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Self "experiment": hacking time perception with spaced repetition
Summary: everything is hard
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Summary: everything is hard
On March 12th I read a fantastic thread about the relationship between memory and time by @celestialboon.
https://twitter.com/celestialboon/status/1210961431824347137?s=20
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https://twitter.com/celestialboon/status/1210961431824347137?s=20
My ..obsession with spaced repetition made me start journaling in Anki.
So for more than a month I& #39;ve been adding a salient event of each day in Anki.
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So for more than a month I& #39;ve been adding a salient event of each day in Anki.
I create 4 cards for each day:
{{c1::data/place}}
{{c2::brief description of salient event}}
{{c1::salient event for day before}}
{{c2::salient event for today}}
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{{c1::data/place}}
{{c2::brief description of salient event}}
{{c1::salient event for day before}}
{{c2::salient event for today}}
4" title="I create 4 cards for each day:{{c1::data/place}}{{c2::brief description of salient event}}{{c1::salient event for day before}}{{c2::salient event for today}}https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">4">
4" title="I create 4 cards for each day:{{c1::data/place}}{{c2::brief description of salient event}}{{c1::salient event for day before}}{{c2::salient event for today}}https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">4">
Anki allows me to review those cards at exponentially increasing intervals of time, efficiently storing them into my memory.
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I generally suck at recalling events, if you ask me what I ate yesterday at lunch I& #39;d have a hard time answering.
I forget days and days of my life shortly after the being present in them.
Days blur in weeks, weeks in months and months in years.
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I forget days and days of my life shortly after the being present in them.
Days blur in weeks, weeks in months and months in years.
I& #39;ve always been paying attention to time perception.
I& #39;ve been worrying about it speeding up, since I was in middle school or even earlier.
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I& #39;ve been worrying about it speeding up, since I was in middle school or even earlier.
The idea is to try see if by recalling more about the days in my life, I can influence my own time perception.
The more ambitious idea is to dilate time perception of the past (order of weeks/months/years).
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The more ambitious idea is to dilate time perception of the past (order of weeks/months/years).
I feel like time perception in the present is a whole separate topic, sometimes I want to slow it down, sometimes I want to speed it up.
Time perception about the past, I think, I usually want to slow it down.
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Time perception about the past, I think, I usually want to slow it down.
One more note on the setting of the "experiment":
I& #39;ve added positive/negative/aseptic/emotionally-filled events in the system. It would be cool to try adding e.g. only positive events, and see if it affects my mood.
(There& #39;s also https://twitter.com/celestialboon/status/1209164362436562944?s=20)
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I& #39;ve added positive/negative/aseptic/emotionally-filled events in the system. It would be cool to try adding e.g. only positive events, and see if it affects my mood.
(There& #39;s also https://twitter.com/celestialboon/status/1209164362436562944?s=20)
Main takeaways of the "experiment":
- Can you even measure time perception?
- I perceive time in different ways (i.e. time might feel slow in one dimension but fast on others), what& #39;s the meaning of each dimension? What can they be useful for?
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- Can you even measure time perception?
- I perceive time in different ways (i.e. time might feel slow in one dimension but fast on others), what& #39;s the meaning of each dimension? What can they be useful for?
If I think about the time passed since I started journaling, as a WHOLE, it feels longer than January-February.
On the other end I find myself thinking "oh shit it& #39;s already Saturday!" every Saturday.
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On the other end I find myself thinking "oh shit it& #39;s already Saturday!" every Saturday.
It& #39;s vague but thinking about this period of time in some ways feels affected by this experiment and other ways it doesn& #39;t.
I& #39;m also not sure I& #39;m not making it up. But since what matters is my own time perception, I think that& #39;s intended (?).
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I& #39;m also not sure I& #39;m not making it up. But since what matters is my own time perception, I think that& #39;s intended (?).
I& #39;ve been in quarantine since the end of February.
Quarantine is having a huge influence on my time perception. I can& #39;t figure out if that help or hindered the "experiment".
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Quarantine is having a huge influence on my time perception. I can& #39;t figure out if that help or hindered the "experiment".
Days are pretty monotonous, weekend don& #39;t break the weeks apart anymore.
So time perception should have sped up for me, but the novelty of the Covid situation should has slowed it down.
I don& #39;t have a reference to compare the time perception of this period to.
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So time perception should have sped up for me, but the novelty of the Covid situation should has slowed it down.
I don& #39;t have a reference to compare the time perception of this period to.
This "experiment" gifted me with a pleasant insight on myself, my days are never as monotonous as I think they are (specially during quarantine).
I& #39;m very surprised that I& #39;ve been able to find a salient event each and every day for more than a month with no repetitions.
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I& #39;m very surprised that I& #39;ve been able to find a salient event each and every day for more than a month with no repetitions.
A bunch of observations:
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Outside of reviews and of when I think about this "experiment", I almost never found myself recalling the salient events from they days I recorded.
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During Anki review, recalling the salient event for a specific day brings up a sense for the whole day.
I also recall the time of the day when the salient event happen (e.g. after lunch, before going to bed, in the afternoon). I& #39;m not adding that information in Anki.
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I also recall the time of the day when the salient event happen (e.g. after lunch, before going to bed, in the afternoon). I& #39;m not adding that information in Anki.
Those cards feel hard to review, I really have to dig into memory, recalling is tiring.
Today I got 78% of them correct (vs 91% on all my cards).
Also, adding 4 cards each day, I think I spend 10-15 minutes reviewing them.
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Today I got 78% of them correct (vs 91% on all my cards).
Also, adding 4 cards each day, I think I spend 10-15 minutes reviewing them.
In conclusion I want to say that it& #39;s been interesting and, at times, fun to conduct this "experiment" about myself.
I will keep going with the journaling (at least until the habit breaks), memory of my life is something nice to have regardless.
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I will keep going with the journaling (at least until the habit breaks), memory of my life is something nice to have regardless.
