The Tail End

life

Interactive visualization of an aspect of life

Published

September 21, 2024

The Tail End by Tim Urban is a blog post everyone should read.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and made a small interactive visualization of one aspect of it. How most of us, including myself, are already in the tails of some aspects of our lives. (Luckily, we are in the opposite tails for some other aspects.)

If we think, for example, about the times we will still see our parents, we are certainly already in our tails. Most of our interactions with them already happened and there is only a small fraction of them ahead of us.

Current Age: 34

--- title: 'The Tail End' description: <i>Interactive visualization of an aspect of life</i> image: "" sidebar: false categories: - life date: "9/21/2024" format: html: code-tools: true include-in-header: text: | <style> .cell-output-stdout { overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; } </style> --- [The Tail End by Tim Urban](https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html) is a blog post everyone should read. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and made a small interactive visualization of one aspect of it. How most of us, including myself, are already in the tails of some aspects of our lives. (Luckily, we are in the opposite tails for some other aspects.) If we think, for example, about the times we will still see our parents, we are certainly already in our tails. Most of our interactions with them already happened and there is only a small fraction of them ahead of us. ```{=html} <div> <input type="range" id="ageInput" min="0" max="90" value="34" step="1" style="width: 300px;"> <span id="ageDisplay">Current Age: 34</span> </div> <div id="plotDiv" style="width:600px;height:600px;"></div> <script src="https://cdn.plot.ly/plotly-latest.min.js"></script> <script> // Parameters for life expectancy and stages const life_expectancy = 90; const childhood_years = 18; const childhood_interactions_per_year = 365 * 0.9; const adult_visits_per_year = 10; const total_dots = 400; const parent_start_age = 25; const parent_life_expectancy = 80; function updatePlot(age) { // Calculate parent's current age const parent_age = parent_start_age + age; // Calculate filled interactions let filled_interactions; if (age <= childhood_years) { filled_interactions = age * childhood_interactions_per_year; } else { filled_interactions = childhood_years * childhood_interactions_per_year; const adult_years = Math.min(age - childhood_years, parent_life_expectancy - parent_start_age - childhood_years); filled_interactions += adult_years * adult_visits_per_year; } // Cap filled interactions const max_adult_years = parent_life_expectancy - parent_start_age - childhood_years; const max_interactions = (childhood_years * childhood_interactions_per_year) + max_adult_years * adult_visits_per_year; let filled_dots; if (parent_age >= parent_life_expectancy) { filled_dots = total_dots; } else { filled_dots = Math.min(Math.floor((filled_interactions / max_interactions) * total_dots), total_dots); } // Create the grid of dots const x = []; const y = []; const colors = []; for (let i = 0; i < total_dots; i++) { x.push(i % 20); y.push(Math.floor(i / 20)); colors.push(i < filled_dots ? 'blue' : 'lightgray'); } const data = [{ x: x, y: y, mode: 'markers', marker: { size: 10, color: colors }, type: 'scatter' }]; const layout = { title: `Remaining Parent Time at Age ${age} (Parent's Age: ${parent_start_age + age})`, xaxis: {showgrid: false, zeroline: false, visible: false}, yaxis: {showgrid: false, zeroline: false, visible: false}, width: 600, height: 600, hovermode: false }; Plotly.newPlot('plotDiv', data, layout); } const ageInput = document.getElementById('ageInput'); const ageDisplay = document.getElementById('ageDisplay'); ageInput.addEventListener('input', function() { const age = parseInt(this.value); ageDisplay.textContent = `Current Age: ${age}`; updatePlot(age); }); // Initial plot updatePlot(34); </script>