# Poll: time perception **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222 "2009-08-12T21:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/21 "2009-08-13T13:03:33Z")
> [@TheScogg](#): > > I would think it would have more to do with being from a culture that reads from left to right. When I was working it out in my head, I pictured the week layed out as M-T-W-T-F-S-S. Starting at W and moving forward (that is, the direction in which I was already moving) puts me at Friday. Interesting. I come from a culture that reads from left to right, but I picture the week as going from right to left. And I said Monday. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/22 "2009-08-13T13:07:36Z")
Sorry, I’m having a flexiday on Monday so I will have to miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/23 "2009-08-13T16:54:44Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > If you think it’s Monday, you think of time as something that passes by you. This is my reasoning. I think of myself as moving through time as if it was a medium. So moving myself forward means going from Wednesday to Thursday to Friday etc. But things that occur at a fixed point within the realm of time - like meetings, holidays and parties are themselves moving forward in the opposite direction _towards me_ as they approach me. A meeting that is scheduled for tomorrow is moving forward (towards me) because the passage of time puts me and the meeting closer together: ```auto Patty ---(forward)---> | <---(forward)--- Meeting Time ----------------(forward)------------------> ``` So although the meeting isn’t actually moving of its own volition, its apparent direction of “forward” movement is _towards me_. Those people who got it wrong 😉 are seeing the meeting as a thing which also moves backwards and forward through time like a person does: ```auto Contrapuntal ---(forward)---> | Meeting ---(forward)---> Time --------------------(forward)----------------------> ``` But meetings don’t experience the passage of time, the move along with it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/24 "2009-08-13T17:02:52Z")
I say have the meeting both days. The Friday people will be instructed to keep their meeting under wraps. The Monday people will be met with HR and security to calmly escort them out the door because they obviously can’t even fucking count. I have worked in corporate America for 13 years and I have never seen any issues with this grand concept. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/25 "2009-08-13T17:25:15Z")
Okay, I was in the middle of typing a post conceding that I am an angry person just so I can figure out why anyone would say moving a meeting forward two days meant the meeting was on Monday. If it’s originally set up for Weds, moving it one day forward would move the meeting to Thurs, and two days forward from Weds would move it to Friday. How the hell did two days forward become the Monday of next week? Then I read the article, and I see that they mean Monday of that _same_ week. Ooooohhh. I get it. They were given a sheet of paper that looked like this: Sat Fri Thurs Weds Tues Mon Sun Then they were told the Wednesday meeting would be moved forward two days. Okay, I can kind of see where Monday comes from, but I still think it’s silly. You don’t move something forward _backward_. I don’t care what kind of silly picture or chart they place in front of me, if the meeting was moved forward, that means it was changed to a date \*after \*what it was originally scheduled to be. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/26 "2009-08-13T17:39:56Z")
I have to ask if they had said the meeting was on the 26, and it was moved forward two days, what date would you expect the meeting? I guess all those games that have had their release dates moved back makes them an early release by some peoples logic. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/27 "2009-08-13T17:41:24Z")
I said Monday. The direction of “forward” is relative. If you have two groups of people facing each other and you say “Group 1, step forward”, the people in Group 1 are going to move closer to those in Group 2. If the groups are both facing the same direction (so one Group 2 sees Group 1’s backs), Group 1 will move away from Group 2. When an event is coming up, I am facing it and it is facing me. If it moves forward, it comes sooner. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/28 "2009-08-13T17:44:46Z")
I’d expect it to be Monday. But I’d check. The wording is ambiguous, which is the whole point. The notion that your response indicates anything about you - your perception of time or your angriness or anything else - is pure nonsense. These things can be fun to read, but I think that to take them seriously is rather mistaken. Here in the UK, there’s a famous not-quite-a-joke about the old days of the nationalised railways, and a sign on a station that said, ‘The station clock is two minutes early’. Nobody could decide whether this meant the 10 o’clock train would actually leave when the clock said 9.58 or 10.02. Brian Clemens is a well-known writer of fictional dramas for stage and TV, usually with some sort of a thriller/horror element. He once wrote a play that included a similar deliberate confusion. One of the characters claimed he had had a blackout during which he “lost a day”. A large part of the plot depended on whether this meant that when everyone else thought it was Wednesay, he would think it was Tuesday or he would think it was Thursday. People used to argue about it among themselves during the interval. It was very crafty by Clemens, because of course the phrase is ambiguous and can be argued either way. