5 ms·

I'm about the same age as you. The passage of time is shockingly fast unless I do things to slow it down. I remember moments from my college days that I can pi

I'm about the same age as you. The passage of time is shockingly fast unless I do things to slow it down. I remember moments from my college days that I can pinpoint to the year they happened. That thing that happened sophomore year? I know it happened sophomore year because I did it with my roommate at the time. But nowadays I'll watch a movie on Netflix thinking it came out just in the past year or two, only to discover it came out in, say, 2007 or worse 1997. A close friend of mine's daughter just turned 16. I remember her birth like it was yesterday. But the intervening years... not so much. I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. Travel helps too.

mschaef 11y ago
> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. Speaking from firsthand experience, it seems to do just the opposite.
- bigtunacan 11y ago
  As a father of 3 I agree. Children in my experience just makes you more aware of how quickly time is passing. My oldest is now in junior high, but it seems like just yesterday she was a baby.
powvans 11y ago
> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. It's a paradox best expressed by the old adage: the days are long, but the years are short.
- feiss 11y ago
  I agree with that. My days are dense, long, tiring and slow, but I can't believe a full year has passed already. Before having my daughter, days were fast, weeks were faster, and years slipped through my fingers. Time goes faster when you daily routine is always more less the same, and that is more difficult with a child.
aws_ls 11y ago
I think, if we have enough leisure time, to an extent we get bored, results in us feeling time passes slowly. I used to get that feeling during summer vacations in school/college days. Not so much now. So I also struggle with this exact same problem, i.e. some thing which I feel is recent is actually 5/10 years back. I am trying to work on it, so far not so successfully.
andyjohnson0 11y ago
Random waiting-for-a-build thoughts: I find that if you hang around long enough and pay attention, you start to see the shape and patterns of your life. Not an original or profound observation, but it can be surprisingly easy for many of us to defer thinking about such things. What you gain from this you pay for with time, though. In a similar experience to yours, I watched The Matrix with my son recently and was shocked to discover that it was released in 1999 - but I think of it as a recent thing. Holding my niece when she was a newborn baby and showing her Christmas tree lights, and now she's making an independent life in a big city. In my experience, and as others have commented, having children doesn't slow time down. You're so busy with them for so long, and they rush towards their future so fast. I'm reminded of a phrase that Sam Altman used: The days are long but the decades are short [1]. [1] http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...
noname123 11y ago
“As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye, such as molecules and atoms, we magnify. Things that are too large, such as cloud formations, river deltas, constellations, we reduce. At length we bring it within the scope of our senses and we stabilize it with fixer. When it has been fixed we call it knowledge. Throughout our childhood and teenage years, we strive to attain the correct distance to objects and phenomena. We read, we learn, we experience, we make adjustments. Then one day we reach the point where all the necessary distances have been set, all the necessary systems have been put in place. That is when time begins to pick up speed. It no longer meets any obstacles, everything is set, time races through our lives, the days pass by in a flash and before we know that is happening we are forty, fifty, sixty... Meaning requires content, content requires time, time requires resistance. Knowledge is distance, knowledge is stasis and the enemy of meaning. My picture of my father on that evening in 1976 is, in other words, twofold: on the one hand I see him as I saw him at that time, through the eyes of an eight-year-old: unpredictable and frightening; on the other hand, I see him as a peer through whose life time is blowing and unremittingly sweeping large chunks of meaning along with it.” ― Karl Ove Knausgård, Min kamp 1
StephenConnell 11y ago
Having kids speeds it up... Totally worth it though.
mml 11y ago
> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. Travel helps too. Nope. Makes it go even faster, and you remember even less.
DotNetDev1 11y ago
Glad...or sad...to hear that I'm not the only one who feels this way. 25 to 35 seems to have gone twice as fast as high school graduation to college graduation. The only way I'm able to slow time down is by travelling on the weekends or vacation. Otherwise I blink and the seasons have changed and another birthday candle is blow out.

mschaef 11y ago

> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. Speaking from firsthand experience, it seems to do just the opposite.

bigtunacan 11y ago
As a father of 3 I agree. Children in my experience just makes you more aware of how quickly time is passing. My oldest is now in junior high, but it seems like just yesterday she was a baby.

powvans 11y ago

> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. It's a paradox best expressed by the old adage: the days are long, but the years are short.

feiss 11y ago
I agree with that. My days are dense, long, tiring and slow, but I can't believe a full year has passed already. Before having my daughter, days were fast, weeks were faster, and years slipped through my fingers. Time goes faster when you daily routine is always more less the same, and that is more difficult with a child.

aws_ls 11y ago

I think, if we have enough leisure time, to an extent we get bored, results in us feeling time passes slowly. I used to get that feeling during summer vacations in school/college days. Not so much now. So I also struggle with this exact same problem, i.e. some thing which I feel is recent is actually 5/10 years back. I am trying to work on it, so far not so successfully.

andyjohnson0 11y ago

Random waiting-for-a-build thoughts: I find that if you hang around long enough and pay attention, you start to see the shape and patterns of your life. Not an original or profound observation, but it can be surprisingly easy for many of us to defer thinking about such things. What you gain from this you pay for with time, though. In a similar experience to yours, I watched The Matrix with my son recently and was shocked to discover that it was released in 1999 - but I think of it as a recent thing. Holding my niece when she was a newborn baby and showing her Christmas tree lights, and now she's making an independent life in a big city. In my experience, and as others have commented, having children doesn't slow time down. You're so busy with them for so long, and they rush towards their future so fast. I'm reminded of a phrase that Sam Altman used: The days are long but the decades are short [1]. [1] http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...

noname123 11y ago

“As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye, such as molecules and atoms, we magnify. Things that are too large, such as cloud formations, river deltas, constellations, we reduce. At length we bring it within the scope of our senses and we stabilize it with fixer. When it has been fixed we call it knowledge. Throughout our childhood and teenage years, we strive to attain the correct distance to objects and phenomena. We read, we learn, we experience, we make adjustments. Then one day we reach the point where all the necessary distances have been set, all the necessary systems have been put in place. That is when time begins to pick up speed. It no longer meets any obstacles, everything is set, time races through our lives, the days pass by in a flash and before we know that is happening we are forty, fifty, sixty... Meaning requires content, content requires time, time requires resistance. Knowledge is distance, knowledge is stasis and the enemy of meaning. My picture of my father on that evening in 1976 is, in other words, twofold: on the one hand I see him as I saw him at that time, through the eyes of an eight-year-old: unpredictable and frightening; on the other hand, I see him as a peer through whose life time is blowing and unremittingly sweeping large chunks of meaning along with it.” ― Karl Ove Knausgård, Min kamp 1

StephenConnell 11y ago

Having kids speeds it up... Totally worth it though.

mml 11y ago

> I think having kids, which I have not done, might slow time down a bit. Travel helps too. Nope. Makes it go even faster, and you remember even less.

DotNetDev1 11y ago

Glad...or sad...to hear that I'm not the only one who feels this way. 25 to 35 seems to have gone twice as fast as high school graduation to college graduation. The only way I'm able to slow time down is by travelling on the weekends or vacation. Otherwise I blink and the seasons have changed and another birthday candle is blow out.