Month: October 2018

That explanation that psychologists came up with back in the 1950’s is incredibly specious because it’s not the same on the return trip because everything is backwards. The roads are different (and might require a different route due to one-way streets), and all of the sights are different because you are seeing everything from the other side. It is a completely different experience. Also, unless this is the first time you’ve been to that location, then the novel-there-familiar-back explanation makes no sense.

A better explanation is that the trip there is likely under a deadline while the return trip is more free. The pressure of trying to stick to a schedule puts added stress on the brain and makes time feel lengthened like most stressful or unpleasant situations have a tendency to do. The freedom of making it back at your own pace (melting ice-cream notwithstanding), relieves you of that burden and so the trip feels shorter.

When I was in 5th or 6th grade, I learned how to correctly run. We were in gym class and had to do laps around the entire playground, and I noticed that we were all being easily lapped by Ninar Kabuti (Neenar Kabutee?). It may be a cliché, but it should probably not come as a surprise that an African kid (he was quite stereotypical; dark-skinned, tall, skinny, etc.) would be more athletic than the rest of us. I watched him running from the other side of the playground (before he made it around and lapped us again), and noticed that he ran differently from the rest of us. Instead of rapidly pounding the ground with his feet like we were, he was practically bouncing, as if wearing spring-shoes. He was bounding across the playground like a gazelle with long strides. Ever since then, whenever I have to run, I take long, bouncing strides because it covers a longer distance with less energy, and it works for long-distance running, but also helps with short sprints.