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[NT] NTs and time

Natrushka

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They are usually pragmatic about the present, skeptical about the future, solipsistic about the past, and their preferred time and place are the interval and the intersection.

Does this apply to you? I had one of those "A-ha" moments when I read this not that long ago. I thought everyone dealt with time in intervals, From x to y, The Maxwell Years, the four years we were stationed here, the 2 there, the time I lived alone.

For those of you who do prefer intervals do you actually see time? As long as I can remember I've had an image of a calendar year in my mind, a circle, skewed with July (number 7) at the bottom because that was "summer" and it marked a change of time (End of School, Birthday, Summer). I can see which day of the week August 3rd is, or December 18th - for this year, for a few back, for a few forward.

These intervals are how I remember things that happened in the past; where did I live, where was I on that circle? I've found I need to use these tricks because my ability to remember things that happened in the past is horrible. My husband can remember every extra who had 2 seconds of time onscreen in the movie "Heat" and I barely remember who the main stars were. "Hey do you remember when we did this last summer?" NO. I don't. (And why does he?)

I can remember things that are very important, but small things that happen on a day to day basis get washed away. Is this part of living in the interval? Or am I a freak? :D
 

curmudgeon

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Does this apply to you? I had one of those "A-ha" moments when I read this not that long ago. I thought everyone dealt with time in intervals, From x to y, The Maxwell Years, the four years we were stationed here, the 2 there, the time I lived alone.

I'd never voiced how I see time, but I think I know what you mean. The Nike years. The Gatsby summer. When I Was a Workaholic. That unmentionable period on Mt. Desert Island. The solitary decade ...

For those of you who do prefer intervals do you actually see time? As long as I can remember I've had an image of a calendar year in my mind, a circle, skewed with July (number 7) at the bottom because that was "summer" and it marked a change of time (End of School, Birthday, Summer). I can see which day of the week August 3rd is, or December 18th - for this year, for a few back, for a few forward.

I think I experience something similar. September 6 always felt like the start of a new year for me, not January 1. And it was September and October I could see in my mind. I could more readily recall big events if I visualized something related to them. It wasn't always a wall calendar. Sometimes it was a book or a note or an image of my Filofax calendar or a fleeting image of late afternoon at the beach.

I also did much better in tests while in school if I visualized that page of the textbook with the picture of the whatever [cell structure] near it. I could see the labels, and then I'd know what the answer was on the test. But I don't know if that has as much to do with time as the way I trained myself to remember things.

These intervals are how I remember things that happened in the past; where did I live, where was I on that circle? I've found I need to use these tricks because my ability to remember things that happened in the past is horrible. My husband can remember every extra who had 2 seconds of time onscreen in the movie "Heat" and I barely remember who the main stars were. "Hey do you remember when we did this last summer?" NO. I don't. (And why does he?)

I can relate to that. My husband calls it The Gift (my inability to remember something that just happened in a book I read or a movie I watched). I only remember things that are important to me, and I do see those things in intervals: Life before W, and so on.

I can remember things that are very important, but small things that happen on a day to day basis get washed away. Is this part of living in the interval? Or am I a freak? :D

I think you're just adept at filtering out from the daily assault of inputs to your brain what is meaningful to you. You are not a freak. :hug:
 

Splittet

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I also did much better in tests while in school if I visualized that page of the textbook with the picture of the whatever [cell structure] near it. I could see the labels, and then I'd know what the answer was on the test. But I don't know if that has as much to do with time as the way I trained myself to remember things.

I can so relate to this! If I have a hard time remembering something in a test I tend to think back at where I read it, imagine the page, because I tend to remember where I read it, and if I am patient enough, it tends to come back to me. It kind of worries me that now that I am going off to university, I can’t really use that technique, since I will have like a billion ton of pages to read, and not just 25 pages or something.

I can relate to that. My husband calls it The Gift (my inability to remember something that just happened in a book I read or a movie I watched). I only remember things that are important to me, and I do see those things in intervals: Life before W, and so on.

Haha, yeah, I kind of suck at that too. I watch a couple of TV series on my computer weekly, but usually I am unable to remember what happened on last week’s show. Watching the show it usually comes slowly back to me though, if there is any continuity anyway. Remembering what I had for dinner yesterday and stuff like that doesn’t come very easily to me either. It’s kind of very blurry, and the sharpening process usually takes quite some time, but it works to a certain extent.
 

Natrushka

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Damn, I so wanted to be a freak.

I wonder if the TV shows, The Gift, Heat, etc, has to do with devided attention? I know that there are times when I'm in front of the TV and I'm not really all there. Then again, there are books I read that I positively adore, that I think about for months after they're done, and I still forget entire chapters...
 

curmudgeon

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It often amuses Mr. curmudgeon when I ask him to go back several seconds in a movie because I was daydreaming or just thinking about something else.

