DeepSummary
Seth Godin explores the concept of time and how our perception of it has evolved over human history. He discusses how early humans had abundant free time, working only a few hours per day for subsistence. The idea of modern time management and opportunity cost emerged more recently with works like H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine' introducing the notion of time as a dimension to be navigated.
Godin examines how we now view time as a limited resource to be spent carefully, considering the opportunity cost of our choices. He references books that explore thought experiments around reliving one's life and the asteroid apocalypse to illustrate how we might reevaluate our use of time. Comparing the productive output of historical figures like Newton and Darwin, he ponders whether they optimized their time.
Ultimately, Godin suggests being intentional about making time for priorities, giving examples of successful people who have built critical routines into their days. He challenges listeners to consider how they would retrospectively change their time usage and how to consciously shape their futures by purposefully investing time.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Early human civilizations had abundant free time, working only a few hours per day for subsistence.
- The modern concept of time as a finite resource emerged relatively recently with the introduction of ideas like opportunity cost and time as a dimension.
- We should be conscious about how we choose to spend our limited time, considering the opportunity cost of each choice.
- Prioritizing routines and habits for important activities prevents constantly needing to 'find time' for them.
- Reflecting on how we would change past time usage or want to invest future time can help optimize our time.
- Time is one of the few things under our individual control to dictate how we engage with it.
- Depictions of time travel or apocalyptic time limits illustrate how we might reevaluate our relationship with time.
- Historical figures may have produced even more remarkable work if they optimized their time better.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Suddenly time is an axis, the same way. Left, right, up and down our axes. Suddenly we think a lot about how we are choosing to spend our time.“ by Seth Godin
- “Opportunity cost is the economic idea that every single time we spend time, we are making a choice about what to not spend it on.“ by Seth Godin
- “So the question is, are we going to pass the time or spend the time?“ by Seth Godin
- “So you only need to make the decision once. Isaac Asimov decided once to write for 6 hours every single day...“ by Seth Godin
Entities
Company
Person
Book
Episode Information
Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin
Seth Godin
6/19/24
Thinking about time
Akimbo is a weekly podcast created by Seth Godin. He's the bestselling author of 20 books and a long-time entrepreneur, freelancer and teacher.
You can find out more about Seth by reading his daily blog at seths.blog and about the podcast at akimbo.link.
To submit a question and to see the show notes, please visit akimbo.link and press the appropriate button.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.