Issue 8: Time Compression
It’s almost September, and I’m not sure how exactly that happened. Last I checked, it was like… May or something.
I remember seeing a note somewhere about a study that asked people in different age groups to estimate exactly when long 120 seconds had elapsed. The younger (20s or so) group got pretty close, at 115 seconds; the older group (50ish) fared worse, calling it around 87 seconds. Unfortunately, I can't find the source to give credit.
That’s pretty solid evidence for what I’ve felt for a long time now — the older you get, the faster you experience time. In a sense, it’s logical, as a year is a much smaller portion of my life than it would be to someone half my age.
Of course, I also feel much busier now than I did twenty years ago, and that has a similar time-compression effect. I am busier now than I used to be, with career and family life and such, but also because of the pernicious effect of shadow work that’s been creeping into every corner of life. Self-checkout. Assembling flat-pack furniture. Booking travel. Managing your health and technology. Having to juggle online accounts for literally fucking everything and then having to unsubscribe from the spam that's sent by default with every new account.
Hell, when I got my driver's license, pumping gas yourself was the exception, not the rule.
But as technology has progressed, it's enabled businesses to cut minimum-wage service jobs and foist the work on their customers, selling it as convenience, all in the name of corporate profits. And as usual, this affects the economically and the technologically disadvantaged folks in our communities.
Anyways, I'm not working up towards some inspired and insightful point or anything; I'm just feeling a bit cranky.
Around The Web
- David Cain suggests focusing on personal "quests" rather than traditional goals to achieve meaningful change in life. A quest is adventurous and transformative, whereas a goal is, well, a tired descriptor that's lost all meaning. Yet another article discussing the value of making time in your day-to-day for what really matters to you, which is becoming a common theme in these links I share.
- I like how Tracy Durnell uses weeknotes to focus attention on the things she cares about. I'm considering doing something similar, though I'm not sure if I want to make them private or public.
Consumed
- We watched Abigail (2024) and enjoyed it. A fun, horror-comedy take on the vampire trope.
- I've had Jambi by Tool on repeat in the car. It's heavy, has nutty time signatures, and in short is everything I love about the band.
That's it for this week. It's been an exhausting week and weekend, so I'm picking up a poutine for dinner. I hope you take care of yourself, too.