Working Wednesday Reads #5

Here is my working wednesday read that I just finished.

We all want to be productive with our time.

We all want to maximise the time we have in this world.

But do we know how time actually works?

If you want to know how time works, read this book

The Order of Time by the literary genius that is Carlo Rovelli is an excellent primer for those of us who are deficient in physics.

Here are three takeaways to capture my lessons.

Thanks to Einstein, time has lost its unity. Time passes faster in the mountains than it does at sea-level. The world is not just a globe where time passes the same in Japan and in the Norway, it is akin to the dancing figures painted by Matisse.

Language is inadequate. The temporal relations between events are more complex than we thought. Take this text from the world of antiquity on the spherical shape of the world for example, ‘For those standing below, things above are below while things below are above.’ Sounds like rubbish but knowing what we know about the spherical shape of the world. The author means - what is above with respect to Sydney is below with respect to Europe. Our current vocabulary cannot fully describe reality.

The Sister of Sleep. We experience time with our lives. One day, we will stop experiencing time and that is when we will pass. It might be wise to think of death as a well-needed rest from time itself. Appreciate the ‘greatest of all mysteries’ given by Yudhistira in the Indian epic, Mahābhārata - ‘Every day countless people die and yet those who remain, live as if they were immortals.’