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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

#141

Post by Spooky23 »

fufufu123 wrote: post #94
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…

You're apparently in a good place so looking back is your path to your joyful present. I'm in a bad place so looking back is my seeing back when I was still hopeful for my various life goals. I'd meet someone and have someone to share my life with, do activities with, travel with, raise kids with, etc. I never met that person and now at 60+ that's nearly impossible so looking back hurts. It hurts a-lot. Seeing the op…

My situation is different. I lost the love of my life and felt lost and alone. Even with the support of good friends and family.

But that said, there’s alot of philosophy and other things to help. Aeschylus said “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” Another relevant quote is that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best is today.

You won’t get what you wanted, but live in the present and enjoy what you can have. I’d give anything to get my wife back, but that’s not reality. The next best thing to live today and find joy.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#142

Post by MyFirstSass »

stared wrote: post #6

There is already a body of research on the perception of time as a function of age, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_perception#Changes_with_a... . It stems from a few things, and novelty is only one factor. (Also, it is not only that the world begins (to us) as full of novelty, but also most people gradually transition from exploration to exploitation.) In addition to remembering previous events, there is also…

The ticks per second thing is very interesting because of a something weird i encountered the other day - i suddenly realised seconds are WAY faster than they used to be.

I play music so have a pretty good feel for rhythm and i distinctly remember the clock in a family members house ticking each second being way, way slower as a kid. Slept there the other day and it was fast as hell. So incredibly weird. I'm sure my memory of the BPM is much slower than the feeling from today.

Sitting looking at the digital clock right now two seconds seem close to one as a kid.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#143

Post by javier_e06 »

My way to slow down time is using git to write a diary with every day is a commit.

I try to be careful not fall on the fallacy that "I get it" and draw assumptions about things.

If not, after your pass your 50s time turns into blurring mashup of deja-vu's and the feeling that you are Fred Flinstone rolling in my Flintmobile while the background scenery, the houses, the palm trees and buildings repeat every 3 seconds.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#144

Post by rstuart4133 »

I have a simpler theory. The apparent speed of the passage of time is inversely proportion the number of memories being accumulated.

I don't remember what it was like to be a toddler. All I can tell you is "they are sponges" is a common description. It blows me away they can learn how to recognise faces, walk, speak a language in the space of a few years.

As a kid I recall getting bored very easily. I needed a constant stream of stimulation to feed my brain.

As a young adult I recall a friend asking me to look up a telephone book to find the a persons address. I got back to the car and told them the address. "Oh", they said "I must have the spelling wrong, try ...". No problem, I remembered every name and address on the page I've just seen.

But as I grew older, remembering stuff came less easily. Now at over 60, if I put in a situation where I'm forced to remember a while pile of new stuff I feel distinctly uncomfortable, whereas before I was better at it than most.

And during all that time, the passage of time has sped up. Ergo, my theory is I gauge the amount of time that has passed between events X and Y by the number of memories accumulated in the period.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#145

Post by 6B »

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…

Thank you for the inspiration. I'll start journaling again. And I miss it too.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#146

Post by barbs »

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…

Just wanted to post a quick comment - I really appreciate your simple and elegant journalling solution. I think I want to implement something similar. Thanks!

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#147

Post by Madmallard »

larve wrote: post #118

One thing I love about the speedup of time is that picking a compounding habit (say, doing something for 10 minutes each day) feels like having an almost instant pay-off. "Oh wow 3 years already passed" -> "Oh wow I got pretty good at this thing I picked up just yesterday" I picked up biking during the pandemic, and 3 years later I have legs of steel, 10k miles under my belt, and people know me as "the bike guy", whe…

It kinda sucks that you learn much slower when you’re older though. I’ve been practicing piano an hour or two a day for 7 months and I don’t really feel like I’ve improved at all. I was intermediate when I started and I am taking professional lessons. Mid 30s here.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#148

Post by m0llusk »

This sounds highly rational and also comes across to me as completely wrong.

I have maintained a fairly tight circle of friends and acquaintances for more than three decades. One of the patterns that stands out very strongly is the high variability in the perception of time. Those who have settled into a routine such as a relationship that endures and work that remains highly similar even if the company and title change tend to experience this time flying by effect strongly. Others who have had major complications to deal with like relationships coming and going, medical problems, big changes to location, fundamental changes in work situation and so on end to have a critical time slowing effect. Coming to grips with big changes and getting settled again requires a lot of attention and work and does not allow for a relaxed grip on life events. Try getting mugged, dumped, fired, sick, and then moving somewhere unfamiliar and you might find this time passing faster effect disappears, if only until adjustments are made.

This implies the whole effect may be about how humans must focus when pushed but then tend to zoom out and ease up when ongoing attempts to steady themselves are successful. Reminds me of the book Tempo by Venkatesh Rao (https://www.ribbonfarm.com/tempo/).

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#149

Post by SoftTalker »

fufufu123 wrote: post #94
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…

You're apparently in a good place so looking back is your path to your joyful present. I'm in a bad place so looking back is my seeing back when I was still hopeful for my various life goals. I'd meet someone and have someone to share my life with, do activities with, travel with, raise kids with, etc. I never met that person and now at 60+ that's nearly impossible so looking back hurts. It hurts a-lot. Seeing the op…

The past is the past, no sense in regretting it since you cannot change it.

I'm not quite as old you but close, and I already feel what you're feeling about the time left. That there isn't a lot of it, or that it will be gone quickly. Everyone has things they will not get a chance to try or experience. No lifetime offers everything, and every path taken means many, many others will be never explored.

Like money, you can't take memories with you. So try not to dwell on things you didn't do or that didn't work out the way you imagined. Half or more of people who get married end up divorced. Probably many more are less than happy. Kids can be a joy but they can also be a heartache. Every criminal is somebody's kid. Nothing comes with any guarantees.

Make life interesting today, as today is the only thing you really experience.

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