2020-10-19

On Time

  • I Recently listened to [[Joe Henrich]] on the [[The North Star]]. One particularly interesting idea they talked about was "when was the last time you went a full day without looking at a clock?" My answer to which is never, like most Americans. I may get close, but I don't think I can honestly say I haven't looked at a clock at least once since I was three... maybe
  • Joe talks about living in South America where he had to consistently remind the South Americans he worked with to use the watches he gave them. They just never thought to check. Some cultures are not nearly time bound like we are. At least they are not time bound in the same sense as Americans. Their days still evolve in a similar fashion. They work, eat, relax, play. They judge the progress of their day by the sun and how they feel. Not by the clock.
  • This brings up the interesting idea of how days change throughout the year. We know days change. We see the sun stay out later, or set earlier, but our lives largely do not change because of this. We don't work later in the summer because it's light out, and we all know the dread of getting out of work when it's already dark, because we don't shorten our hours in the winter. Clocks are the cause of this. 9-5 can be consistent, despite our changing days. Is that good?
  • The idea of going a full day without checking the time feels unreasonable, irresponsible... almost dangerous. Our lives are so tied to it. We need to know the time. We ask each other for the time all the time. It grounds us. We get anxious when we don't know it. We feel we are missing part of our necessary reality.


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