Books are weird for me. Some I remember them almost photographically, whereas others I can read again and again because I'd forgotten (again) the plot and the outcome. And others are just not worth remembering!

Two freaks?
 

Wolf

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I maintain time associatively in my memory.
 

substitute

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Sorta like in the OP, except I don't readily see 'sections' of time, it all just melts into one. At the moment, I barely know what day of the week it is. I have to check with the kids to find out if it's a day they need to take a swimming kit to school or something, they remember these things, I don't. If I remember something at all, then it might as well have been yesterday or ten years ago, makes little difference to how much I recall of it, or what significance it has to me. I don't tend to remember unless it's significant in some way. Which very little is, because at the time it's happening, it's 'present', and I'm never really engaged in the present without a huge effort of will.

There was a point when the only semi-organized activity I was ever doing, was producing the service leaflets for the Sunday Masses, and I came to think of time in terms of the liturgical calendar, so if you asked me what day of the week it was or what the date was, I had no idea beyond "three days since Trinity 12" or "five days since the 2nd Sunday of Advent" or "it's St Ignatius tomorrow" - cos those were the headings for the service leaflets! I figured out the date by casting my mind back to the nearest time when I knew what day it was - usually Sunday because the Mass is different than other days of the week, and think what the heading was on the sheet, or what colour vestments were being worn, and try to think how many times I'd been to sleep since then.

I quite liked living that way, actually. It got to a point where I'd do a double take when someone said the word 'September' or 'next Tuesday' or 'July 12th', like these words had become meaningless to me and I'd forgotten how important they were, haha...

I've never been very good with tracking time, either present or past. The future I track by knowing what the cue will be for it being 'time' for something. I just trust myself to notice the cue when it comes, and go with the flow. I even managed to run a business quite successfully like this, until I took on an ENTJ partner who made things a bit more regimented... though no more successful for it, for all that he insisted it was necessary...

I prefer to just run by my own mental equivalent of a biological clock/calendar, and it works for me. The only time I think of time like normal people (heheh) is when I have to come onto their level cos I'm working with them. And it feels sorta funny, novel and cool, almost exciting even... for a little while... I find myself chuckling almost apologetically as I say 'Tuesday', like it's a new word I'm playing with. I didn't realise I did this until someone asked me why I always laughed when I said the names of days and months :)
 

OK Radio

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Damn, I so wanted to be a freak.

I wonder if the TV shows, The Gift, Heat, etc, has to do with devided attention? I know that there are times when I'm in front of the TV and I'm not really all there. Then again, there are books I read that I positively adore, that I think about for months after they're done, and I still forget entire chapters...

I believe divided attention would account for your inability to recall minor occurrences on television shows you are watching, and I would believe your divided attention stems from focusing on personal concerns you think about instead of passively watching an episode.

I can remember things that are very important, but small things that happen on a day to day basis get washed away. Is this part of living in the interval? Or am I a freak?

I suspect you're always thinking, which gets in the way of always remembering. You're turning over something that you want to take care of and have done with at all times. You settle in to watch a movie or show, and at some point, you get a little bored, and you spend time thinking about something that a) troubles you b) could trouble you or c) has troubled you in the past and BAM!, you've come unmoored from time like a Vonnegut novel.

It's not that you're nervous, fixated, or unnatural, you're just hyper-aware of possibilities and outcomes, and you give yourself to contemplation at all sorts of odd snatches of time whether or not you're aware you're doing it.
 

Natrushka

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I suspect you're always thinking, which gets in the way of always remembering.

I do exactly that at times - I've caught myself doing it. However, there are some things I remember with uncanny accuracy.

If only I could harness my powers for the forces of evil good.
 

Nighthawk

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Does this apply to you? I had one of those "A-ha" moments when I read this not that long ago. I thought everyone dealt with time in intervals, From x to y, The Maxwell Years, the four years we were stationed here, the 2 there, the time I lived alone.

Definitely for me. I see my life as time intervals. High school, military academy, living in Europe, living in Texas, living in the Middle East, Gulf War .. and on and on. Some of them seem to stretch in an almost surreal fasion and seem longer than they actually were ... probably due to intense emotions involved during that time.

For those of you who do prefer intervals do you actually see time? As long as I can remember I've had an image of a calendar year in my mind, a circle, skewed with July (number 7) at the bottom because that was "summer" and it marked a change of time (End of School, Birthday, Summer). I can see which day of the week August 3rd is, or December 18th - for this year, for a few back, for a few forward.

I see time as a expanding heirarchy of linear intervals ... each one expanding or collapsing for big-picture or closer inspection.

