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Procrustesing Time

3/28/2024, 3:11:27 AM | Jeanyoon Choi

Original Notes (Pre-LLM)

Procrustean Bed → Nassim Nicholas Taleb, how modernity is about forcing A (nature) into B (artificial/system). Same about time…

The modern person is never free from the external timeframe., designed for the mass/whole, never designed for a single individual.

Education System: 6 years primary, 3 years middle school, pre-determined curriculum… It’s the average, which means that no one is actually fitting to this exact curriculum within 10+ different subjects… Real genuine interest/ gifted skills come from one or two subjects, not from the ‘rounded student’ who is just hesitant of following the curriculum (featuring soccer moms)

But how do we rank students? We rank students who gets ‘A’ in most of the subjects → We are generating all-A students, not the gifted ones… We are generating students who will benefit if they don’t have personal preferences, and are just hesitant to follow curriculum.. Gifted ones are considered as leaving behind in the current system.. All comes from the tragedy of Procrustesing time. No doubt that this system will be even more harmful in the age of AI - Current system is generating bunch of machine-like students, who has no genuine interest/humanised gifted skills but ‘All-rounded’ in most of the disciplines, who are pretty much like AI, but way much less performing…

Same for, instance, a project which involves multiple shareholders… Given timeline is external, and everyone is sort of forced to match this timeline. Good ideas, if they are lucky, are generated within the timeline. Good outputs, if they are lucky, are generated within the timeline. But in most of occasions, those ideas/outputs never come out to the world given the external timelines and us forcing to match such external time dimension.

Procrustesing Time: If an employee has a free time, we don’t trust employee to generate free ideas, we assign another ‘tasks’, making it act as a robot… Same for students, our friends, and same for ourselves… If we do have some ‘spare time’, we force ourself to use it somehow productively - That is, to match with the pre-existing scale of time given externally from the society, and match our time accordingly…

As a result, we are programmed to act upon this external timeline, our own sense of time no longer exists → Our own sense of time is dominated by the social/system/external time. We don’t know how to use our own ‘free time’, (even for the case of myself), we prefer someone to externally assign how to use our ‘external free time’ → As a result we go for movies, queue for amusement park, ‘consuming time’.

We don’t know how to use our own time… We lack the ability to do so. As a result, we consume time.

We don’t know how to resonate with our time. We don’t know what our ‘own time’ is. Some people will die before even acknowledging what the sense of time really is.

Individuality, the brave notion of individuality, the boldness, is sacrificed… As it’s considered as ‘Neo-Ficial’ if it is not resonating with the pre-existing system. This tendency, in my opinion, partly comes from our educated habit of procrustesing time. (Same for the space, pretty much - as a result, we’re procrustesing the whole spatial-temporal dimension we resonate within).

English Version (LLM-Generated)

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's concept of the Procrustean Bed posits a theory where A (nature) is consistently forced into B (artificial/system) in the context of modernity. This is starkly exemplified in the concept of time where individuals are shackled to an external timeline implicitly dictated by societal norms and structures. This timeline, designed for the collective mass, rarely factors in the individuality of a single person.

This externalized stream of time greatly impacts various aspects. The education sector is a prime example. A standard education system includes a six-year primary education followed by three years in middle school, all with a predetermined curriculum. This so-called "average" curriculum is a misnomer as it is unlikely for any student to fit perfectly into this curriculum across a myriad of subjects. Exceptional talent and scholastic interest usually thrive in one or two subjects and are often smothered by an inflexible curriculum.

Furthermore, the ranking system ingrains a culture where well-rounded individuals with high grades in most subjects are celebrated. The system does not incentivize students to excel in areas that they're naturally inclined towards, but fosters an environment where students conform to the prescribed curriculum. In this system, truly gifted individuals are often sidelined. This Procrustean approach becomes a tragedy, especially in the Age of AI, where creativity and individuality are corporeal to human advancement.

External timelines also hamper the creative process in a project involving multiple stakeholders. Often, ideas and outputs are forcibly generated within these timelines. Moreover, these time frames encroach upon free time. Instead of fostering an environment where free ideas are germinated during the free time of an employee or student, new tasks are assigned. The society, in its attempt to aptly utilize 'spare time', forgoes the opportunity for spontaneous creativity.

Ultimately, we lose our innate sense of time due to this societal manipulation. Our temporal autonomy is compromised, and we seek guidance to utilize our free time. As a result, we resort to engage in activities such as going to movies or amusement parks, effectively 'consuming time'. The struggle to resonate with our individual sense of time is real. Many people live their entire lives without grasping the concept of a personal sense of time.

In the process, the crucial aspect of individuality is compromised. It's deemed inappropriate if it does not align with the pre-existing system. This trend arises from our conditioned habit of conforming to temporal norms. This adherence to conformity also affects our spatial dimension, causing a disruption in our overall spatial-temporal resonance. Hence, becoming another extension of the Procrustean bed theory.

Korean Version (LLM-Generated)

내생각에 오늘날 인간은 그들이 만든 시스템에 의해 자신들이 억압당하고 있어. 자연을 죄다 인공적인 시스템에 억지로 끼워 맞추려는 시대의 삶이 그 자체로 참 비극적인 것 같아.

사실 대표적으로 떠올릴 수 있는 건 교육 시스템이야. 초등학교 6년, 중학교 3년, 그리고 미리 정해진 교육 과정. 과연 그 모든 교육 과정이 모두에게 딱 맞기라도 하는 걸까? 사실 이 모든 것은 그저 평범한 것들 뿐이잖아. 그런데, 우리가 다양한 과목들에서 원래 흥미느끼거나 재능이 있다고 느끼는 것은 하나 혹은 두 가지 과목 뿐이지.

그런데 우리는 어떻게 학생들을 평가하는 걸까? 대부분의 과목에서 A학점을 받는 학생들부터 순위를 메김. 우리는 그저 전 부분에서 A를 받는 학생들밖에 만들지 못하고 있어. 우리는 그저 교육과정을 따르려고 주저하는 학생들에게 이익을 줄 뿐, 완벽하게 뛰어나다고는 할 수 없는...

그 결과로, 우리는 외부로부터 주어진 시간에 행동하도록 프로그래밍되어 있어. 우리 자신의 시간감은 더 이상 존재하지 않는 것이지. 이런 것은 우리가 마치 로봇처럼 행동하도록 만드는 교육 시스템, 친구들, 그리고 우리 자신에게서도 발견된다는 것이지.

그 결과, 우리는 우리의 '자유로운 시간'을 어떻게 사용해야 하는지조차 모르게 되었어. 우리는 누군가가 우리의 '자유로운 시간'을 어떻게 사용할지 지시해 주길 선호하게 되는 것이지. 그래서 우리는 영화를 보러 가거나, 놀이공원에 줄을 서는 것과 같이, '시간을 소비하게' 되는거야.

맨 끝에는, 우리는 우리 스스로의 시간을 사용하는 능력조차 잃어버렸어. 대신에, 우리는 시간을 소비하게 되는 것이지. 우리는 우리 시간과 어우러질 줄 모르고, 우리의 '자신만의 시간'이 무엇인지조차 모르는 채 살아가게 되는 것이지. 똑바로 시간이라는 개념을 이해하지 못하고 사라지는 사람들도 얼마든지 있을거야.

결국 용기 있고 대담한 개인주의는 희생당하고, 그것이 이미 존재하는 시스템과 어울리지 않는다는 '이상적인' 것으로 여겨진다니. 이런 경향은 내 생각에 교육이나 시간, 공간 등을 강제로 맞추려는 습관에서 오는 부분도 크다고 생각해.