Why time seems to pass faster as we age - Inverted Passion
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Mar 4, 2024
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timepass
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来源：Inverted Passion
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人生感悟
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生活虾
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Why time seems to pass faster as we age - Inverted Passion
- 1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling. A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as compared to when I was a kid or even as a teen. It seems cosmically unfair – we have fewer years to live, and each year flies by faster. 2/ But, why is that happening? My tentative conclusion is that… Read More
- 2024-03-04 09:06:28
1/ I’ve been mega-obsessed with this feeling.1/我非常沉迷于这种感觉。
A year as a 36-year-old seems so much shorter as compared to when I was a kid or even as a teen.36岁的一年，与我小时候甚至十几岁的时候相比，似乎要短得多。
It seems cosmically unfair – we have fewer years to live, and each year flies by faster.这似乎很不公平——我们的寿命越来越短，而且每一年都过得更快。
2/ But, why is that happening?2/但是，为什么会发生这种情况？
My tentative conclusion is that it’s an unfortunate outcome of how evolution shaped our brain to be an efficient storage device.我的初步结论是，这是进化如何将我们的大脑塑造成高效存储设备的不幸结果。
3/ Our brain is a prediction device.3/我们的大脑是一个预测装置。
Its top job is to construct a model of the world so that we get a survival and reproductive edge.它的首要任务是构建一个世界模型，以便我们获得生存和繁殖的优势。
4/ To be able to predict a phenomenon is to be able to control it and have power over it, so our brain is obsessed with predicting how things are going to go.4/ 能够预测一种现象就意味着能够控制它并对其拥有控制力，因此我们的大脑痴迷于预测事情将如何发展。
It wants to be able to predict how mates are found, how money is made, what makes people laugh, and so on.. ^^它希望能够预测如何找到伴侣、如何赚钱、什么让人发笑等等。 ^^
5/ But it’s also efficient.5/ 但它也很高效。
If an event has happened before, what’s the point of paying attention to it and storing it in memory?如果某个事件以前发生过，那么关注它并将其存储在记忆中又有什么意义呢？
Redundant storage is inefficient, so the brain likely only pays attention to and memorises what’s new and surprising.冗余存储效率低下，因此大脑可能只关注并记住新的和令人惊讶的内容。
6/ As kids, everything is new and surprising.6/ 作为孩子，一切都是新的、令人惊讶的。
The world is full of learning opportunities, so the brain makes massive updates in memories.世界充满了学习机会，因此大脑会大量更新记忆。
Full snapshots of your birthdays, vacations, days at school and so on. ^^您的生日、假期、在校日子等的完整快照。 ^^
7/ Surprising information comes in droves every single day, so the brain simply paid a lot of attention, and hence you felt there were so-many-slices-of-time in a day.7/每天都会有大量令人惊讶的信息出现，所以大脑非常关注，因此你会觉得一天中有很多时间段。
It also stored that rich information in memory, so even looking back, days felt longer.它还将丰富的信息存储在记忆中，所以即使回想起来，日子也感觉更长了。
8/ As we grow, new surprises become a merely tiny-patch on an old memory.8/ 随着我们的成长，新的惊喜只不过是旧记忆上的一小块而已。
Why store the full details of your N-th vacation when you can simply store the diff of it from your first one? ^^当您可以简单地存储第 N 个假期与第一个假期的差异时，为什么还要存储第 N 个假期的完整详细信息呢？ ^^
9/ In other words, as we age, our memories and attention become low-fidelity versions of their former self.9/换句话说，随着年龄的增长，我们的记忆和注意力会变得低保真。