These intervals are how I remember things that happened in the past; where did I live, where was I on that circle? I've found I need to use these tricks because my ability to remember things that happened in the past is horrible. My husband can remember every extra who had 2 seconds of time onscreen in the movie "Heat" and I barely remember who the main stars were. "Hey do you remember when we did this last summer?" NO. I don't. (And why does he?)

I can remember things that are very important, but small things that happen on a day to day basis get washed away. Is this part of living in the interval? Or am I a freak? :D

This is a mixed bag with me. I can remember details about certain things or people that interest me ... and totally lose those which do not. Music is an interesting phenomenon with me, as I place songs which I enjoy in a time interval. Hearing that certain song takes me back to that interval and I can relive some of the feelings and sensations from that time. That is how I'm able to place the year the song came out. Unfortunately, the more I hear the song, the more it corrupts the interval and the less I feel the sensations ... since they are being replaced by another interval now closer to me.
 

Natrushka

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Music is an interesting phenomenon with me, as I place songs which I enjoy in a time interval. Hearing that certain song takes me back to that interval and I can relive some of the feelings and sensations from that time. That is how I'm able to place the year the song came out.

I do this as well. Music and "Where I Lived When" are how I frame my references. I have moved 17 times...
 

Nighthawk

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I do this as well. Music and "Where I Lived When" are how I frame my references. I have moved 17 times...

It's been about that many times for me too, although most of them in my 20's. I've been in the same place for 7 years now ... longest ever. Perhaps that is why my music intervals are more crisp and punctuated from earlier years. More intervals into which to divide them.
 

Fiver

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Love this thread because it makes me realize I am not crazy. Well, at least not alone.

Substitute, I so know what you mean by the trigger date. I never have any idea what day or date it is, only that I have 5 days until Thursday when that project is due; or I have 3 weeks until I have to start planning for my trip for which I am leaving on Oct 27.

My big problem is that I frequently don't realize that 'the doctor's appointment on Thursday' and 'the lunch I have on the 13th' are actually the same day.

This is a big problem for me (actually for people around me) and I have to come up with many coping strategies. I have trouble with recurring events, like every Tuesday is softball practice. What? Is today Tuesday???? Plus, I immediately want to reject the whole notion because doing something every Tuesday sounds so restrictive to me. Every Tuesday? Are you kidding me? What?

Also, if someone says, "Let's make our meetings the 3rd Tuesday of every month," it's like they're saying "Let's make our meetings blah, blah, blah."

This interval time thing makes me seem like a space cadet to other people, but I'm not. I just have this challenge. Sometimes I try to explain my calendar challenge to normal people and they just do not understand.

I completely agree with the interval past and the spacing out in the middle of reading or watching. I love to drive on long car trips and listen to books on tape because I completely enter that self-hypnosis zone.
 

substitute

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Yeah, that main down side to all this for me though is that I am so reliant on cues to be able to track the passage of time at all, especially once that time becomes 'past'. The past is gone to me, often no sooner than it was present. So... to know how long it's been since I last called someone or wrote to them or went to see them, or how long it's been since they asked me to find something out or do something for them and said there was no deadline, no pressure, and I still haven't got back to them.

So you get things like the first I realize of it, is when I get the cue. And the cue is sadly, sometimes, "You haven't called me for over a month!" or "I wrote tor you three times and gave up when after two months I got no reply!"

to me, the event of receiving and reading their letter, once it was past, just joined the ranks of "stuff I did" if I think about it, and to me they're no different whether they were yesterday or ten years ago. Whilst they might've been acutely aware that they had waited a long time for a reply, it still seems like only yesterday to me that I even got the letter.

I have developed some coping mechanisms for this. I set myself aside days to do certain things, to make sure I do them. I call them my J Days, haha... I put on the calendar that a certain day is J day, then set alarms on my cellphone, computer, everything, to keep reminding me when it's getting closer to J Day. And on the day, I'll go through all my mail, e-mails, phone messages, and scour my memory for any conversations I've had where I've said I'd do something. And I make a list and then blitz through them all in one day.

Then return to normal P mode :D

The main thing I'm realizing, the more I think about it, is that in my mind time is not linear. I don't remember events either future, past or present in terms of a linear sorta thing, like a line going straight along, with little points or dots on it for events like a railway line map. That's not how I see things... this isn't by choice, it's just the way my mind involuntarily works. I see it more like a big sorta plate of spaghetti with little meatballs all over the damn place, connected and intersected by dozens of different lines.

So... this means that possibly the reason why event X doesn't seem so long ago to me is because on the spaghetti map haha, I have a shortcut from here to there, it doesn't look so far away as it would if I saw it as a point a long way down a straight line with lots of other stuff that's happened in between then and now.
 

