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Why time seems to pass faster as we age

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Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#101

Post by smokel »

bradley13 wrote: post #97

I think it is much simpler. When you are 4 years old, a year us a quarter of your life. When you ate 40, it is a mere 2.5%. Comparatively, that difference is huge: a year is far more significant to the child than to the adult.

This sounds like a reasonable argument, but I don't think it is. A day for a 4 year old still takes the same 24 hours as a day for a 40 year old.

The argument presupposes that you experience the length of an event relative to the sum length of all experiences you've lived through. That seems pretty much related to the premise of the article we are discussing. So it's not much simpler.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#102

Post by dougmwne »

dingnuts wrote: post #84
dougmwne wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly many people on this website could if it were their priority. Some money is required, but not very much. I’m sure I make less money than many here because I take jobs that prioritize remote work and flexibility. So what’s really the blocker for many is a choice of priorities. I won’t have children. I don’t have a strong need to play homemaker or gardener. My lifestyle is pretty similar to a lot of retirees w…

working and travelling on occasion -- "on an average net salary" implies not actually quitting your job -- is not what the GP described. The GP described quitting their job and going traveling for an entire decade, which is an incredible luxury over an enormous timespan that only the luckiest will ever be able to enjoy. The fact that the GP then chooses to treat this gift as though it makes him better than his collea…

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together;)

I did make a choice, and it didn’t involve all that much luck beyond what everyone here has, a lucky break in a good career and a high income birth country. Actually there was bad luck, my partner and I were laid off at the same time. Sometimes the good comes from the bad.

I don’t think I am better or worse, but I do push myself always to experience new things. It’s hard to imagine my life any other way, but then lots of people are deeply passionate about things that I’m not going to understand and vice versa.

I think it’s interesting that you call not having children a selfish act. Having biological children always struck me as very egocentric. For me I have no choice. I am gay and our families live in places where one day in the not too distant future LGBTQ couples could have their children taken away. Maybe that would have been a good road to walk down, but it was not my road to take.

It’s also interesting what you project onto me around elder care. What I see is that most people I know live far from their parents and families. They spend their whole professional lives in major cities and visit home maybe 2 weeks a year. That pattern of life doesn’t make sense to me. I love my family and want the flexibility to see them often. If they needed money or needed care, I would give it to them, but they have no need. Besides spending some of the year near them, I know that I inspired them to travel more and take bigger risks in their retirement. I know I have helped enrich their lives. We will go on a few trips together this year and I never have to decline an invite because of not enough PTO.

If there’s something about your life you feel trapped in and unhappy with, try to change it!

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#103

Post by smokel »

dougmwne wrote: post #69
rcbdev wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as unreasonable as you think - even in lower income / high tax burden countries like Austria an avg. net salary is enough to keep on travelling to all kinds of places. I know people who work for the state government who keep appearing in India, Thailand, Brazil etc. when we're in meetings - usually they're billed as external consultants to avoid tax liability issues. The true crux is that most people don't a…

Exactly this. But I disagree that settled is natural. Humans evolved in nomadic tribes that followed the herds. Stability is a social technology that was developed alongside agriculture. Stability feels unnatural to me and I get the itch after too many months in one place. My two bases are near family and I have developed friendships with other traveling people. I’ll meet up this weekend in Miami with a Swede that I…

I think this argument is a bit of a stretch. Nomadic tribes did not travel by plane, and they certainly did not have friends in strange places.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#104

Post by lumb63 »

Yesterday I watched a video that described a two-dimensional grid where the x and y axes were “skill” and “challenge” respectively. A range surrounding y=x was the flow state. Below it was boredom (skills exceed demands) and above it was anxiety (demands exceed skills). Flow arises when our skills align to what we must do; not something easy, not something hard. The presenter also noted that amount of time in flow correlated with life satisfaction, and that it’s also when people do their best work, and time moves the fastest.

That’s the sweet spot to be. Where life is challenging, so you aren’t bored, but not so challenging to where you are overwhelmed. It seems the author urges people to flip from the boredom side of the flow state to the anxiety side because both of those are where time feels like an eternity (which anyone who has been in either of those states can attest to). I think a better idea is to question if what the author is proposing, trying to make time feel slower, is a good idea. Personally, I think the exact opposite is the case; all the best moments I’ve had are ones that went by “too quick”, and we can’t have our cake and eat it too. Time going by slowly is likely a canary in the coal mine for something being wrong.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#105

Post by Ekaros »

I feel that as children your experience is lot more variable... Every year of school or even university is slightly different, but once you get to work life many years can mostly be same or at least weeks and months...

On other hand I am sure there is some difference with perception of time when you get older and you will handle boredom better or can take something nap like just easier...

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#106

Post by glimshe »

Ekaros wrote: post #105

I feel that as children your experience is lot more variable... Every year of school or even university is slightly different, but once you get to work life many years can mostly be same or at least weeks and months... On other hand I am sure there is some difference with perception of time when you get older and you will handle boredom better or can take something nap like just easier...

I think that's the reason of the trope "As days becomes months, and months becomes years". The days eventually become very much alike.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#107

Post by RaoulP »

jollyllama wrote: post #58
leokennis wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am trying journaling as well but most days I don't know what to write...most days I'm not really doing special things, I have no special feelings. These days are enjoyable because I like my work and love my family, but I don't get further than "went to work, afterwards cooked and played with , in the evening "... What are you journaling on a daily basis?

I have the opposite problem. I could write a page of literary prose about every day. Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing.

> Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing.

I usually suffer from the same. Some periods I do bother bulleting, as reminders for thoughts to expand on later in the day. But I never do, and then only the bullets remain - as a kind of headstone for unwritten thoughts. Still, they are better than nothing.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#108

Post by smokel »

bachmeier wrote: post #99

I don't agree that it does. Something I've noticed as I've gotten older is that it feels like time is passing more slowly. My late 30s is when time felt like it passed the fastest. On the other hand, if you're talking about "that happened two years ago, but it feels like it was yesterday" I agree. I don't think that's what the post is talking about.

You might be an interesting specimen for scientific research. What food do you eat? Do you travel the world year round? Do you moisturize?

Seriously, I'd probably give a year of my life to experience it being two years longer.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#109

Post by smokel »

dartos wrote: post #3

I think mediation and gratefulness is a good way around this too. If your take explicit time to recognize and examine the world around you, even in your backyard, time seems to stretch and you notice and retain more. I’m lucky enough to have lots of different colored birds show up in my backyard, so sometimes I sit out there and wait for them. It’s not exciting, but every time I see one it’s a new memory and those ne…

I've meditated quite a lot, and I am now often able to "live in the moment" so much so, that I only experience the most recent bite that I'm taking out of a Snickers bar. It gives me the strange feeling that I might as well not have eaten the entire bar, just the last bit.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#110

Post by overtomanu »

jvanderbot wrote: post #17

I've been journalling for 10+ years. In addition to forcing me to actually write down what happened that day, reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich. I can review my now-wife's rocky courtship and feel grateful we made it. I looked back 3 years ago and found the day our children were conceived :D (we have twins). I can review the anxieties of my PhD years, etc…

similar to google photos memories notifications.
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