Almost done. No, only halfway.

[vakkotaur]

I spend some time on a treadmill and watch TV to distract myself from the display that shows elapsed time, distance, and supposed calories burned (it also shows speed, incline, and pulse rate). Every once in a while I'd figure I didn't have much more to go and then, a bit later look again and see that I still hadn't reached the point I thought I was about to pass. The first time this happened I dismissed it as a fluke. The second time, as a coincidence. But it kept on happening. Flukes and coincidences don't keep on happening.

I eventually realized what was going on. I saw one number, or part of one number, and took it for another. Time and distance aren't counted the same way. Distance is truly decimal, so 1.50 means I'm halfway to 2.00 for whatever the distance measure is. Time is not truly decimal, but sexagesimal. 2:50 isn't halfway to 3:00, but 0:10 to 3:00. That's where the confusion came in. I saw X:50 and psychologically (wishful thinking, perhaps?) that became "I'm almost to the next marker." But I saw the distance indication and treated it as if it were time. Then later I'd see that the distance hadn't reached the next marker and was still further away than I had thought. Oops. Now that I know that was going on, I don't expect to have the problem anymore. I do wonder if I would had run into this issue had the display, which shows two numbers at once, had been set up to show time in one place and distance in another.

Comments

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Sort of reminds me of a recent post of mine (well, the mistaking time part).

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

It is similar.