[travel] Live the incompressible life

[mattbell]

I went on a walk this morning and found I could run through my entire trip (all 4 1/2 months of it), day by day, recalling the major highlights of what I did every day. I can say with confidence that I would not have had that ability nine months ago. Even though my job was interesting, Monday through Friday often slurred together into a big mush. I could probably have remembered the last couple of months of weekends, but that would be it. Routines make my top level of consciousness sleepy.

I've found that in general the human mind will compress experiences that are repetitive so as to store them in less space. Experiences that are not repetitive cannot be compressed as much. I value the presence of variety in my life, so I think it's a reasonable goal to live my life such that I can recall what I've done every day for the last couple of months.

Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

You should read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann - some important parts of the book discuss this phenomenon, of how time periods where you're not doing anything seem psychologically longest while you're experiencing them, but shortest when remembering them.