This exercise is inspired by this thread Zone1 - A place for thinking outside of the box started by JustAnotherNut.
It's an illustration that I started working on a long time ago. Long before AI and any of the other tools we have available to aid with the illustration today.
FWIW, according to my estimates and family averages, I have (at best) ten more years of life on this planet.
As I said, I started trying to come up with ways to illustrate the time left that I (or any other person) might have. The original idea was to post the illustration on Youtube.
The original idea was to use the length of a person's belt, but I landed on the idea of using a person's arm span/ wingspan to use for the illustration.
It goes like this.
*Please share your suggestions to better the illustration.
1. Take a piece of string and roughly measure your arm span. Extend your arms straight out as wide as you can, with a piece of string, and then cut the string at that length. Your string should be the distance (span) between the fingertips of one hand to the other. I estimate my arm span to be 6.5 feet.
Six and a half feet is not an easy number to work with, but let's try it anyway.
2. This length (6.5Feet) represents your estimated time left in your life. (In my case, I think I will be lucky to have another 10 years.) So that is my visual. My wingspan represents 100% of my expected time left on Earth. For this exercise, a person could use a nice, rounded number like 10 Feet to represent 100%. However, I'm trying to make this as personal as I can.
3. So, now, we start doing some math and eventually some string trimming, to further visualize how our remaining time is composed. I'll begin with the biggest and least variable divisions first.
4. Six and a half feet (78 inches) divided by 10 (my number of years) means that each year that I have left is 7.8 inches long. It can be divided further, for days, weeks, months, etc. Hopefully, you are getting the idea.
5. SLEEP. The average amount of time a person sleeps is 8 hours a day. There are 24 hours in a day, and that means (by extension) one third of my remaining 10 years of life will be spent sleeping and or at least trying to sleep.
6. Six and a half feet (78 inches) divided by three is 26 inches. (Just over two feet, two inches.) I measure that length and cut it off. Just over 3 years of my remaining ten years will be in bed, asleep. The length of my remaining piece of string is now only 52 inches. (52 inches divided by 10 means that each year I have left (awake) is approximately illustrated by a 5.2 inch segment of my string.)
7. WORK. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for me, I was forced to retire early. So my work now amounts to being a caregiver. Caregiving is still very much a full-time job. For this illustration, I will lump my caregiving, housekeeping, chores, errands, and mowing all together, and my honest estimate is about 8 hours per day for all of that. This means that I have roughly 8 hours a day (maximum) for anything else.
8. Just as it was with the SLEEP segment, the WORK segment amounts to about one-third of a day. (8.0 hours) So I take my remaining string (52 inches) and cut it in half by removing the work portion, represented by approximately 26 inches.
9. The remaining 26 inches of string that I have left (approximate) - now represents the total time I have left, according to my best estimates, for any and all other activities, including posts on USMB and other social media.
10. Mathematically, this comes out to about 3
Total.
Zone 1 - let's try to be kind for this one.
It's an illustration that I started working on a long time ago. Long before AI and any of the other tools we have available to aid with the illustration today.
FWIW, according to my estimates and family averages, I have (at best) ten more years of life on this planet.
As I said, I started trying to come up with ways to illustrate the time left that I (or any other person) might have. The original idea was to post the illustration on Youtube.
The original idea was to use the length of a person's belt, but I landed on the idea of using a person's arm span/ wingspan to use for the illustration.
It goes like this.
*Please share your suggestions to better the illustration.
1. Take a piece of string and roughly measure your arm span. Extend your arms straight out as wide as you can, with a piece of string, and then cut the string at that length. Your string should be the distance (span) between the fingertips of one hand to the other. I estimate my arm span to be 6.5 feet.
Six and a half feet is not an easy number to work with, but let's try it anyway.
2. This length (6.5Feet) represents your estimated time left in your life. (In my case, I think I will be lucky to have another 10 years.) So that is my visual. My wingspan represents 100% of my expected time left on Earth. For this exercise, a person could use a nice, rounded number like 10 Feet to represent 100%. However, I'm trying to make this as personal as I can.
3. So, now, we start doing some math and eventually some string trimming, to further visualize how our remaining time is composed. I'll begin with the biggest and least variable divisions first.
4. Six and a half feet (78 inches) divided by 10 (my number of years) means that each year that I have left is 7.8 inches long. It can be divided further, for days, weeks, months, etc. Hopefully, you are getting the idea.
5. SLEEP. The average amount of time a person sleeps is 8 hours a day. There are 24 hours in a day, and that means (by extension) one third of my remaining 10 years of life will be spent sleeping and or at least trying to sleep.
6. Six and a half feet (78 inches) divided by three is 26 inches. (Just over two feet, two inches.) I measure that length and cut it off. Just over 3 years of my remaining ten years will be in bed, asleep. The length of my remaining piece of string is now only 52 inches. (52 inches divided by 10 means that each year I have left (awake) is approximately illustrated by a 5.2 inch segment of my string.)
7. WORK. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for me, I was forced to retire early. So my work now amounts to being a caregiver. Caregiving is still very much a full-time job. For this illustration, I will lump my caregiving, housekeeping, chores, errands, and mowing all together, and my honest estimate is about 8 hours per day for all of that. This means that I have roughly 8 hours a day (maximum) for anything else.
8. Just as it was with the SLEEP segment, the WORK segment amounts to about one-third of a day. (8.0 hours) So I take my remaining string (52 inches) and cut it in half by removing the work portion, represented by approximately 26 inches.
9. The remaining 26 inches of string that I have left (approximate) - now represents the total time I have left, according to my best estimates, for any and all other activities, including posts on USMB and other social media.
10. Mathematically, this comes out to about 3
Total.
Zone 1 - let's try to be kind for this one.
Last edited:
