This is a special post for quick takes by leogao. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
i find it very interesting how becoming familiar with a place makes it feel so different, and yet it's recognizably the same place. especially when the first time you see the place you just think of it as a disconnected location floating around somewhere in abstract locationspace, but then slowly discover its relationship to other locations. sometimes this feels exhilarating, because the world feels more cohesive and whole and familiar. other times it's melancholy, because it feels like the magic has gone.
This is a big part of the appeal of travel for me. I feel like time speeds up and and presence drops a lot when my brain has a sufficiently good representation of the location I'm in.
When I stay in the same place too long I find myself thinking the same thoughts, using the same words over and over again. I wonder if it would be possible to use an app to intentionally introduce random novel sounds, words, images, etc. into one’s life as a sort of brain refresher, but I suspect that nothing comes close to travel for this.