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Today's Idea: Temporal Exhaustion
Smarter in Seconds: Idea of the Day
Back in 1978, the sociologist Elise Boulding coined the term “temporal exhaustion” to describe the problem of being constantly preoccupied with the present.
Boulding diagnosed it as the problem of our times.
She went on to say, “if one is mentally out of breath all the time from dealing with the present, there is no energy left for imaging the future.”
To address it, she proposed a way of thinking about change called the “200-year present.”
For more on this idea, read the book The Clock of the Long Now… or start with our 2-minute book spotlight.
The sociologist Elise Boulding diagnosed the problem of our times as “temporal exhaustion”: “If one is mentally out of breath all the time from dealing with the present, there is no energy left for imaging the future.”
HEALTH in 1978:
World’s first “test tube baby” was born in England via in vitro fertilization (IVF) — Read 1440’s Deep Dive on IVF
The groundwork was laid for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), with early clinical and technical breakthroughs — History of MRI by ScienceDirect
Smoking rates were high, with 42% of men and 32% of women smoking regularly — Today 19.8% of U.S. adults report using tobacco products
TRAVEL in 1978:
First legal casino in the east turned Atlantic City, NJ into a new travel hotspot
China opens doors to tourism — National Geographic China Travel Guide
U.S. airlines started many new nonstop international routes — Airline Deregulation: When Everything Changed, Air and Space Museum
ENTERTAINMENT in 1978:
The comic strip Garfield made its debut — The Surprisingly Simple Reason Jim Davis Created the Garfield Comic Strip, TIME
Grease became the year’s hottest film — How Grease Beat the Odds and Became the Biggest Movie Musical of the 20th Century, Vanity Fair
Born in 1978: Kobe Bryant, Rachel McAdams, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
FOOD & BEVERAGE in 1978:
Reese’s Pieces peanut butter candy hit the shelves
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream opened their first shop in Burlington, VT
Jimmy Carter signed a bill to legalize home brewing beer — The Long Journey to Homebrew Legalization, Homebrewers Association
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