Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#61

Post by dang » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

yosito wrote: post #9

This is a completely vapid article. The headline implies an answer. This short article starts with "nobody knows" and ends with "one guy's random idea is...".

Normally we downweight articles like that off the front page, but the thread is surprisingly better.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#62

Post by felix318 » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

I discovered one thing about my hearing that, I think, implies the same thing this article is talking about. When we hear a quick sequence of distinct sounds, like a ringing bell for instance, depending on how fast one sound follows the other we may be aware of each individual sound or perceive everything as a blur. Now what I observed is that the threshold between “individual sounds” and “blurry” is determined by the brain, not by the physics of sound. Our brains have a “clock speed” which limits the “sample rate” for our perception of reality.

I suspect that the internal clock slows down as we age. That wouldn’t affect our perception of the speed of physical events, because those are relative to each other, but it would reduce the ratio of physical events per “clock cycles”, giving us the sensation of a shrinking of the time dimension. The past becomes more “blurry”, so to speak.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#63

Post by handrous » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

tralarpa wrote: post #50

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

> Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences I have read that explanation several times on different websites, but I don't agree. Had a lot of new and unique things happening to me in the past decade (kids, moving, new job, new country,...). Times still flew. I have talked to friends about this and they have noticed the same thing.

I don't buy the "novelty" thing, either. Between high school and an evening job, about three of those years were the most regimented of my life, and high school definitely wasn't providing enough novelty, in any way, to make up for it. Yet those years felt extremely slow compared to now. I feel like I blink and a season's gone. Fall or Summer used to feel so long back then. And Winter, practically eternal. Now it's like, "wait, didn't Summer just start? Why are the leaves all turning?"

Some time around IIRC 25, the effect really started to take off, and it's never gotten better, no matter how much my life is shaken up.

[EDIT] and on shorter time scales, back then, tell me I've got an hour? Fuck yeah! Enough time to do several things! Now it's like... ugh, barely enough to even start something. Guess I'll putter and tidy the house until it's up, which'll feel like about ten minutes from now.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#64

Post by belltaco » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

gmfawcett wrote: post #21

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

This is a much more compelling argument than the article's.

Both can be true in their own way though.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#65

Post by Apocryphon » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

Anecdotally, I've always felt that traveling to somewhere new feels like a longer experience than coming back from that place, unless the return trip has an emotional component to it (boredom, urgency, anxious to return). I tend to notice the details of the unfamiliar road more. On the way back, my mind has already cached that path.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#66

Post by excalibur » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

new_guy wrote: post #33

I would have expected better especially from Harvard, it's already known why. Subjective time is measured in terms of biological impact events. Basically the more novel experiences you have the slower time seems to pass for you, the less novel (interesting) stuff you do the faster time passes because there's no markers. This stuff has been known for literally decades now.

> This stuff has been known for literally decades now.

Doesn't seem like that long to me.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#67

Post by deepsun » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:23 PM UTC

spaetzleesser wrote: post #57

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

That's my theory too. In your first 20-30 years there are so many new things to keep your mind busy. Different schools, driver's license, first car, first time seeing a movie, first time seeing a concert, first relationships, first break up, moving out, travel, first job, children and so on. At some point it all becomes a repeat. I feel a lot of movies are just a repeat of what I have seen 30 years ago. Same for musi…

Outdoor sports.

Any of the following can consume your whole time, and have huge communities of full-time devotees:

    * Rock Climbing
    * Mountaineering
    * Kayaking
    * Paragliding
    * Kite/Windsurfing
    * Surfing
    * Snowboarding (if you ski, skiing if you snowboard)
    * Backcountry skiing (aka ski-tour)

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#68

Post by itsdsmurrell » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

This explanation misses a lot. When I watch an advert a second time, it seems to pass a lot faster than the first watch. My brain however has not changed at all. It seems that novelty is the main factor causing the perceived slowdown of time and that lack of novelty (less things surprise me as I age) makes time seem to pass more quickly. This also explains why staycations pass a lot faster than a trip somewhere new.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#69

Post by itsdsmurrell » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

gmfawcett wrote: post #21

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

This is a much more compelling argument than the article's.

Yes, I agree, the article is very bad and I don't know how it got upvoted so highly here.

Re: Why time “speeds up” as we get older (2019)

#70

Post by another_why » Thu, Nov 04, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

djmips wrote: post #6

Another hunch that I have is that as you get older you tend to have less unique experiences. I believe our brains compress the information and an entire day that was much like the previous day can just feel like it sped by quickly. Alternatively, if you go on vacation or change your routine then time will slow down as you process a lot of new information.

A very simple example which i can replicate at any time, with the same result: I have serious problems with memorizing places and can easily get lost anywhere where I haven't been yet. So, sometimes(knowing that i have a phone with gps in my pocket) I look at the map beforehand and try to go to some unknown place, on my own, in a limited time, like to a doctor appointment. And everytime it feels like it takes A LOT of time, like if I walked for 30 minutes when it was just 10. If I try it at the same place again, it will feel faster. Eventually, when I stop looking around and just go thinking about smth, like I usually do, it will feel like I walked for 5 minutes, when it actually was 20.

It will not work in the same way if the time won't be limited - I will be more relaxed.

People can spend years solving one problem in their mind and there are not many experiences in your mind until it generates smth you haven't thought about, and this doesn't happen often.