The Time Paradox
Book Review: The time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo & John Boyd
The core of the book is the concept that each of us sees the world through time tinted glasses. If we increase our awareness of how we relate to time and how those around us relate to time, we can improve both our quality of life and our ability to effectively interact with others. The authors believe there are six time perspectives:
1. Past-negative ($&%# childhood)
2. Past-positive (happy memories)
3. Present-fatalistic (no use trying/can‘t change a thing)
4. Present-hedonistic (live it up/enjoy the moment)
5. Future (work & save for tomorrow)
6. Transcendental-future (religious beliefs regarding future impact present behavior)
Included early in the book is a test to help you determine your particular perspective. Sprinkled throughout the book are means of identify the time perspective of others.
All of this may seem obvious, but it isn’t. For example, nearly all intervention programs are written by people with future time perspectives for people who aren’t future oriented. This is why most intervention programs don’t work! What futures worry about and what futures know will impact their own behavior has little or no impact on individuals with other time perspectives. Consider prison. If you don’t believe you have a future or if you never think about your future, prison isn’t a large concern for you. However if you have a future time perspective, the fear of imprisonment would be a definite deterrent.
There is also a fascinating section describing how the predominant time perspectives of the societies spawning suicide bombers must change if this behavior is to be stopped. As westerners, we need to work on understanding these other societal time perspectives and their causes before we can hope to instigate real change. This same idea could be applied to pockets of our own culture.
The book doesn’t include much advice on viewing the world through the time perspectives of others. However, there is a small section at the end with advice regarding how to change your time perspective for the better. “The Time Paradox” is copyrighted 2008, so it’s possible that the duo is working on another book which will expand on this topic for those of you who find yourselves with the Eeyore-like present-fatalistic and past-negative time perspectives. Of course, if you are present-fatalistic or past-negative, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll have much hope for a sequel…
No time to read the book? Check out the authors’ Authors@Google talk.
Want to take the test without reading the book? Check out the book’s website.