

Why Does Time Fly as We Get Older? - yagibear
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/2013/12/18/why-does-time-fly-as-we-get-older/

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jamesbritt
One experience I find amazing and frustrating at the same time: While on
vacation or otherwise traveling and doing something fairly novel, each day
feels long. The minute I am on the plane to fly back home the whole thing
feels like it zipped by.

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rdtsc
I noticed this as a teenager. And came up with the "ratio" theory on my own.

For example, I was thinking, when I was young (say 7 years old), summers
seemed to have dragged along forever. Summer vacation was a loooong time. By
the time I was in the 8th grade, it seemed to fly by.

So the idea goes by like this:

* We measure time interval compared to the number of intervals we have already experienced.

* For one 1 year old each new month is a 1/12 of their life-time, so it seems like a pretty long time.

* For a 80 year old, 1 month is 1/960 of their lifetime. A new month, will fly by because it is a much shorter time.

* To have the same subjective experience of a month passing, an 80 year old would need to spend 6+ years or so (80/12)

* To have the same subjective experience as an 80 year old's month, a 1 year old would just wait for about half a day to pass by.

Totally bogus idea probably, but I was proud of myself for figuring it out on
my own back then.

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skiplecariboo
I had the exact same thought when i was like 10 y-o :)

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collyw
Me too, not sure what age though.

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swayvil
I think it's because we spend more time in our head. This might also explain
why our body withers.

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jfernandez
The article's second bullet visualized in a clear/simple manner:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNILpXWNirY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNILpXWNirY)

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jcutrell
The way I have found to really get the most out of my minutes is to trick my
brain into processing a new thing.

This really is fundamentally a new way of thinking, but if you do something
different every day, you are tripping up the "caching" functions your brain
optimizes your day with, giving you a tiring but rewarding memory of 24 hours
rather than what seems like an echo of a previous experience.

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collyw
I have read similar theories before, and I think there is some truth in it,
but it depends how you define "different".

I noticed this when I started working for a well known mobile manufacturer a
while back. We got handed new phones maybe every month. At first it was great,
playing about with new features (this is almost ten years ago). Then
eventually you realize that it is more of the same - you play with the new
feature for ten minutes, get bored and never use it again. Just like Movies
feel to me these days (occasionally one stands out but less than once a year).
In fact many aspects of our consumer lifestyle, seems like we are getting
something new / different, when it is just a novelty rehash of the same stuff.

I find this great for rejecting materialism to a large degree (I still enjoy
new toys a bit. I don't get excited about the latest Samsung / iPhone launch -
in fact I find it depressing that a phone will make the front pages of the
news).

This doesn't help in making time seem to go faster or slower (well hopefully
it will help me not make the assumption that something "novelty" is something
"different"). I guess there is a subtlety in the language here. I find that
certain things are "more of the same" and can bring about lasting memories. I
enjoy whitewater kayaking, and when I do a memorable trip on a new river, or
even the same river with more water (usually makes it more exciting) then I am
far more likely to have good memories stored than from a new movie, or buying
a new laptop. Sometimes just the circumstances on the day make for good
memories. Looking back on consumer purchases, the memories are rarely up to
much.

Not quite sure of the point I was making, ("novelty" and "different" are
different things) but my rant certainly got me thinking......

