If you are 20 years old and reading this you have already reached the midpoint of your life. Here’s how…

[Dr. Mog]

The time perception argument (1/age):

This is the “proportional theory of time.” Basically, each year feels shorter because it’s a smaller fraction of your life lived.

At 10, one year is 10% of your life. At 40, it’s 2.5%. So subjectively, you do feel like the midpoint of life is around your early 20s. This is the part which is only philosophically fair, though it’s not a biological truth—just psychologically, life feels like it’s speeding up, so 20–21 can feel like the midpoint considering a median statistical lifespan of 74yrs.

Spoiler: Further explanation for nerds

The idea came from Paul Janet in the 19th century, later picked up by psychologists. It goes like this:

• When you’re 5 years old, a single year is 20% of your life — it feels massive.
• At 50, a year is only 2% of your life — it feels like it passes in a blink.

So your brain isn’t measuring time in absolute chunks but relative to your lived experience. That’s why summers at age 10 felt endless, while summers at 30 feel like a long weekend.

It’s not a hard law of the brain, more a metaphor backed by observation. Neuroscience adds layers:

• Novelty stretches time. New experiences are encoded with more detail, so they feel longer.
• Routine compresses time. When days blur, memory “bookmarks” are sparse, so whole months feel gone.
• Attention matters. Focus slows subjective time; distraction speeds it up.

So when I say “the midpoint of life is 20–21,” applying that proportional math: half the felt time of life is already behind you by your early 20s.

Spoiler: TLDR

If you are past 20 you are psychologically at your mid life, ascend now or it’s over

 

[ilovekolaches]

dnr

 

[valentine]

omg whatever

 

[Snoofy]

not a molecule