Perhaps it would make sense to reverse time from bottom to top. Right now it reflects the standard flow of time, forward, like on a watch. But in reality, our time is only running out.
When you have a timeline going from top to bottom, it feels like it will keep going further, but if you reverse it, you see what's left — without illusion.
Very nice! I'd recommend that the landing page either shows an example right away (the Carl Sagan one is great) or make it more obvious to take a look at one first - took me a minute to figure out what this was for, but the example made it click immediately.
Thanks for the feedback! Didn't you get a highlight and text banner telling you to either enter a date or select an example? Or do you mean even then it should be more obvious?
Was it that the splash screen quote took too long too?
I like the use of the Weber-Fechner law, that's a lens I use to think of age as well :) The idea is that experienced time is proportional to log time, i.e. it's why time seems to move faster as we age. You could even measure your age in powers of two, like we do octaves.
Are you saying that a better way to measure perceived time is something like "1 year, 2 more years, 4 more years, 8 more years," starting from birth, and maybe call each of those increments a "log year"? I like it.
I guess the "natural" base to use to get the "right" number of increments is a pointless exercise, since it ultimately bottoms out in the question of "why is a regular year as long as it is?", but if we assume a base of 2, I'm currently in my 6th log year, and hope to die comfortably into my 7th. Actuarial odds are >80% in my favor.
i don't think time moves faster as we age, i think our perceived duration of early life grows because we keep thinking about it.
for example, i have spent 35 years thinking about the events which took place at age 8, but i have only spent 8 years thinking about the events of age 35.
but the only "how" you can add is by connecting your linkedin? is that the only meaning my life is allowed to have? i can't talk about all the cool stuff i do on linkedin, i'd never get a job again.
What platform / browser? Note that if you opened through a shared link you may be in view only mode. If that's the case I'll try making it more obvious
shame that this requires WebGL to work. my machine doesn't support it. so the rest of the interface loads, but not the actual tiles. i was only able to find out what it is by opening it on my mobile phone
Design is amazing. Well done.
I inserted my birthday and got "Enter a real Gregorian date.".
Only then I understood I needed to insert "mm dd yyyy". User error for sure :) but this date format really annoys me
If you open it on another machine / browser you'll have a fresh start. Note that it's serverless. Share URLs serialize layer and period data. You should see layers and periods that you were viewing when you clicked Share.
If I open the shared link in an incognito window or browser, I'm not expecting a fresh start. I expect the data encoded into the URL `?c=` to restore my session, which I'd like it to include everything I do on the website: birthday, layers, skip tutorial, etc.
It's not a direct import, nor does it connect accounts or anything. It's an extension that lets you gather your profile data. It's just easier than entering each period by hand. I added it for convenience mainly.
Hi, I made this! I don't know how it got to this page. Thanks for the support :)
Thanks for making this. Genuinely something I needed, but not enough to actually build it. ^^
(Hope this doesn't sound wrong. I believe the "trimming hangnails" is an important and often overlooked job.)
Interesting.
Perhaps it would make sense to reverse time from bottom to top. Right now it reflects the standard flow of time, forward, like on a watch. But in reality, our time is only running out.
When you have a timeline going from top to bottom, it feels like it will keep going further, but if you reverse it, you see what's left — without illusion.
Very nice! I'd recommend that the landing page either shows an example right away (the Carl Sagan one is great) or make it more obvious to take a look at one first - took me a minute to figure out what this was for, but the example made it click immediately.
Thanks for the feedback! Didn't you get a highlight and text banner telling you to either enter a date or select an example? Or do you mean even then it should be more obvious? Was it that the splash screen quote took too long too?
I like the use of the Weber-Fechner law, that's a lens I use to think of age as well :) The idea is that experienced time is proportional to log time, i.e. it's why time seems to move faster as we age. You could even measure your age in powers of two, like we do octaves.
Are you saying that a better way to measure perceived time is something like "1 year, 2 more years, 4 more years, 8 more years," starting from birth, and maybe call each of those increments a "log year"? I like it.