As patterns in life start repeating themselves, the slices-of-time that you notice and memorise become fewer and coarser.当生活中的模式开始重复时，你注意到和记住的时间片段就会变得越来越少、越来越粗糙。
10/ Naturally, if anyone asks where did time in your life go, you’d access your memory and find the majority of them relating to childhood, and very few from the recent times.10/ 当然，如果有人问你生命中的时间都去哪儿了，你会查阅你的记忆，发现其中大部分与童年有关，很少与最近的时间有关。
And that’s why time feels like it accumulated in the past, and not in the recent present. ^^这就是为什么时间感觉像是过去积累的，而不是最近积累的。 ^^
11/ The main culprit in time-speeding up is predictability.11/ 时间加快的罪魁祸首是可预测性。
The more predictable your days are, the shorter they will feel.你的日子越可预测，你就会感觉日子越短。
12/ A thought experiment.12/ 思想实验。
If you have a stable job, you can pretty much mentally time travel a full year and find your days to be similar.如果你有一份稳定的工作，你几乎可以在精神上穿越一整年，并发现你的日子是相似的。
But if I ask you to imagine doing a PhD in Sanskrit at a foreign university, you would have no idea what your days are going to look like.但如果我让你想象一下在外国大学攻读梵文博士学位，你将不知道你的日子会是什么样子。
13/ So, predictability not just impacts perception of time in the present but also for the future.13/ 因此，可预测性不仅影响对当前时间的感知，而且还影响对未来的时间感知。
As kids, a vacation was full of surprising information, so it actually felt rich and long.当孩子们的时候，假期充满了令人惊讶的信息，所以它实际上感觉丰富而漫长。
Now, your nth trip to Goa feels much shorter as you know what you’re going to do. ^^现在，您的第 n 次果阿之旅感觉要短得多，因为您知道自己要做什么。 ^^
14/ So, what to do? How to slow down time?14/ 那么，该怎么办？如何让时间慢下来？
The only approach I can think of is to break the predictability and actively plan to be (massively) surprised.我能想到的唯一方法就是打破可预测性并积极计划（大规模）惊讶。
Take on projects that you have no idea about. ^^承担您不知道的项目。 ^^
15/ Unfortunately, we are evolved to avoid exploring and taking risks as we age.15/ 不幸的是，随着年龄的增长，我们已经进化到避免探索和冒险。
Our brain pushes us to exploit more of the world we have come to understand better instead of pushing us to explore more.我们的大脑推动我们更好地探索我们已经了解的世界，而不是推动我们探索更多。
But that’s precisely how you’ll make your years fly. ^^但这正是让你的岁月飞扬的方式。 ^^
16/ You need to ask yourself.16/你需要问自己。
How do you want to answer how you lived your life?您想如何回答您的生活方式？
Long one, or the one that feels long?长的，还是“感觉”长的？
What’s more important to you?什么对你来说更重要？
17/ Interestingly, the solution to slowing down time is not boredom (as I thought).17/ 有趣的是，放慢时间的解决办法不是无聊（正如我所想的）。
Boredom is a negative state. The solution is to dive head-first into unknown territory.无聊是一种消极的状态。解决方案是一头扎进未知领域。
That is, to travel physically or mentally,也就是说，身体或精神上的旅行，
18/ Note that we’re really good at grokking patterns / making predictive models.18/ 请注意，我们非常擅长摸索模式/制作预测模型。
As soon as we figure out a winning condition for a game or the story plot, we lose interest in it.一旦我们弄清楚游戏的获胜条件或故事情节，我们就会对它失去兴趣。
19/ So an existential crisis is a spoiler alert for life.19/ 因此，生存危机是对生活的剧透警报。
The brain with all its predictive models asks: is this all to life?大脑及其所有预测模型都会问：这就是生活的全部吗？
But it’s mistaken – it’s all only to the life that it has chosen to live.但这是错误的——这一切只是为了它选择的生活。
20/ A (radically) different life that it can’t predict will keep brain at its toes.20/ 无法预测的（根本上）不同的生活会让大脑保持警觉。
The key word here is “radically”.这里的关键词是“彻底”。
The smaller the change, the less memorable the time.变化越小，那段时光就越不值得纪念。