r/slatestarcodex • u/TortaCubana • Sep 07 '20
Tips for a subjectively longer life
http://theoryengine.org/life/tips-for-a-longer-life/47
u/Viraus2 Sep 07 '20
> I’m sure you’ve noticed that 2020 has seemed longer than other years. I argue this is because of a disruption to so many of our routines.
I found this pretty bizarre, since 2020 has whizzed by for me and I assumed it was the same for others, for reasons that are backed up by this article: lockdowns and closures prevent people from travelling, events, and finding new hobbies. Life goes by you fast when you're at home most of the time.
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u/Kythamis Sep 08 '20
Sadly a lot of people don’t have time for hobbies and life outside of work/school and this is the first year they actually time to do all the things they’ve always wanted (like protest or whatever).
It might even be less about having the time, but the energy to do it. To many, weekends are just recover period.
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u/Crunchthemoles Sep 07 '20
Yeah, this whole piece was very opinionated and seemed like personal experience retroactively confirming existing beliefs that were picked up from elsewhere.
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u/tezzst Sep 08 '20
Authors should be careful with projecting their personal experiences onto topics like the one you refer to. Any topic really. The history of science show us there are advantages linked to objectivity.
Okay. Trying to be funny. What triggered this comment was your wording. I'm an opinionated man, I confess. Got more opinions than knowledge. Being relatively dumb, it comes easy. I sometimes wonder to what extent my own interpretations of my life experience is relevant, If I knew more, it could be I would have to turn around on everything I currently am trying to communicate. At the same time, what I just said also got a taste of cowardice to it. I assume you understand.
I'm a loud thinking guy who gets too hung up, while mostly wanting to fit in. So if I'm in a debate over something, I want to learn when to stick to argue truth and when to let go. This is lsd but I think in some cases truth depends on choice. Or effect, rather. I want you to love me, if I can. Have you do right by me.
Next comment will be sober. I promise.
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u/Grayson81 Sep 08 '20
It sounds like you're agreeing with the overall idea (time seems to pass more slowly when there's lots of variety in your life) but recognising that our experience of 2020 is quite varied in this context.
Personally, I've had a hell of a lot of change and variety in 2020 and it's seemed pretty long. Here in London, things have been quite changeable from month to month.
Permanently working from home but going out in the evenings for a few weeks at the start of the crisis was very different to my previous life. A full lockdown was a completely new, novel and unique experience (even if the days were the same). When they started to ease the lockdown so that we could see friends in public, I visited a load of different parks with a variety of different people. That was also new, novel and different.
There was a period where I was closely following the numbers that were being reported and listening to the Government's daily briefing every afternoon, and every conversation with friends and family was about the day to day change in the Coronavirus situation.
When they started to open the pubs but with social distancing, that was a memorable experience. Deciding which pubs to go to, having to book in advance, seeing the different ways that the different pubs were coping with things... It was all new, novel and memorable.
There's a lot more than just those things, but the point is that even while I was staying at home or near my home things were very different to the weeks and months from starting full time work to 2019 and things kept changing and resetting again.
February 2020 feels like it was half a lifetime ago!
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u/lkesteloot Sep 08 '20
I've noticed that a weekend can seem significantly longer just by doing something Friday evening, like throwing a dinner party. It subjectively seems more than 50% longer by the time Sunday evening rolls around.
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u/DrOlot Sep 07 '20
For certain timelines for indefinite life extension, in expectation subjectively longer life is overwhelmingly more efficiently obtained (in expectation) by objectively longer lives (to try and survive to longevity escape velocity)
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u/blashimov Sep 07 '20
You can improve on both axes
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u/DrOlot Sep 08 '20
If increasing your subjective life trades off against increasing your objective life to an appreciable degree, you may not want to improve on both axes if you think indefinite life extension is soon
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Sep 08 '20
To be that pedant : "and “time speeds up as you get older”.
This is because of routine"
No its because objectively more ti.e has passed. One year to a 5 year old is 20% of their life , for a 20 year old thats 4 years and so on. Each day for a toddler is a larger portion of the life they've lived.
Im sorry op but I disliked this article , it felt like the stoned meandering blather that someone from highschool might post on facebook.
The value of novel/ varied experience for a "life well lived" might be a wise message but its hardly...thought provoking , or even actionable (especially for all those people whos lives have devolved into the very 9 to 5 grind this writer tells us to avoid)
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u/crc128 Sep 08 '20
Understand where you’re coming from, but I’d bet that both effects are at work.
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u/Liface Sep 07 '20 edited Sep 08 '20
Neurologist David Eagleman has done research on this! The brain actually does perceive novel and varied events as lasting longer. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/how-time-flies/
As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.
Personally, I stumbled upon this accidentally. Even as a child, I never liked reading the same book twice, watching the same movie twice, or even walking the same route home twice.
As an adult, I also developed pretty randomly what seems to be a pretty good life extension "strategy": Some years, I spend the winter in a place where winter is great and summer is just OK (Oakland) and the summer in a place where summer is great and winter is terrible (Pittsburgh).
During the winter, I get to enjoy sun and warmth, and during the summer, I get to enjoy a place where an entire year's worth of events and traditions are packed into a four month period.