Get Everything Done

It always seemed to me there was a much simpler explanation.

When you are 3 years old, another year is 33% of the life you've already lived: a huge proportion.

When you are 10 years old, another year is only 10% of the life you've already lived: a much smaller portion. So a year seems much smaller / less significant than when you were 3. (By that age, you've also experienced the recurring seasons (whether natural or artificial), notice the repeating patterns, and start grouping things together in larger chunks.)

When you are 20 years old, another year is only 5% of the life you've already lived. So a year seems smaller / less significant than when you were 10. (And the chunking/grouping of time blocks and series of recurring patterns of experience also continues to grow.)

When you are 50 years old, another year is only 2% of the life you've already lived. So a year seems smaller / less significant than when you were 20. (And the chunking/grouping of time blocks and series of recurring patterns of experience also continues to grow.)

Etc.

Mark wrote:
<< Isn't that what he says in the article? >>

Somehow I totally missed that first paragraph! I must have hit the page-down button or something. I had originally read the article only starting at the heading, "The Routinization of Life", to the end of the article.

Even now, as I am re-reading the article, the pagination keeps getting stuck and jumping around, so I guess that must be what happened.

Pretty crazy how we expressed that first thought in almost the identical language.