11 ms·

Man, I've never even considered imagining the year as a circle. It's always been linear for me (with future and past years connected to it on either end). I do

by c22 3y ago

Man, I've never even considered imagining the year as a circle. It's always been linear for me (with future and past years connected to it on either end). I do imagine cycles over the linear model, but these appear more like overlapping sine waves than circles.

eru 3y ago
It the same relationship for me between the integers and finite fields.
meling 3y ago
My reaction was the same. Honestly I hadn’t even thought about it until I started reading the article… I too would say it is linear for me. The circle I can get, but some of the weirder ones, I wonder if people answering this survey were just making it up for the fun of it.
layer8 3y ago
Yeah, it's more like a sine wave for me. Winters are the hills and summers the valleys.
- Gare 3y ago
  Interesting, it's the opposite for me. The sun is high and days are long in the summer, so that's where peak is.
  - layer8 3y ago
    For me it’s like a nice slide into the warmer months, and a less pleasant climb into the colder months. And you see the next year after the peak, the turn of the year bringing a new perspective of sorts.
skerit 3y ago
Back in my school days, when I was around 7 years old, one of the most vivid memories that stick with me is of a vertical timeline displayed across the entire width of our classroom's back wall. It started with September on the left, and it ended with August on the right. To this day, whenever I think of a year, I picture it like that timeline.
- BrandoElFollito 3y ago
  You mention a vertical timeline but the flow of time was horizontal? And the vertical part was what? (the things that happen in a month?)
madcaptenor 3y ago
For me, time is a helix - so you go around over the course of a single year, but also up/down the helix over the years.
- c22 3y ago
  Interesting! It turns out my wife also has a helix representation in her head, with the future going downward and counter-clockwise. I never suspected there'd be so much variation here and I guess always assumed most people just saw it my way. I wonder if you made a dating app that asked these sorts of questions ("what shape is a year?", "can you read a book while counting?", etc) if the answers would be a relevant factor for determining compatibility.
  - saghm 3y ago
    Hopefully for you and your wife it's not too much of a determining factor!
- samplatt 3y ago
  In James Gurney's Dinotopia, humanity is described as imagining time as a line, whereas dinosaurs imagine it as a circle. They compromise and teach a single cohesive theory of "time as a helix" to both saurian and simian children. The reasoning is that it closest matches reality, "cyclically rotating around the sun and moving with the seasons, as well as forever propelling ourselves forward into the future with permanent changes". There's a romance to it that I've always adored, as well as dammit it just makes SENSE
kgeist 3y ago
For me, time is linear, too, but there are no cycles. I visualize it as an infinite number line [0]. That's how I also visualize numbers as well - always as notches on a number line. Whenever someone mentions a number, I immediately picture it there. It helps with comparisons and subtractions because I can immediately see the distance between values. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_line https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_line
- phito 3y ago
  Exactly, me too! I'm wondering if people who see it as a circle give more importance to NYE as they would view it as the beginning of a new cycle? I surely don't care about NYE (and other reccurent dates such as holidays, birthdays, ...) as it's just another point on the infinite line.
  - eru 3y ago
    Also keep different cultures in mind. I was born in Germany, where the country shuts down between Christmas to New Year, and so it makes a natural cut in the year. (Though when I was in school, the summer holidays were more important as a divider.) In my adopted home of Singapore, instead Chinese New Year is really important. But because of a lack of clear seasons, there is much less of a natural year-long structure to time. (Interestingly, the school year here aligns with the calendar year.)
ClassyJacket 3y ago
Same here. It's like a bunch of rulers lined up.

by c22 3y ago

eru 3y ago

It the same relationship for me between the integers and finite fields.

meling 3y ago

My reaction was the same. Honestly I hadn’t even thought about it until I started reading the article… I too would say it is linear for me. The circle I can get, but some of the weirder ones, I wonder if people answering this survey were just making it up for the fun of it.

layer8 3y ago

Yeah, it's more like a sine wave for me. Winters are the hills and summers the valleys.

Gare 3y ago
Interesting, it's the opposite for me. The sun is high and days are long in the summer, so that's where peak is.
- layer8 3y ago
  For me it’s like a nice slide into the warmer months, and a less pleasant climb into the colder months. And you see the next year after the peak, the turn of the year bringing a new perspective of sorts.

skerit 3y ago

Back in my school days, when I was around 7 years old, one of the most vivid memories that stick with me is of a vertical timeline displayed across the entire width of our classroom's back wall. It started with September on the left, and it ended with August on the right. To this day, whenever I think of a year, I picture it like that timeline.

BrandoElFollito 3y ago
You mention a vertical timeline but the flow of time was horizontal? And the vertical part was what? (the things that happen in a month?)

madcaptenor 3y ago

For me, time is a helix - so you go around over the course of a single year, but also up/down the helix over the years.

c22 3y ago
Interesting! It turns out my wife also has a helix representation in her head, with the future going downward and counter-clockwise. I never suspected there'd be so much variation here and I guess always assumed most people just saw it my way. I wonder if you made a dating app that asked these sorts of questions ("what shape is a year?", "can you read a book while counting?", etc) if the answers would be a relevant factor for determining compatibility.
- saghm 3y ago
  Hopefully for you and your wife it's not too much of a determining factor!
samplatt 3y ago
In James Gurney's Dinotopia, humanity is described as imagining time as a line, whereas dinosaurs imagine it as a circle. They compromise and teach a single cohesive theory of "time as a helix" to both saurian and simian children. The reasoning is that it closest matches reality, "cyclically rotating around the sun and moving with the seasons, as well as forever propelling ourselves forward into the future with permanent changes". There's a romance to it that I've always adored, as well as dammit it just makes SENSE

kgeist 3y ago

For me, time is linear, too, but there are no cycles. I visualize it as an infinite number line [0]. That's how I also visualize numbers as well - always as notches on a number line. Whenever someone mentions a number, I immediately picture it there. It helps with comparisons and subtractions because I can immediately see the distance between values. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_line https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_line

phito 3y ago
Exactly, me too! I'm wondering if people who see it as a circle give more importance to NYE as they would view it as the beginning of a new cycle? I surely don't care about NYE (and other reccurent dates such as holidays, birthdays, ...) as it's just another point on the infinite line.
- eru 3y ago
  Also keep different cultures in mind. I was born in Germany, where the country shuts down between Christmas to New Year, and so it makes a natural cut in the year. (Though when I was in school, the summer holidays were more important as a divider.) In my adopted home of Singapore, instead Chinese New Year is really important. But because of a lack of clear seasons, there is much less of a natural year-long structure to time. (Interestingly, the school year here aligns with the calendar year.)

ClassyJacket 3y ago

Same here. It's like a bunch of rulers lined up.