posts tagged ‘time’
The torturous experience of waiting
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, perception, quotes, time, uncertainty
“When we see the frozen hands of a clock with a dead battery, and we sit there and watch it, we tend to have a sinking feeling. Something feels wrong. We like to see time flow, as it is only natural that it seek its natural progression forward. On the other hand, when a clock is completely hidden we tend not to question its flow and instead experience an unsettling sense of uncertainty as to what time it might be. Seeing a clock’s secondhand tick-tick forward is a reassuring sign that all is well. (…) A frozen computer is like a frozen clock, and thus ways to psychologically deal with this torturous experience of waiting emerged in the form of progress bars.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
How much is lost in waiting?
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, minimal, perception, quotes, time
“The average person spends at least an hour a day waiting in line. Add to this the uncountable seconds, minutes, weeks spent waiting for something that might have no line at all.
Some of that waiting is subtle. We wait for water to come out of the faucet when we turn the knob. We wait for water on the stove to boil, and start to feel impatient. We wait for the seasons to change. Some of the waiting we do is less subtle, and can often be tense or annoying: waiting for a Web page to load, waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or waiting for the results of a dreaded medical test.
No one likes to suffer the frustration of waiting. Thus all of us, consumers and companies alike, often try to find ways to beat the ticking hand of time. We go out of our way to find the quickest option or any other means to reduce our frustration.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
Science is the ultimate pornography
30 May 2009 • out of context
tags: analysis, books, context, events, isolation, objects, pornography, quotes, science, space, time
The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
