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

Why time seems to pass faster as we age

invertedpassion.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 272 posts

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#191

Post by deminature »

Madmallard wrote: post #147
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.

Piano requires adaptation in the corpus callosum of your brain to coordinate two-handed playing - it takes time to develop. Competent players have usually been playing for years to a decade before they're at a level of public performance.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#192

Post by dheera »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #162
boredemployee wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

learning curve of the piano is crazy. and if you stop playing you go back to zero really really fast

What instruments are relatively easier to play?

Piano or guitar are probably the best instruments for fastest path to gratification i.e. you can play something vaguely nice sounding pretty quickly, on the other of a couple months.

With string instruments you sound like a crying baboon for 2 years, and with brass instruments you sound like an underwater crow for 2 years.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#193

Post by codethief »

Madmallard wrote: post #147
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.

The other day, I heard about this lady that started playing the piano in her 60s when we she retired. Fast forward to 20(?) years later and she's giving professional concerts and everyone just assumes she's been playing the piano all her life.

In other words: Keep it up, you'll the reap the fruit of your labor eventually!

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#194

Post by AlecSchueler »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #162
boredemployee wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

learning curve of the piano is crazy. and if you stop playing you go back to zero really really fast

What instruments are relatively easier to play?

Tin whistle could be worth looking at. You'll still need a good ear and a lot of practice for your intonation though.

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#195

Post by [deleted] »

bongodongobob wrote: post #52
dougmwne wrote: post #51

I’ve learned that the passage of time is extremely relative. My college years were extremely full of new experiences and they feel like ages. Once I started working, my life was very rote and consisted mainly of driving from home to work and back again. I worked a lot of hours and vacations and weekend trips were infrequent. Time flew by. Then I ditched settled life and started traveling year round with a couple of b…

Yeah I can't believe more people don't just travel for a decade.

[deleted]

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#196

Post by seydor »

Does it? Not if you switch away from the 9-5 routine. Daily work makes life feel fast, as do routines of all kinds, family kids etc. Switching to on-demand employment leaves a ton of opportunities for our attention to drift away and travel.

It s true that novelty is rewarding. When mice are placed in a novel environment, their neurons become more excitable, but that doesn't necessarily correlate with subjective perception of time

Re: Why time seems to pass faster as we age

#200

Post by Der_Einzige »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #162
boredemployee wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

learning curve of the piano is crazy. and if you stop playing you go back to zero really really fast

What instruments are relatively easier to play?

People who are saying "Guitar" or "Piano" don't play insturments.

The cello:

1. You're literally sitting when you play, whereas many violinists, violists, and bass players have to stand. 2. Big enough strings to not cause a player to develop callouses, no pain/bleeding. 3. Almost always only play one string at a time - no knowledge needed of chords. 4. Until you get ultra good, you will only need to learn 1 clef, and only a handful of key signatures

I think guitar and piano are among the harder of instruments to learn. Bowed string instruments are among the easiest.

Post reply on HN