Perception of time (brace yourself).

We all know time subjectively passes quicker as we age. Remember the endless summers as a child? Then suddenly the work weeks are flying by, next it's years.

Well, for those of you interested, there's a simple formula to calculate how long it will "feel" like between now and a future age. Are you ready?

  1. Assume an age to which you may reasonably expect to live (e.g., 80).
  2. Divide this assumed age of death by your present age (if you are 40, then 80/40 = 2).
  3. Divide your present age by this number (40/2 = 20).
  4. The result is a "reference age" (20) as subjectively remote in your past as your assumed age of death (80) is in your future. Consider the years from that point in your life (age 20) to the present (age 40): the time you have left (40 to 80) should seem about as long.
  5. Your present age is the geometric mean of the reference age and the assumed age of death, and becomes closer to the arithmetic mean as your present age approaches the latter. In old age, therefore, you can assume linearity: each future year will seem almost as long as each past year back to the reference age. (In other words, the worst is over!)

In my case, being 28, if I live to 80, it'll subjectively feel like the same time 'til then, as it does going back to when I was 9.8 years old. (18 years back = same as 52 years forward...ouch!).

Reference: http://www.kafalas.com/Logtime.html
 
The thing I have observed is that folk lose perception of time passed.

Many times I have encountered the customer who wants a warranty claim on something - it used to be golf products; golf shoes mainly.

Now it is things like last vehicle service, or last battery purchase, etc.

Almost every time without fail, the time elapsed is waay longer than they think...

The last service was 2 years ago, not a year ago
The golf shoes were bought 18 months ago; not 6 months go.
The car battery was 4 years ago, not 18 months ago,

And so on.

Funnily enough, in our head, we don't feel any older than we did when were 17.
 
Last edited:
Time seemed to go slow up until i was 20 then the last 10 years or so have been a bit of a blur. I think its because when your younger your experiencing new things all the time so you tend to savour the moment more. As you get older your in a routine and nothing is really that big of a deal anymore.
 
Back
Top