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/29 "2009-08-13T17:46:15Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > When an event is coming up, I am facing it and it is facing me. If it moves forward, it comes sooner. My mind’s just been blown. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/30 "2009-08-13T17:49:49Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > When an event is coming up, I am facing it and it is facing me. If it moves forward, it comes sooner. Except it isn’t moving in space, it’s moving in time. In time, we move forward to the future, and backward to the past. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/31 "2009-08-13T17:50:13Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > My mind’s just been blown. Mine has been too. I think the SDMB needs to be shut down because it is at least halfway inhabited by people that think they can do things like time travel. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/32 "2009-08-13T18:01:26Z")
I would say Monday for sure. > [@tdn](#): > > Interesting. I come from a culture that reads from left to right, but I picture the week as going from right to left. And I said Monday. Interesting to think about. I have always mentally viewed the week as an oblong oval standing on end, with Monday at the top and Tues, Wed, Thur running counter clockwise down the left side and Fri at the bottom. Saturday and Sunday accend on the right back to Monday. Rather than picturing a week on a calandar page, this is what my mind’s eye thinks of ‘the week’. . M . T Su . W . T Sa . F ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/33 "2009-08-13T18:18:23Z")
Well I kept trying to get the format right but the page kept removing spaces and lining up the letters in a column, ran out of time before I figured out how to fix it. xxxxxxxx-M xxxxxxxT…Su xxxxxxW xxxxxxxT…Sa xxxxxxxxxF Like that (without the xxx’s) ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/34 "2009-08-13T18:19:22Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > My mind’s just been blown. > [@Shagnasty](#): > > Mine has been too. I think the SDMB needs to be shut down because it is at least halfway inhabited by people that think they can do things like time travel. Thank you for providing anecdotal evidence that the researchers’ claim was correct. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/35 "2009-08-13T18:21:18Z")
Ha ha ha! Was there anything about the Monday people getting their panties in disarray when poked at, even if ever so gently? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/36 "2009-08-13T18:21:40Z")
If the meeting was moved forward two days, Monday. If it was moved back two days, Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Kalea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b487fb/32.png) [@Kalea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/37 "2009-08-13T18:23:35Z")
If they didn’t update of the meeting invite, I’d still show up on Wednesday. Outlook tells me where to be on the days the company owns my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/38 "2009-08-13T18:34:43Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > Thank you for providing anecdotal evidence that the researchers’ claim was correct. I know. If anyone ever dared to call me something like “laid back” or, even worse, “chill”, I would probably have a very strong urge to punch them in the face. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/39 "2009-08-13T18:37:10Z")
> [@TheScogg](#): > > I would think it would have more to do with being from a culture that reads from left to right. When I was working it out in my head, I pictured the week layed out as M-T-W-T-F-S-S. Starting at W and moving forward (that is, the direction in which I was already moving) puts me at Friday. > > As I think about it though, I can see how somebody that was excited about attending the meeting would think of the "forward’ (as opposed to "pushed back) as meaning Monday. Ditto. Time flows like a river in my mind, and it only ever flows one way. If it’s moving forwards, that means it’s going to be later in time, never previously. I don’t really understand how people get it to mean Monday of the same week, and I am not particularly an angry person. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222/40 "2009-08-13T19:12:58Z")
I say Monday. If the meeting is moved forward, I interpret it as meaning it’s now closer in time to us. If it’s moved back, it’s now further in time. > [@ianzin](#): > > Here in the UK, there’s a famous not-quite-a-joke about the old days of the nationalised railways, and a sign on a station that said, ‘The station clock is two minutes early’. Nobody could decide whether this meant the 10 o’clock train would actually leave when the clock said 9.58 or 10.02. I say 10:02. If the clock is early, then it means that when it shows 10:00 it’s only 9:58 in actuality. And it makes sense. I try to keep my watch early so I’m sure I don’t miss my bus. > [@](#): > > One of the characters claimed he had had a blackout during which he “lost a day”. A large part of the plot depended on whether this meant that when everyone else thought it was Wednesay, he would think it was Tuesday or he would think it was Thursday. People used to argue about it among themselves during the interval. It was very crafty by Clemens, because of course the phrase is ambiguous and can be argued either way. I say Tuesday. If I travel eastwards, I “lose” time because the local time is now later than my interior clock. So if I’ve lost a day, it’s now Wednesday while I think it’s only Tuesday. But I admit that this one is particularly ambiguous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-time-perception/506222.md?page=3)