Fiver

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I picture my life as a big gantt chart with lots of project timelines -- unfortunately I need some of your spaghetti to tie the projects together.

I can remember the past but only because I have a very developed system for logically linking memories (think computer directories and subdirectories).
 

sakuraba

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i have a better memory than anyone ive ever met.
 

Misty_Mountain_Rose

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Yeah, that main down side to all this for me though is that I am so reliant on cues to be able to track the passage of time at all, especially once that time becomes 'past'. The past is gone to me, often no sooner than it was present. So... to know how long it's been since I last called someone or wrote to them or went to see them, or how long it's been since they asked me to find something out or do something for them and said there was no deadline, no pressure, and I still haven't got back to them.

So you get things like the first I realize of it, is when I get the cue. And the cue is sadly, sometimes, "You haven't called me for over a month!" or "I wrote tor you three times and gave up when after two months I got no reply!"

Wow can I relate to that. My friends are used to be 'disappearing' for months at a time because in my mind 'we just talked!'. More demanding friends whose feelings were hurt by my behaviour have all given up on me.

I have developed some coping mechanisms for this. I set myself aside days to do certain things, to make sure I do them. I call them my J Days, haha... I put on the calendar that a certain day is J day, then set alarms on my cellphone, computer, everything, to keep reminding me when it's getting closer to J Day. And on the day, I'll go through all my mail, e-mails, phone messages, and scour my memory for any conversations I've had where I've said I'd do something. And I make a list and then blitz through them all in one day.

Then return to normal P mode :D

My Outlook calendar is FILLED with (repeated) reminders about things that I need to do. My lack of understanding time leads to terrible procrastination and even with all the reminders it still somehow doesn't sink in until I see 'Reminder - 4 hours until parent teacher conference' when I realize that it suddenly has an impact on what I should be doing in the present.

The main thing I'm realizing, the more I think about it, is that in my mind time is not linear. I don't remember events either future, past or present in terms of a linear sorta thing, like a line going straight along, with little points or dots on it for events like a railway line map. That's not how I see things... this isn't by choice, it's just the way my mind involuntarily works. I see it more like a big sorta plate of spaghetti with little meatballs all over the damn place, connected and intersected by dozens of different lines.

:yim_rolling_on_the_

Thats awesome. I literally nearly spit out my water when I read that.

So... this means that possibly the reason why event X doesn't seem so long ago to me is because on the spaghetti map haha, I have a shortcut from here to there, it doesn't look so far away as it would if I saw it as a point a long way down a straight line with lots of other stuff that's happened in between then and now.

You've summed up my experiences with time pretty well. Although, its odd that I haven't ever attributed it to a problem of mine personally. It never occurred to me that it might not be the same for others, I've just found ways to deal with it, essentially 'idiot proofing' my existence. My friends laugh at me because I deliberately create all of these backup plans and catch-all, fail-safe kind of things for important stuff. I told a friend once that my world was made up of lots of happy coincidences, brought on by the subconcious part of my mind working on things that the conscience doesn't give a crap about. In those moments I go 'wow... I was really smart to have thought of that months ago and put this in place just for this particular moment'.
 

Windigo

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I picture my life as a big gantt chart with lots of project timelines -- unfortunately I need some of your spaghetti to tie the projects together.

I can remember the past but only because I have a very developed system for logically linking memories (think computer directories and subdirectories).

I can relate to this. I feel like my brain is a giant computer that files and locates information by various interconnected pathways. Therefore time is not necessarily linear for me.

For a while I could remember every detail of my life from about 1-1/2 and watch it in my head like a movie. I attributed this to the fact that as a navy kid I moved every 2 years so I have very specific memories linked to specific places I've lived. I thought that if everyone could catagorize their memories like I could theirs would be just the same as mine.

However, after attending a few 20 year reunions, I realize that my memory for details, conversations and events is much clearer for me than others. I remember things people told me they did twenty years ago that they themselves have forgotten.

I have always had an almost photographic (?) audio memory which made college a breeze (while taking tests I could "hear" the professor's lecture answer a particular question.

As I get older, however I am beginning to have gaps in the linear progression, I know it's still in my head. I've just forgotten what I filed it under.

The past and present seems to blend into one giant whole triggered by scents, sounds, smells, ect. I find myself sometimes forgetting what year it is by a huge margin. I've been known to write 1987 on a check in 2009!

In reality, time for me is an arbitrary categorization in order to link events with significance and nothing more.

A very interesting thread, thanks for starting it!
 

entropie

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[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qriH-8yeqcE"].[/YOUTUBE]

Time of course is a different topic for an outerdimensional being
 
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