And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

— Pink Floyd, ‘Time’

Powerful.

Before, I felt sad and wistful when I thought of these lyrics.

Then something changed.

Now I see these lyrics as: part of a song that I like, that someone else wrote, and I should take them as seriously as I do some random thing I read on the internet. Yes, you could make the “lindy” argument, but just because you hear lyrics and you like them, it does not mean you are the lyrics.

Let’s explore this, line-by-line:

And then one day you find / Ten years have got behind you

What day? “one day”? up to you when that day is. Why are you sitting around waiting for that one day to suddenly show up? You can make that day right now, you can schedule that moment in your calendar, you can say “I wish I had time for that one day but my job/life/cat/startup/Next.js makes my life so hard” and never do it. Up to you, but already, this is your decision when that one day happens.

Also, Energy is More Real than Time

Think of a cassette player. To a cassette player, there is no real time axis. There is just voltage. The brain is like a cassette player, there isn’t really a “first-class” sense of time. We can see time passing via projections, like the shadow of the sun against a skyscraper, but we do not have a first-rate understanding of time.

A cassette tape player moves at 1.875 inches/second so that the music sounds right. Well, you’re writing the soundtrack, you’re conducting the orchestra, and you are the audience. Play at whatever tempo feels right. But don’t force yourself into someone else’s opinion of time. Otherwise, truisms like “the decades are short / the years are long” wouldn’t have such punchy sentimental value.

Ha, I trolled you into believing that energy is more real than time. Or was I trolling you?

So I think that before, “ten years” sounded like a lot of time, but the problem with “ten years has passed you by” is it’s like saying “I read 200 pounds worth of books this year”

That’s not a very useful way to measure your life. like did you even lift during that time bro? There are decades where nothing happens and years where decades happens, you can’t force the outcome but the choice to try is yours.

No one told you where to run

This sounds so “woe is me” but it’s actually infantile and childish.

• The point of freedom is that you don’t have someone telling you exactly where to run. You can have equality of opportunity but nobody is going to give you the answers and tell you where to run for what to do.
• It assumes that someone was supposed to tell you where to run, almost like we’re a child waiting for instructions to be told where to go and when. Like, if you want to be told where to run then you should join an organization where you’re told where to run. You should love your semi-annual promo cycle, and you should love the rules that impose the reality in which you operate. If you want to be told where to run, you must smile when you’re told what the rules are.

I think to a certain extent, we all smile at rules.

No one telling you where to run is the whole point. I don’t think you can have totally free society and also have a “told me where to run.” Religion kind of bridges that gap

If you want to be told where to run, you can do that, all you have to sacrifice is your freedom and autonomy.

No one telling you where to run is a feature, not a bug

You missed the starting gun

Words and metaphor are powerful.

When did you sign up for the marathon though? “I’m in a race but not sure where” then it can’t be a race because there’s no starting line or finish line.

That’s the trick about this line - it makes you think you are in a race that you didn’t sign up for.

There is a race and it’s against yourself.

Choice and Freedom

There is a race and it’s against yourself. It’s against genetics, obsolescence, evil, fear, and the heat death of the universe.

You’re the runner, but in a free society you’re also the referee, you are the starting gun, you’re the sound wave, and it’s all in your head now go tell someone you love that you love them and move forward with your day in the most epic possible way that feels and sounds right to you.

Still a beautiful song, though.