Bend it Like Einstein

Your Guide to Everyday Time Dilation

Barry S. Stahl

Solution Architect & Developer

@bsstahl@cognitiveinheritance.com

https://CognitiveInheritance.com

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Favorite Physicists & Mathematicians

Favorite Physicists

Harold "Hal" Stahl
Carl Sagan
Richard Feynman
Marie Curie
Nikola Tesla
Albert Einstein
Neil Degrasse Tyson
Niels Bohr
Galileo Galilei
Michael Faraday

Other notables: Stephen Hawking, Edwin Hubble, Leonard Susskind, Christiaan Huygens

Favorite Mathematicians

Ada Lovelace
Alan Turing
Johannes Kepler
Rene Descartes
Isaac Newton
Emmy Noether
George Boole
Blaise Pascal
Johann Gauss
Grace Hopper

Other notables: Daphne Koller, Grady Booch, Leonardo Fibonacci, Evelyn Berezin, Benoit Mandelbrot

Time Dilation

Special Relativity (1905)
- Our perception of time changes with our velocity
General Relativity (1916)
- Our perception of time changes with gravity

The Big Rocks

Big Rocks = Stuff Important to Us
Little Rocks/Sand = Everything Else

Covey, S. R. (1997). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic

Roger Sperry and "Split Brain"

Specialization by Function
- Right: Spatial abilities and holistic processing
- Left: Logic, analysis, language and math
First approximations -- since supplanted

Daniel Kahneman Thinking Fast & Slow

Specialization by Processing Mode
- Right: Fast, intuitive and effortless
- Left: Slow, analytical and deliberate

Iain McGilchrist and Harmonized Brain

Specialization by Attention Mode
- Right: Autonomous and context-aware
- Left: Requires focused attention

The reasonings of both hemispheres combine to balance our understanding of the world

David Eagleman's Free-Fall Experiment

These 2 theories have led to some very interesting experiments. One such experiment was done by David Eagleman and his team. Eagleman had a theory that people can do more work during a situation of hightened stress. So he designed an experiment where he pushed people off high towers into safety nets and measured how much they could accomplish. The thinking was that if we could use this stress to move the brain into "System 1" mode (fast thinking), we could accomplish more. Fortunately for us, the data did not support that theory. Even though participants all reported the time spent in free-fall as much longer than it actually was, their ability to process information didn't improve. This suggested to him that time slowing was actually a retrospective view. Eagleman theorized that, in our brains, the amygdala kicked in and wrote more memories of this time, due to the stress, and therefore, when we look back at it, it feels like it took longer than it did. So now, the thinking is that high stress situations lead to increased memory encoding, and thus the feeling of things taking longer than they actually did. Falling from the Tower: Created by Dalle via Microsoft Designer

Hypothesis:
- Participants could do more work during situations of heightened stress
Method:
- Participants free-fall from a 150-foot tower while attempting to read numbers on a "perceptual chronometer"
Results:
- Participants estimated fall-times as longer than actual
- Participants did not show an increase in work

A Temporal Pioneer?

3 Temporal-Pioneering Events
- Catching the Drumstick
- Diving Catch in Softball
- Falling off a horse
All 3 involve flying through the air
- High-Gravity Situations?

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Time Perception is Skewed by High-Gravity

Focused Attention = Longer Perception
- High-Stress (worry)
- Manual Effort (calculation)
Autonomous Action = Shorter Perception
- Low-Stress (flow)
- Automatic Effort (habit)

Why We Suck at Estimating

Focused Attention = Longer Perception
- Boring but Urgent
- Stressful and uncomfortable
Autonomous Action = Shorter Perception
- Flow State
- Pleasant and familiar

The Paradox of Productivity

Our mundane tasks monopolize our memory
This perception results in a feeling of underachievement
Which pressures us to spend even more time on them

Time flies in the zone, yet drags in detail; our minds make the mundane more memorable

Focus Modulation (FM)

Since the problem then is that our minds are making mundane things, these things that are not important to us, more memorable than the things we really care about, what can we do about it? I like to call this process focus modulation, which is really just 2 things, but there are lots of different ways to do these 2 particular things. Step one is to make sure that we cultivate and document our productive time. Create the conditions for a flow state and then recognize it after it happened and narrate it, bringing it to the forefront of our attention. I believe the most important thing we can do with our work is to narrate it, either to ourselves or to someone else. Microblog it, journal it, blog about it if that's what you prefer, just make sure you've registered the fact in your mind that you did this thing. It doesn't have to be public, just make sure you recognize that you spent this time doing this thing that you value. Likewise try not to focus on less productive things. It's hard, but try not to worry so much about the unimportant stuff.

I'd like to leave you with one more thought. I highly recommend you do these things, find ways that work for you to to perform, focus modulation and put more of your attention spotlight on the things that are really important to you. But the one thing I would definitely ask you not to do is...

Focus on Things that Make Time Fly: Created by Dalle via Microsoft Designer

Cultivate & document productive time
- Setup the conditions for flow state
- Recognize and value flow when it ends
Limit focus on less productive time
- Reduce time spent worrying
- Automate the boring stuff

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Don't Tell Our Managers

We've got enough to worry about already
Worrying about being yeeted off of high towers will result in poor Focus Modulation

New experiment, who dis?

Thank You!!

Link to this slide deck -->

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