Hacker News Reader

Comment by baxtr | Hacker News Reader

Excuse my lack of experience in that matter, but with modern inventions like the watch shouldn’t keeping track of time be something that is possible?

View on HN

Time is a feeling too, it’s the sense of time that goes awry. Like casinos attempt to mimic.

I worked in a casino and I don't think the owners or the design are intentionally trying to fool you any more than a department store would. You are distracted playing games and lose all track of time since it's more engaging than shopping for socks.

Casino design employs various tactics to make players lose track of time, encouraging longer play and increased spending. These techniques include eliminating clocks and windows, using maze-like layouts, and manipulating sensory experiences like lighting, sound, and scent.

I know your point is they don’t do it more than department stores do, and you might very well be right. I think it is probably hard to prove either way.

https://www.e-architect.com/articles/the-psychology-behind-c...

I've been in plenty of department stores with windows though. And I don't think I've been to any that drew a false sky on the ceiling. Many stores and malls have skylights too, although when they're the translucent ones, they might be also uplit, so you might not notice it's dark outside.

I think there's at least a difference of degree, but I think it's more than that.

Department stores want you to be intrigued and maybe pick up extra stuff on the way to the thing you actually want to buy, but they don't necessarily want you to loiter. Idle loitering doesn't get you more purchases, at least not immediately.

This is different from a casino, where the most likely thing you'll do if loitering is to sit at a table or machine and gamble more.

Pretty much everything about a casino is intentionally designed to make you lose track of time.

Source: "Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas" by Schüll

https://www.amazon.com/Addiction-Design-Machine-Gambling-Veg...

Are there clocks in your casino so people can note how long they've been playing?

Why would a casino have clocks are there clocks in most businesses? Everyone and his dog has a watch or more likely these days everyone has a smartphone with a clock on it.

People used to think we pumped oxygen into the casino too. It would be a fire hazard, and expensive to buy oxygen and maintain such a system. The casino where I worked for 13 years was so cheap they took away the kleenex from the staff locker room, downgraded the toilet paper, cut out staff parties.

> Excuse my lack of experience in that matter, but with modern inventions like the watch shouldn’t keeping track of time be something that is possible?

No, just like the existence of books or the internet doesn't relieve you of needing to know stuff.

Everyone has internal sense of time that relies on external natural cues. A watch is a kludgy bolt-on that's not well integrated with one's awareness.

Your body will disagree with the watch at some point.

Imagine being stuck sick at home or in the hospital for an extended period of time - you will lose track of which weekday it is.

As someone who is semi-retired I definitely have to sometimes check to confirm what day it is.

What’s the day today?

The mind absent of daylight stimulation will develop a completely different sense of time

https://howandwhys.com/michel-siffre-time-experiment-body-sl...

26 years ago I was interviewing for a sysadmin job in an academic setting. And I was invited to my prospective coworker's office. He was a software developer, mostly, but jack-of-all-trades for the office systems. There was a lot of data processing involved.

His office featured a Sun workstation on his desktop, and a desk piled rather high with paperwork and whatnot. There was absolutely no wall clock anywhere to be found. His workstation's desktop also did not feature a clock. There was really no indication of the passage of time in that space.

I drank in the import of this, and I asked him if it was true, and he agreed readily. I was sort of amazed. But it was also quite humbling that he could construct such a space, where he could basically throw himself into his work and dedicate as much time as necessary, until his stomach or fatigue drew him back into the real world.

People did commonly wear watches as well. I'm somewhat bemused to recall that, around the time of the Apple Watch announcement, so many people scoffed that young people don't wear watches any longer. Of course, we see how that went and they have timepieces in their pocket in any case.

I'm actually not sure if, after a recent post-fire rebuild, if I will have a readily viewable clock in my kitchen or not.

I mean, we just have integrated pocket-watches.

Past, present and future is nothing but a stubborn illusion!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com