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Philip Zimbardo: The Time Paradox

Commonwealth Club
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Guido Avatar
Guido
Posts: 0
Posted: 12.05.08, 06:09 AM
I used to be incredibly irritated waiting. Untill I realized that the time can be enjoyed. The other people waiting are also bored so in my culture they tend to enjoy when I socialize. If the wait is seriously long it becomes possible to do other things. Practice singing, or drawing or whatever. The time I learned to cast of my social inhibitions to do so I started to become a lot better at both, all in time the doesn't exist to most people. And it also wouldn't be the first time I had a beautiful evening with a lady as a consequence of a casual waiting conversation
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benjis007 Avatar
benjis007
Posts: 16
Posted: 12.09.08, 08:50 AM
I counter my future oriented side with loads of marijuana when necessary. Always returns my present perspective when I get anxious and worried. LEGALIZE...hahah. Don't arrest me. I'm lying. ha.
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Pedro Avatar
Pedro
Posts: 0
Posted: 12.11.08, 12:03 PM
Critical Overview
Mr. Zimbardo, your concept of time is similar to that of Schopenhauer’s in that he too believed that time was simply a subject except that you instead are choosing to place one variation in a higher esteem then the others and to some that might seem a little one sided. Of course this is simply my opinion/side. Time can also in many ways be viewed as a tool of measurement and yes there are many forms of measurement but none carry the emotional ties which you refer to in the lecture. Still it sheds light on perhaps the way one could use time to there benefit.

http://www.myspace.com/joannesestnomeneius
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Karl.Strope Avatar
Karl.Strope
Posts: 0
Posted: 12.14.08, 02:58 PM
Why Time Commitments Change
Time is very important to me. But my view on punctuality differs from person to person. To my family and my work related endeavors, I expect extreme precision from myself and rely on others to follow suit. However, when I'm with my friends, time goes completely out of the window, and we care very little for commitments and obligations. My online calender reminds me of my commitments via text message, but I try to keep my schedule rather empty to free time to get work done when I need to do it.

Many of my friends are chronically late to events, and this sometimes bothers me. When it is something that lasts for a certain time, I expect people to respect that. But when it's not like that, I try not to care to much, as that can cause stress in my relationships.
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dollaresque Avatar
dollaresque
Posts: 0
Posted: 12.21.08, 02:35 AM
First of all, for a talk about time, this one seems to waste incredible amount of ours. Half of concepts mentioned have no value what so ever. No kidding that those people who have low future orientation are "less concerned with the future" and the fact that this Sherlock is able to extrapolate the consequent negative behaviors (like risky driving) doesn't deserve him any accolades but a swift kick in the gonads. And for a presenter, he needs to learn how to speak and complete his thoughts/sentences and figure out how to use the projector better.

The only remotely interesting part of the talk might have been the hypnosis used to change kids' behavior, yet he hasn't expanded on any of it beyond simply mentioning it in passing (which makes me doubt he achieved results he was looking for). I know he's a "professor" so naturally he's not a great presenter, but he at least could have done more research and instead of simply throwing words around (like mental illness and clinical depression) he could have done some MRI brain scans and try to understand some biological bases for behaviors explored.
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DaveC Avatar
DaveC
Posts: 0
Posted: 01.05.09, 02:59 AM
Dollaresque, Perhaps you should spend a little more time learning and a little less time posting comments. Zimbardo is one of the world's most respected living psychologists, his work has added an immense amount to our understanding of human nature, is taught as an important part of all introductions to psychology and his work is also one of the reasons psychologists have very strict ethics committees today.

Would you care to post your list of achievements that qualify you to rubbish the man's work and shockingly, claiming that he hasn't done his research?
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AlienIquirer Avatar
AlienIquirer
Posts: 48
Posted: 01.24.09, 12:05 PM
Philip Zimbardo is one of my intellectual heroes. I'll always remember the quality time I spent watching his television program, Discovering Psychology on PBS. Also available now at this link:

http://www.learner.org/resources/ser...ml/learner.org

That these, otherwise, future-oriented business people took the marshmallows is an understatement. They created a make-believe factory manufacturing golden marshmallows with slave workers (the home-owners who they knew would go homeless and the bankers who would lose the last buck).

What Mr. Zimbardo implies is that there was no one watching the "whole". In a society that extolls the individual, cancer becomes prevalent. I feel that this destruction of American society started with the Nietzchean idea that God is dead. God being the "Whole". But I digress.

Personally, I live for the moment and my vision extends to only the next word I am about to type: broke.
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ladylisa555 Avatar
ladylisa555
Posts: 8
Posted: 04.01.09, 12:24 PM
Whenever Professor Zimbardo speaks, I take time to listen, because I understand that I will leave that space a richer person in some way. Mostly, I know that I will learn something. If we can fill our time and spaces with meaning, whether that be learning, tending to our families or communities, time becomes a solid entity that can be measured and noted in history. Thank you, Prof, this was a great talk!
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staroversky Avatar
staroversky
Posts: 5
Posted: 05.01.09, 04:13 PM
I enjoyed the lecture. This made me more are about the time frame in which people operate - past, present and future. I think that one of the ways to discover in which time frame people operate is by listening to their language. I think by spending some time with a person, we can get teh general idea about his or her thinking strategy - is it oriented more towards the past or the future. This can be done by fishing out most commonly used words now vs. will.

What do you think?

Also, the concept of present oriented people tend to connect with the audience and be instantaneously likable is interesting. It goes back to the pain vs. pleasure principle - most people want to feel good now. People have a hard time controlling their impulses. This is true from small things to big things.

How do you control you impulses ?
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Kenner Avatar
Kenner
Posts: 1
Posted: 05.16.09, 06:22 AM
Philip Zimbardo, I enjoyed your lecture but I had a question.
You have positive and negative flavours of past and present time orientation, yet future orientation is missing a negative flavour.
Would someone who is defeatist have a negative future orientation or would they be present fatalist?
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