Hello Reader,

I came across a video recently that stuck with me.

A driver was furious about a parking ticket. His meter expired at 11:39 a.m.. He was ticketed at 11:43 a.m.. He recorded his frustration at 11:49 a.m., still simmering.

Now, no one likes a ticket. But here’s the thing: the meter wasn’t subjective. It was objective. Four minutes past is four minutes past.

And yet, when rules cut against us, we often want subjectivity. A grace period. A little wiggle room. Some understanding.

This tension—between the objective and the subjective—isn’t just about parking. It’s about time itself.

When we confuse the two, we suffer. Expecting subjective treatment in an objective system leads to frustration. Expecting objective results in a subjective realm (like creative work, health, or relationships) leads to disappointment.

The truth is: time has two faces. It’s a stopwatch and a sundial. A ruler and a rhythm. A measure and a meaning.

Our challenge is to know which one we’re dealing with—and act accordingly.

Look

This short TikTok clip is NSFW (the driver is clearly upset), but it captures the spark for today’s essay.

It’s a raw reminder of how objective time collides with our subjective expectations. Watch it here.​

Listen

Where today’s essay highlights the rigidity of time, this conversation Stephan Spencer has with Ray Brehm on Get Yourself Optimized explores how “bending time” can mean something entirely different.

In fact, it can unfold spiritual experiences, paradoxes, and the mysteries of how we perceive past and future. Listen to the episode here.​

Learn

The concept of the Arrow of Time dives into why time seems to flow forward at all. From entropy to cosmology, thinkers like Stephen Hawking and Arthur Eddington have wrestled with why disorder increases, why memory looks backward, and why the universe itself seems to insist on forward motion.

It’s a reminder that even in science, time isn’t as straightforward as it first appears. Read the article here.​

The Final Flicker

The driver in that video wasn’t wrong to be annoyed. But he wasn’t necessarily wronged, either. The meter was doing its job: measuring minutes, not moods.

Sometimes clarity doesn’t come from bending time to fit our expectations, but from seeing whether we’re in the realm of the objective—or the subjective. And that recognition can change everything.

See you later,
Mike

P.S. We wrapped up The Forge Your Future Challenge yesterday and I'm glad I brought it back after 4(!) years of being on the backburner. While you missed the live event, you can still watch the replay of each of the three days on my YouTube channel. Check it out.​

Thanks for reading. Your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. In a world pulling us in all directions, thanks for choosing The Lantern.