%% [[Developing Values]] tags:: #on/time | #note/thing | #on/life | #on/makingmeaning | #on/measurement people:: # Time Lon Setnik dates:: 2022-04-25 %% *A direction of the universe.* This reminds me of [[the hidden power of compounding]], the ability to [[focus attention]] and [[artifacts are evidence of what we created]]. It's kind of like Hans Zimmer talking about the selection of instruments for the movie Dune. He describes how he wanted the only constant that is represented from our day in the year 10,000 is the human voice. The only remainders from Crema of the years 1200 - 1600 are the marble and the few paintings of people famous and powerful enough to be inked alongside the dominant Christian symbols. 800 years is a blink on the universe's time scale, although to us in the US, it seems forever. The people of Crema have been ruled alternatively many times over the last millenium. In the 4th C, Milano was the capitol of the Western Roman Empire containing Crema. In the 11th C if was ruled by Tuscano, and besieged and burned to the ground in 1159 by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany. The Peace of Constance in 1183 allowed the city to be rebuilt but was given in 1199 to the Cremonese. At that point it was independent again, and reinforced by walls again and the cathedral was built. It was then taken back by the Milanese, hit by the black plague, and taken by the Republic of Venice. Nearby, the Milanese were managed by the Spanish. Venice fell in 1796, and in 1797 Crema became part of the French client Cisalpine republic, and later the Napoleonic Italian Republic. After the Napoleonic wars, Crema was awarded to the Austria as part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, which split and it was part of the sub-Kingdom of Lombardy. In 1859, the treaty of Zurich ended the Austro-Sardinian War, and Austria ceded Lombardy to France. France ceded Lombardy to Sardinia, which became the kingdom of Italy in 1861, and in 1946, the modern Republic of Italy. Thus, this little enclave the size of Concord, NH, has been alternatively independent, and run by the Romans, Germans, Austrians, Spanish, Venetians, French, and finally Italian politicians. Does this make them less upset by the political perturbations within parties? How do we interpret the swings in our country? Globally? Is this just part of the long history of human struggles for power? Did the post-WWII era, when memories were fresh and people better remembered the horrors of seeking power, prevent the moves we are seeing today? How do we create a life of [[Antifragility]], or is that just a dream? As #people/naseemtaleb says, we can only be resilient, to a certain extent. We can asymptotically approach resilience, but black swan events are unpredictable because of the unpredictability. Watching "Living" in July 2023 while flying to California with Cynthia buffered with "The Climb" about high deep-water soloing is a very interesting. "For Most people who go climbing, it changes their life." Chris Sharma. With Jason Mamoa. The idea is risk, exposure, fear, etc. Time is a directionality of the universe. A universal definition of time that can satisfy physicists and philosophers does not exist. - In classical physics, for reasons we do not understand, time only flows one direction. Time is inexorably linked to space and is often considered the fourth dimension in space-time. One the observable scale, space-time is governed by the laws of general relativity, meaning it is observed differently by different observers in different locations, traveling at different speeds. Time definitionally dilates at the edge of a black-hole. Quantum physics does not obey general relativity. For example, quantum entanglement means that mass can exist in two locations at the same time. - The human experience seems to be likewise governed by different laws. Time is dilated and contracted depending on our engagement with the world. Long experiences are governed by the [[peak-end effect]], where humans remember the peak and the end of activities. In fact, human memory can be described as being about forgetting to remember, much like [[invest in loss to get new growth]]. In [[Flow]] time is both increasingly valuable and lost. People seem to store time in a mental time line, which is a description of events stored in a modeled physical space. Some cultures do this left-to-right (if they write in that direction), others right-to-left (same reason), while others uphill-downhill or east-west. Some cultures view time as circular (Mayan), repeating construction-destruction (Phoenix Rising, Jains). Awareness of different [[Mental Model]] of time allows me to see how my view (linear, causal) can be so limiting. Maybe the people of Crema also have some understanding of the construction-destruction cycle because of their history? Maybe in the US we only recognize construction because we have not yet experienced destruction? Do all stories have arcs? - In [[Four Thousand Weeks]] we are reminded of the length of the average human life, and that we must have permission to not do everything in order to do what we do. Since all I have is now, I am here now so I mine as well be present. Life will be lost in a moment, I will go suddenly by VF, SAH, or more slowly by cancer, starvation, plague, or war. Either way, I won't be here at some point in the future. Can I care about people I can't see elsewhere in the world and in time? And how will I know I am caring for them? - [[How Will You Measure Your Life]], #people/claychristiannsen prepares us to think about boundaries and what we can do to control our existence. How do we wrest control from the businesses that attempt to steal our most precious resource? This matters because everything is tradeoffs Spending your time on this? You don't spend it on that. Saving your money for later? You're not spending it now. Being ready for war? You aren't maximizing peace. ### What would the opposite argument be? Time is just one in a series of misperceptions and cognitive errors and biases we make as humans. We think time is a certain thing, but it certainly isn't. This leads us to make certain choices which are not in our best interest. One of those choices is the focus on the future instead of the present. Focus on the future is a form of anxiety. Focus on the past is a form of depression. Focus on now is [[Flow]]. 8hereN0w. And what Chris Roussin said, about holding on a little more loosely to be more present. "Don't make every moment count" Trying to make every moment count unintentionally causes you to squeeze harder than you want, which inevitably leads not to the outcome you really want. ## Sources: [[Four Thousand Weeks]] [[How Will You Measure Your Life]] https://www.relay.fm/mpu/637 https://www.relay.fm/focused/123 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time [[Saving Time]]