I guess the "natural" base to use to get the "right" number of increments is a pointless exercise, since it ultimately bottoms out in the question of "why is a regular year as long as it is?", but if we assume a base of 2, I'm currently in my 6th log year, and hope to die comfortably into my 7th. Actuarial odds are >80% in my favor.
Yes! But I do agree, six or seven units are not enough.
Extending the music analogy, we could call those powers of two "octaves", and divide it into twelve exponentially-spaced steps (i.e. 2^(years/12)).
The break even is about 75 steps (i.e. six octaves and three steps), which is about 76 years, since 2^(75/12) = 76.1.
i don't think time moves faster as we age, i think our perceived duration of early life grows because we keep thinking about it.
for example, i have spent 35 years thinking about the events which took place at age 8, but i have only spent 8 years thinking about the events of age 35.
Hence why time tends to slow down while living in the moment rather than reminiscing or dwelling on the past.
Its funny to me that adolescence is until 20, where I'm from its 18 or even sooner.
In places it would be considered until 21 (US drinking age, many folks still in university till 21-22)
Bug report: Your calendar labels me as “mature adult” when in fact I am not.
I started the day singing, then I opened this link. ;_;
So what is it for? To know how life periods span and change one into another? I like it but I am struggling to find a use case
Time is precious. It's so you get a birds eye view of how you've spent your time, and decide how to spend it next
but the only "how" you can add is by connecting your linkedin? is that the only meaning my life is allowed to have? i can't talk about all the cool stuff i do on linkedin, i'd never get a job again.
I don't use LinkedIn... I hate it. And my life is passing by itself, I chose only minor things, make small decisions, so this tool is not for me
Love it!
Bug report, if you're the author: I can't delete periods.
Feature request: I wanna be able to move periods from one layer to another.
What platform / browser? Note that if you opened through a shared link you may be in view only mode. If that's the case I'll try making it more obvious
nevermind, got a repro. thanks
Bug is fixed, request backlogged :)
It'd be nice to have some default layers based on https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
shame that this requires WebGL to work. my machine doesn't support it. so the rest of the interface loads, but not the actual tiles. i was only able to find out what it is by opening it on my mobile phone
"Are you still alive?" dropdown is diabolical :-)
Design is amazing. Well done. I inserted my birthday and got "Enter a real Gregorian date.". Only then I understood I needed to insert "mm dd yyyy". User error for sure :) but this date format really annoys me
It should be browser locale/region dependent. You may be able to fix it globally from your browser settings.
Like I said "user error" :). you're right thanks!
Hmm, I'm using Safari and don't see anything like this in the browser settings. And the OS is definitely set up to use the one true way.
The share & restore feature is not working for me. Only the birthday is restored. Other settings & skip tutorial are reset.
If you open it on another machine / browser you'll have a fresh start. Note that it's serverless. Share URLs serialize layer and period data. You should see layers and periods that you were viewing when you clicked Share.
If I open the shared link in an incognito window or browser, I'm not expecting a fresh start. I expect the data encoded into the URL `?c=` to restore my session, which I'd like it to include everything I do on the website: birthday, layers, skip tutorial, etc.
Very cool! Thanks for including psychophysics setting. I wish there was one for date format because mm/dd/yyyy breaks my brain a little.
I like how far mature adulthood goes :) One never gets old.
Bug report - on iPad it's impossible to exit full screen mode, need to reload the page.
Noted, thanks. I'll need to get an iPad though...
Yeah no I don't want to use lifetime trackers on myself. It is a trigger for depression
As a 54 year old, viewing the grid with the Weber-Fechner "psychophysics" grid is depressing as hell. Thanks.
My grandmother is over a hundred years old. You may have a lot of years to live yet.
I completely understand this. My goal is not making people feel bad, to the contrary. It's so marvelous to me to realize how precious time is.
the design is so beautiful
I saw "import from LinkedIn" and closed the tab.
It's not a direct import, nor does it connect accounts or anything. It's an extension that lets you gather your profile data. It's just easier than entering each period by hand. I added it for convenience mainly.
Where do I put my mother’s maiden name and my first pet name?