The Time Paradox

Yesterday, I tossed off the rest of my To-Do list and read The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo, the Stanford psychology professor who conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment, and John Boyd, a Stanford PhD who currently works at Google.

Their argument is that there are 6 major attitudes about time, and these attitudes influence every aspect of life, including the success of nations. The attitudes are past-positive, past-negative, present-hedonistic, present-fatalistic, future time, and transcendental-future.

The argument is pretty convincing. For example, a future-oriented nation, that is willing to forgo present-hedonism for future rewards, will be more successful, but it also creates an environment where its citizens can also adopt a future-oriented perspective, thus perpetuating success. A good example, obviously, is America. And our recent economic setbacks, they imply, are due to people thinking in terms of present-hedonism--like the Enron guys, or the people setting up sub-prime mortgages. And if you live in a place where the future is very cloudy, it's natural you'll adopt a present-fatalistic pov, which makes it difficult to plan for the future. A country needs stability to create stability. They bring in fascinating examples about the Middle East (and imply some solutions).

They also used the time-perspective to explain certain patterns of behavior and psychological issues (schizophrenia is partially the inability to distinguish between past, present and future). High anxiety is associated with a high future orientation, and the old cure was a lobotomy: to smash the prefrontal cortex of the brain with something resembling an ice-pick because the prefrontal cortex is the brain structure responsible for future perspective. Of course, the result was absolute apathy.

The best path, they argue, is to have a time balance. Ideally, one is past-positive (pleasant memories of the past keep you rooted to family and tradition), present-hedonistic (keeps you mindful and in the moment), and future (enough sense of the future to avoid negative behaviors in the present and to plan). If you want to find out where you fall, you can take their test here.

I scored lowest on present-hedonistic--a surprise considering how often I procrastinate! But my score did help justify my tossing of the to-do list to read. I was higher than ideal in the future-pov, and a way above ideal for past-negative and present-fatalism (but I'm so cheerful!).