Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why time feels so weird in 2020

graphics.reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#11

Post by 65536 »

sibeliuss wrote: post #4

I think time just starts getting weird when you hit your thirties. Seems to catch everybody off guard.

The event test at the end seemed to target people older than someone in their early thirties at least. So I don’t know that this article would have anything with being in their thirties to do?

Also, I’m about to hit 30 this year so there’s that.

And also also, when I got to the question about Jurassic Park, my immediate thought was 1993. But then I became unsure whether that was for the first or the second movie so I guessed that the first one actually came out in 1984 or something. Shouldn’t have second guessed myself on that one, d’oh!

But that kind of underlines the point about age, and what they were saying also. If I were older I probably would’ve seen it in the cinema when it first came out and I’d be like “oh yeah, I remember when I went and saw that movie that was the same year that I did such and such so it must have been then”.

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#13

Post by lawkwok »

sibeliuss wrote: post #4

I think time just starts getting weird when you hit your thirties. Seems to catch everybody off guard.

I hit 30 earlier this year and I’ve accepted the fact that I can’t hold onto memories as vividly anymore. Even life-changing events that happened last year feel distant whereas when I was younger I could relive memories in my mind, not necessarily with more detail, but they wouldn’t feel as distant.

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#14

Post by jcahill »

jariel wrote: post #9
emersonrsantos wrote: post #2

As a musician, I developed a sense of time in my mind, and it expanded to everyday actions and thoughts. Am I the one that did answer the questions correctly?

It was not about 'answering correctly' it was about perceptions. From the first question forward, if one wanted to guess what the technically correct answer was, it was pretty straightforward. The point wasn't to 'test' it was to get people to see how small artefacts can consistently shift our view of time. There's no 'win' in answering the questions correctly.

The date slider section was straightforwardly about 'answering correctly'. If you can ballpark all of these events to the right decade or so, further granularity is unlikely to be related to perceptual distortions about time.

Obvious example: the cassette question.

Question: When were storage devices for audio commonly known as cassette tapes introduced?

Expected answer: 1963.

If "introduced" is intended to be read as shorthand for "sold in a retail market", then this question has no single answer grounded in one person's life experience. I was recalling the year of invention when I answered[1].

Citing "the early 1960s" will be good enough for anyone having a conversation about tech history. The year of the first retail release certainly isn't interesting or worth keeping in your head. Worse, the 1960s weren't even the decade most strongly associated with cassette tapes.

So this is very much a neener-neener type of gotcha question.

[1]: https://files.catbox.moe/h7hcuh.png

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#15

Post by cauliflower2718 »

meej wrote: post #12
sibeliuss wrote: post #4

I think time just starts getting weird when you hit your thirties. Seems to catch everybody off guard.

I was around 24 when nonlinear perception of time started becoming really noticeable to me, and it's bothered me ever since.

What happened?

Edit: what was different about how you perceived time?

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#16

Post by stevula »

cauliflower2718 wrote: post #15
meej wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was around 24 when nonlinear perception of time started becoming really noticeable to me, and it's bothered me ever since.

What happened? Edit: what was different about how you perceived time?

It seems to pass faster as you get older.

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#17

Post by 411111111111111 »

stevula wrote: post #16
cauliflower2718 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened? Edit: what was different about how you perceived time?

It seems to pass faster as you get older.

its more then that i feel. sometimes, suddenly n month/years have passed before you realize it. its like... it feels something just happened... but its already been 5+ yrs.

for me personally its mostly about routine i think. time just looses its meaning while doing the daily grind.

but honestly, the article spoke about it better then i ever could :)

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#18

Post by 411111111111111 »

lawkwok wrote: post #13
sibeliuss wrote: post #4

I think time just starts getting weird when you hit your thirties. Seems to catch everybody off guard.

I hit 30 earlier this year and I’ve accepted the fact that I can’t hold onto memories as vividly anymore. Even life-changing events that happened last year feel distant whereas when I was younger I could relive memories in my mind, not necessarily with more detail, but they wouldn’t feel as distant.

that just correlates with age and isnt caused by it.

you just havent had an emotionally charged event if you haven't experienced that in some time.

its likely just harder to get a rise outta you nowadays then before... but with the right mindset/training, you can even force it to happen.

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#19

Post by AstralStorm »

jcahill wrote: post #14
jariel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was not about 'answering correctly' it was about perceptions. From the first question forward, if one wanted to guess what the technically correct answer was, it was pretty straightforward. The point wasn't to 'test' it was to get people to see how small artefacts can consistently shift our view of time. There's no 'win' in answering the questions correctly.

The date slider section was straightforwardly about 'answering correctly'. If you can ballpark all of these events to the right decade or so, further granularity is unlikely to be related to perceptual distortions about time. Obvious example: the cassette question. Question: When were storage devices for audio commonly known as cassette tapes introduced? Expected answer: 1963. If "introduced" is intended to be read a…

Shouldn't the correct answer be "I don't care/I don't know" though? It's always a flaw of those quizzes to exclude the ignorant options. It produces noise in results.

Ask important questions rather than random trivia too. People really remember when they watched a movie, rather than when it was released. When they used a Walkman/CD player/MP3 player/game console, not when they were first made.

Biographic memory not random historical facts.

Re: Why time feels so weird in 2020

#20

Post by AstralStorm »

411111111111111 wrote: post #17
stevula wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to pass faster as you get older.

its more then that i feel. sometimes, suddenly n month/years have passed before you realize it. its like... it feels something just happened... but its already been 5+ yrs. for me personally its mostly about routine i think. time just looses its meaning while doing the daily grind. but honestly, the article spoke about it better then i ever could :)

It's mostly that very few things change quickly enough anymore.

When you're a kid, you change schools, pass exams which serve as time markers, have various important lifetime events. As a young adult, there are a bunch of those too.

You know you're getting old when you start measuring your life by events related to your children or grandchildren.

Older people have fewer of those, especially ones in a stable situation.

Post reply on HN