What big things do you want to do in your life?

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My first big ambition was to get close to God. Later I realized that getting close to anyone loving and responsive would do. Next, I set out to improve a technology for healthier, cheaper living. I won a world championship, but the industry is still creeping toward the goal I demonstrated 30 years ago. Big steps are too disruptive and strange for people. Now I'm trying to get people to understand a new insight into why people on both sides of an argument feel so right. Unfortunately, this shakes their self-confidence, so I'm usually dismissed right away.

Go on The Kinks Big Black Smoke tour in London. That's been a dream of mine for since the Year 2000.

I can definitely relate to that. I seem to have had a pattern of being about 20-25 years ahead of my time. This might sound appealing on the surface, but in fact it makes life quite practically difficult. If you're two years ahead of everyone you get rich; if you're five years ahead of everyone you're hailed as a prophet; if you're 25 years ahead, a journalist tracks you down near the end of your life when you're living in a cardboard box and asks you how you knew so much in advance.

I want to become a well-known writer and use my book tours as an excuse to travel the world

A very large percentage of the scientific discoveries of the 19th century were then recognized in the notes of one guy from the 18th. He did manage to explain a few ideas to his contemporaries, enough to be welcome at the Royal Society. If someone wanted to ask him about their own hypothesis, the procedure was to stand within earshot of him, and explain it. If he didn't clap his hands over his ears and run away, you were probably onto something good. I really wish I'd remembered his name - it only popped up once.

OTOH, Diogenes managed honour in his own time, despite dreadful social habits.
"Every generalization is worthless - including this one."
- Mark Twain