(Note: Yes, I^[1] know this post is nine days late. It's still the early into the first month of the year, so I guess it still counts! Also, I'm not very good at wordsmithing.)

Why are you often surprised at the passage of time?

First of all, time is always passing. You should know that already. Since everything changes when time passes, everything is always changing.^[2]

That said, there is a common phenomenon, where you are often surprised by the passage of time. This is because the way you think about the world is often static - or, in more rationalist-esque terminology, you are caching your mental models. More precisely: when you see, hear, or read of something, you usually don't think, "This is what [thing] was like at [time]". More commonly, you just think: "This is what [thing] is like". Then, when you revisit this particular thing, you notice that it's different from what you remember, and feel a pang of surprise. But you predictably felt surprised because you forgot to think about how that thing may have evolved since you last visited it. I call this "being surprised by the passage of time".^[3]

Here are some examples of the thing I'm trying to get at the spirit of:

The new year! This is probably the most quintessential example. When January 1 of a year arrives, you still feel like it was the previous year - you often don't really internalize the year you're in as being the current year until February or so.^[4]
You might visit a landmark one day (e.g. a street, a park, a school, etc.) as a tourist or visitor. But the next time you stop by, it might have been renovated or removed to your surprise.
You might have spoken with an old friend many years ago. But when you speak to the friend next, you're surprised that they're so old, even though everyone is always getting older.
You might get an interesting gadget (like a computer, a smartphone, or a robot), which was state-of-the-art when you bought it. But later on it might feel woefully obsolete, and you might start coveting the newer gadgets your friends all got instead.

The new year, and how to not be surprised by the passage of time

New Year's Day is a celebration of the new year, and we all celebrate it.^[5] But I propose that it is really a celebration of the passage of time - and, by extension, a celebration of the virtue of not being surprised by the passage of time.

How should you celebrate Ne...

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