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The quiet art of attention

(billwear.github.io)
865 points billwear | 1 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mzajc ◴[13 Oct 24 16:43 UTC] No.41829454[source]▶
Well written! I can relate to most of the article. However, I find that

> To focus on one thing deeply, to give it your full attention, is to experience it fully. And when we do this, something remarkable happens. Time, which so often feels like it is slipping through our fingers, begins to slow.

doesn't really apply to me, or to many people I know and have worked with - it is when I focus on one task that "time flies", and it's distractions that end up throwing men out of the zone.

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yapyap ◴[13 Oct 24 18:27 UTC] No.41830289[source]▶
What I think he meant is that time slows down for him in the way that time around him speeds up while he can stay focused on one thing.

Now of course I’m not the author so I’m not sure but yeah the way you’re describing it (real time flying when you’re locked in on something) is how I feel it goes for most people

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1. marmaduke ◴[13 Oct 24 21:21 UTC] No.41831725[source]▶
Yep that’s my reading too. I like to see it from a dynamical systems perspective: as a system approaches an attractor, the phase flow slows down, while the wall time marches on steadily. If we consider the “perspective” of the system, which is wall time divided by phase flow, we get the time speeding up part.