Time Is Going By Too Fast... Here's Why

One of the strangest things about getting laid off from Big Tech is realizing that, for the first time in decades, I actually have time.And as strange as this new chapter has been, I’ve noticed something surprisingly wonderful.Time has slowed down.Not literally, of course. The Earth is still spinning at roughly the same speed. My clocks haven’t suddenly become defective. Monday still becomes Tuesday whether I like it or not.But my perception of time has changed dramatically.And honestly?It feels a little bit like I’ve been given a life extension for free.Where Did All the Time Go?When I was working, time seemed to fly.Days disappeared.Weeks blurred together.Months would pass, and I’d suddenly realize that an entire season had come and gone. I’d look back and think, Wait. That was six months ago? It feels like it happened three weeks ago.The older I got, the faster it seemed to happen.I remember being a kid and feeling like summer vacation lasted forever.Now, somehow, I’ll blink and it’s Thanksgiving.I’ll blink again and it’s Christmas.I’ll blink one more time and I’m wondering why the grocery store already has Valentine’s Day decorations.What happened?Why does time seem to accelerate as we get older?I never really thought about it when I was working. I was too busy.There was always another meeting.Another deadline.Another project.Another email.Another fire to put out.I didn’t have time to stop and ask why I didn’t have time.Now that I have more time, I finally got curious.And after doing some reading and thinking about my own experiences, I came across a few explanations that made a lot of sense.The Aging BrainThe first explanation is probably the least surprising.We’re getting older.Our brains change as we age, and those changes may affect how we perceive the passage of time.One way I’ve come to think about this is through the analogy of a video game.Imagine playing a first person shooter when your computer is capable of rendering 120 frames per second.Everything feels incredibly smooth.Now imagine that, as the computer gets older, it can only process 60 frames per second.The game is still running at the same speed in the real world, but you’re receiving fewer visual frames.The experience feels different.Some research into the perception of time suggests that something similar may happen in the aging brain. As our neural networks change, the brain’s processing of information can change as well. The details are considerably more complicated than my video game analogy, but the basic idea is that the way our brains process and encode experiences changes as we age.And this may contribute to our subjective experience of time.But I think there’s another factor that’s even more interesting.The Problem With AutopilotThink back to childhood.Almost everything was new.Your first day of school.Your first time riding a bicycle.Your first trip on an airplane.Your first video game console.Your first crush.Your first time getting in trouble for doing something incredibly stupid.When you’re a child, your brain is constantly encountering experiences it hasn’t seen before.As we get older, that changes.We become experts at navigating the world.We know how to drive to work.We know how to make coffee.We know how to check email.We know how to sit through meetings.We know how to do our jobs.We know how to drive home.And then we do it again tomorrow.And the day after that.And the day after that.This is one of the great advantages of having an experienced brain. We don’t need to consciously process every little detail of our lives.Our brains can recognize patterns and automate familiar behaviors.That’s incredibly useful.But I suspect there’s a downside.When you’re operating on autopilot, you’re not creating as many distinct memories.Think about a typical commute.You drive the same roads you’ve driven hundreds of times.You pass the same buildings.You stop at the same traffic lights.You arrive at work.You might remember the commute as a whole, but you probably can’t tell me what you saw at 8:17 AM on Tuesday three weeks ago.Your brain didn’t consider that information important enough to preserve.Now imagine doing that for years.Same commute.Same desk.Same meetings.Same projects.Same routines.Eventually, you look back and realize that five years have somehow disappeared.The days were full of activity.But your memory contains relativel