This book was full of good content that was lost in the presentation. Even when I first got the book (as a promotional item), I was suspicious of it. The title and the reviews on the back work together to make it sound more self help oriented than science oriented. The content supported this instinct. The opening chapters on the different time perspectives are well written, but the rest of the book contains a bunch of loosely related ways to use time perspectives to improve your life. They would have made for great blog posts, but they only made for an okay book.

That said, unlike a lot of self-help books, this book at least has the advantage of being based on real and interesting science. Zimbardo and Boyd both have backgrounds as researchers who have studied time perspectives. Citations abound, and the authors do a good job of making the research accessible. This could have been a great book, and I was quite disappointed that it turned out to be only an okay book.

Zimbardo and Boyd have found time perspectives can explain a lot about behavior. In some ways, this is just yet another way of slicing and dicing people to understand how they behave (that's a good thing; every new perspective gives insight). However, time perspectives have an advantage over many of the currently popular ways of slicing and dicing: they can be changed. Thus, the authors spend a fair amount of time discussing the different time perspectives and outlining the "ideal" time perspective.

Zimbardo and Boyd have found six major time perspectives. The time perspective of an individual is a mixture of these six types. The time perspectives they present are:

Past positive: strong positive feelings associated with the past. Family and group oriented. Fond of tradition.

Past negative: strong negative feelings associated with the past. May have feelings of guilt, resentment toward the past. Feels trapped by their past.

Present hedonistic: focuses on the present, rather than on the past or the future. Committed to enjoying themselves. May be perceived as irresponsible.

Present fatalistic: believes they cannot escape their present. Subject to depression that is made worse by the feeling that it is inevitable.

Future oriented: focuses on outcomes, consequences, planning and saving. Sacrifices in the present for the future. Subject to stress.

Future transcendental: focuses on the distant, impersonal future whether through religion or a concern for future generations.

Zimbardo and Boyd believe that the ideal time perspective is high on past positive, fairly high and balanced on present hedonistic and future, moderately high on transcendental future, and low on the negative perspectives. They authors spend a fair amount of time going into why this is a good time perspective, but their suggestions are, largely, consistent with common sense. Overall, I found this book a useful read, although I could have got by with skipping the second half of the book. ( )

questo libro mi ha dato spunti di riflessioni interessanti....a volte prende la piega di self help, ma è stata una lettura in generale interessante ( )

Each one of us has a different relationship to the present, past and future. We may be classified as predominantly: present, past or future oriented. Then this orientation may be fatalistic or positive. Most of us are mixtures of the above, but we all seem to have a dominant tendency. For the record, futures are the healthiest, presents most inclined to be late or to take drugs, and pasts (fatalistic) to be stuck in life and depressed.

The new Zimbardo-Boyd book is a crossover of a popular science book and a self help manual. It discusses what a healthy balance is, offers inventories to check what orientation the reader predominantly has and then strategies to change unhealthy tendencies.

Even though this book was far from the promise of changing my life, there were some things that I enjoyed there: Time inventories were fun. False memories were revisited- there is a lot of research pointing to the fact that memories can be both implanted (with apparently little effort) and recovered. The caveat with those is that both true and false memories can be recovered. An analysis of a suicide bomber was quite interesting as well, even though it was obvious enough, just clad in a different lingo. ( )

The authors show how the mental representation of time can have a large impact on individual behaviour and well-being.

I think they focus a little bit too hard, though, when they attribute problems as disparate as the third world poverty, intramarital sex problems, and suicide bombings to the mental representation of time for the actors involved. ( )

After thinking for some time that personal perspectives on time are one of the most overlooked aspects of the social animal it was refreshing to read Zimbardos book. A recommended reading (also recommend watching his presentation on Ted.com). ( )

Do not be misled by the marketing title of this work. The book is not about a paradox or about our direct perception of time. Rather it is about a way of discussing different mental viewpoints. The authors apply temporal labels to this characterization. For instance, at any time we might prize more strongly future-goals, immediate pleasures or the stability of past arrangements. These attitudes reflect how we reconstruct memories of the past, interpret the present, and imagine the future. Hence the authors talk about six mindsets based upon positive and negative attitudes towards the past, present and future. Apparently we are born with a 'present' outlook, and only later develop other attitudes. Naturally each time perspective has its strengths and weakness. It should come as no surprise that a good balance of the positives is the ideal.

Hence a high 'past-positive' will boost your happiness, a high 'present-hedonism' will boost your vitality, and a high 'future' will boost your accomplishments. Now, the book lets you calculate your perspectives' strengths and weaknesses. If you are not happy with your mix, the book shows you how (using visualization and affirmation) you can change yourself.

This book presents as a very gentle read of a sketchy topic. It will take a future-focussed reader on a psychological meander touching on financial management, sociology, education reform, and political distortions and indiscretions. Subsequently next time you hear a TV lawyer asking a leading question; you will realize that the lawyer is not trying to trick the witness but actually to alter the witness' memory. Further, you will discover which politicians are more likely to have extramarital affairs, what to do in retirement, and just how much salary an extra IQ point is worth.

Ultimately the book leaves a reader with an alternative language for self-appreciation of one's actions and for describing others. It cannot be the full story but it is a considered outlook on the way we manage our priorities. The biggest shortcoming with these ideas is the lack of a coherent tie up with the established psychological work on personality traits. ( )

The authors explain the various ways people view time and show how these differing time perspectives can cause conflict and confusion in the world-but understanding them can lead to better relations with others and more effective educational programs. People who are 'present-oriented', for example, will not respond well to efforts to educate them that are from the perspective of a 'future oriented' educator. I learned several valuable insights from this book, and I can certainly see how people from different cultural backgrounds have different time orientations. Some parts were academic and dry but not excessively so and it read fairly easily. The concepts were fascinating enough to keep me reading and I kept thinking about them even when I wasn't reading the book and discussed them with others. So it was definitely a thought provoking book and one to share with others! ( )

About: Boyd and Zimbardo put forth that one's perspective of time (how one views the past, present and future) affects most all of a person's life. Includes Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory to measure your time perspectives

Pros: Interesting premise, easy to read, neat asides like lists of fairy tales and songs about time, sources cited.

Cons: I'm wary of single theories that try to explain all aspects of a person's life. Some sections seem a bit out of place, like the long list of what you should do when you retire, as well as the chapter on suicide bombers. ( )

I don't expect to get much out of this, but it certainly seems to be offering a new way to look at psychology. And I want to read it before it's so old that it's obsolete.