don't have to check up on it for a while. I don't think I will ever get a satisfying answer so it's best to forget about it. 

...

Don't know about it being a learning tool because most of what I remember I have yet to improve on or if I do it wouldn't be to same people I am impacted. The best thing I can do is also forget about it.

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Memory I think it is for the best we don't remember everything. I think I would be more hateful. I just forget and don't really care about I issues I had with people. If I was able to remember I would do whatever it takes to make their life a misery but I haven't. The positives would be in law testimony would be better and if I somehow I am able to learn from my mistakes then that is also a benefit. 



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Heh, myself I've been positively low keyed 'infuriated at times that I can't remember 'everything.
As one of the ways I like defining myself 'as myself, is memory. Information, identity.
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Oh yeah that was one of our disagreements. I said it would be better to not remember everything because it wouldn't really improve live something like ignorance is bliss whereas I guess you take the position knowledge equals happiness.

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Defining yourself is not a big deal I think. Just like base it on what you do now and have some long term goals on how you could change and work to that. 


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Oh yeah that was one of our disagreements. I said it would be better to not remember everything because it wouldn't really improve live something like ignorance is bliss whereas I guess you take the position knowledge equals happiness.
I'm not sure 'what my position is, as I'm not sure what the 'question is in that quite.

If someone offered to delete some memories I find painful or embarrassing, I think I'd rather refuse them.
. . .
Perhaps I 'would be 'happier without some memories, But I take an odd pleasure in being 'me. Though there's nothing outstanding or exceptional there.
Reminds me of a time ago odd debate, about the best of all possible worlds, I made the argument it's the current one.
Really just for arguments sake,
But I made the argument on the premise of valuing oneself.
Though I might have been happier without a scraped knee, might think it more 'right if I had not hurt some people's feelings by insult in the past.
If such had not happened, 'I would not 'exist.
And it's that 'existence that I placed supreme value upon, in that debate, and even now I suppose.

Though one 'cannot 'avoid changing/losing what one 'is. Ah well.
. . .

Really there's 'too much to 'know in existence, be a hassle to 'always be trying to know 'everything, be learning 'every minute of the moment, learning new equations, or what dimension the room one entered just is, and so on.
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@Lemming
I would do the opposite. I don't think it is not likely you will learn from mistakes unless you went out of your way to do so and in some cases you can't change only look forward. Something like your kid died of a rare disease that you couldn't prevent and for the rest of your life everyone once in a while that brings you down. Forgetting that helps the person focus on the other people that matter to them most in life. 

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Don't know about valuing yourself. I guess the disadvantages are that your ego becomes so huge you just can't seem to understand other people. The positives of course is that you can always default that at least I'm okay as way of moving through hardships.

...

I don't think it is possible to learn everything and the best you can do is know what you can know really well and avoid other topics intentionally so that you say things that are untrue. 
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i like watching old tv shows an movies all the time but id say when it comes to life i like to focus on the present an sometimes the future 

i do think about the past now an than whenever im trying to fix problems in the present 
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Yeah I think about the past but I don't live there
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@Sum1hugme
You barely live in the present and prepare for a future you may never see

Got em 
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I'm not sure where you get that idea
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As I stated originally.....Memory is the answer....it's a human specialism.
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@TheRealNihilist
mm, I'd say knowledge allows you to make informed decisions that are ultimately better for you, regardless of "happiness"