present self vs. future self -or- grizzly bear vs. great white shark

interesting little article that reminded me of a topic i've been meaning to discuss.

So, I'm all for living in the present, but I'm afraid it can be much to the detriment of the future self, immediate or otherwise. In fact, it's more likely to be at the detriment of the immediate future self. Even if you're living each day like it's your last, you're still likely to wake up tomorrow. And if you've lived the previous day like your last you're likely not in the best of positions; instead of doing your homework or workwork, you went to the cheesecake factory and some had some pink lemonade. good job.

And present-living-fun-loving you, in addition to screwing tomorrow-you, you're screwing over retirement-you; assuming you even get to retire. Remember, retirement is reserved for folks who have been able to hold down a job. And present-fun-loving-you dropped out of school/got fired to pursue butterfly catching and blowing bubbles. You have no education and no employment.

But maybe it isn't all so bad. Maybe this is the way we're meant to live. Drifting like hobos from flower to flower. Or maybe you can land an awesome job that you happily do over anything else in the world (e.g., video game tester, beer tester, uhh... butterfly catcher?, leave your own examples in the comments!). I suspect however, that having the obligation to do even the funnest of things changes it just slightly; leaves it exposed to being usurped by something else that's almost as fun that you could be doing if you didn't have this damn job...

So... fuck the ever-fleeting present self? Screw future-you?