

Why is it that as we age, time seems to race along? - fleaflicker
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/21qna.html

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parenthesis
I always thought it was just down to this:

The year from one's birth to one's first birthday is one's _whole_ life.

The year from one's first birthday to one's second birthday is _half_ of one's
life.

...

The year from one's 29th birthday to one's 30th birthday is only 1/30 of one's
life.

...

The year from one's 99th birthday to one's 100th birthday is just 1% of one's
life.

~~~
rgoddard
Plus, the number of milestones and changes that occur when you are younger are
much greater then when you are older, and those changes are more novel. You
have your first word, your first step, your first day of school, the first
time you learn to ride a bike, the whole puberty thing. There is a huge number
of changes occurring that you have never experienced before. Plus you have the
anticipation of all that is to come, and when you are focused wanting
something to be here, it feels like it takes much longer to arrive.

As an adult, I often have days when I become so involved in what I am doing
that I lose track of time, poof all of a sudden the day is over. The only time
I can remember that happening when I was younger was when I was either reading
or playing video games.

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david927
I always thought that, as a child, we differentiate, and everything we
experience splits into new branches, creating intelligence, whereas when we
get older, we assimilate, everything we experience gets merged into a previous
experience or understanding, creating wisdom.

~~~
ajju
As a corollary, when everything seems old hat to you, you've truly become old.

True wisdom maybe maintaining your curiosity and an open mind so you _can_
branch out at any age but knowing when to "split into new branches" and when
to "[merge] into a previous experience". Given how abstract that sentence is,
this is clearly an art.

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rue
I have been thinking this a biological thing...consider another similar
example, e.g. seeing a movie, commercial or something for the first time.
Regardless of age, subsequent times have always felt faster than the first one
to me.

From this, I entirely unscientifically surmise that the extra time experience
comes from the creation of pathways and whatnot in the brain--which occurs
less often the older you get. The more specific explanations could be actual
spare cycles in the brain that are only used then encountering something new,
or more plausibly, the ratio of conscious vs. unconscious cycles or plain
stimulation of the regions responsible for time comprehension.

~~~
angstrom
New experiences are always more vivid. The more unusual it is to your previous
experience the move vivid it becomes in your mind.

Take for instance travel. Driving someplace new you're more alert about the
course since you don't know what to expect. Once you've repeated it a few
times or hundreds of times, like say driving to work, it becomes predictable.
As long as traffic is moving along at a decent pace, you're perfectly
oblivious to the passage of time.

Now take skydiving or bungee jumping for the first time as another example.
You may free fall for 5-30 seconds, but the adrenaline pumping in your brain
makes it seem like slow motion. You remember every vivid detail. After 1000
jumps it's nothing near the vividness of the first 10.

The only lesson I've been able to draw from this is that if you want life to
slow down you have to live it and experience new things.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
This is a good reason to learn to love traveling: you're always doing and
seeing new things.

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ChrisXYZ
I think it comes down to novelty.

When I'm a regular working stiff, the months seem to fly by because each day
is so similar to the last. They all just blend together in your memory, and
you find yourself looking back and thinking, "Where did last month go?"

Humdrum days are also forgettable and you don't really think about them as you
go through the motions. So at the end of the day, there isn't a lot of
substance that your mind holds on to. Looking back, it's like they were over
in an instant.

I remember when I was traveling, some weeks seemed to go on forever, because
every day was crammed full of new, interesting experiences. But as soon as I
got into a routine, time seemed to speed up again and the days started to run
into each other.

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mynameishere
When I was a kid, I had the capacity for boredom. I really don't anymore. I
suspect that's about it. A child is always looking at the clock, waiting,
waiting, itching to get onto the next thing, feeling like the next sensation
is too far away.

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arien
A bit offtopic maybe, but there's a nice short story from Stephen King about
this time perception phenomena.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Pretty_Pony>

------
Femur
"Time is what a clock measures." -Einstein

