Hammond’s accessible pop-psychology book forces the reader to think
about time differently. We’ve all experienced the sensation that time goes
faster when we’re having fun and slows down when bored but this book will have
you questioning how you visualise time, what external factors help us to
estimate the passage of time, and how you’d react in some of the experiments
detailed. It’s an excellent combination of anecdotal evidence and summaries of
psychological experiments carried out over the years. At times a tad repetitive
it will nonetheless have you pondering questions you’ve never thought of
before.
There’s tales of couples becoming engaged on a first date,
researchers living in isolation in a dark cave for months to see how well they
can still estimate time, and those who try so hard to document their entire
lives that you can’t help but think they’re missing out on really living. One
recurring question is why does time seem to speed up as we age. Hammond dispels some common theories and
demonstrates how it is a combination of factors. She talks of the reminiscence
bump, usually in our late teens and early twenties when we are forming our
identities. The memories from this period are strongest, meaning they are able
to reinforce that identity. The creation of new memories makes time feel fast
while you're living it but when we look back feels far more expansive. The more routine
our lives become the quicker it seems to pass in retrospect as we have less
defining moments.
A thoroughly fascinating book that’s easy to read and even comes
with a self-help section of sorts in the final chapters offering advice on how
to adjust your approach to time to feel as though you’ve lived a full life and
not fall into the common misconception that you’ll have more time in the
future.
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