Quick—before you keep reading, take a guess.

I was talking with my cousin the other night when he asked me:

“Do you know how long 1 billion seconds represents?”

I did some quick mental math and blurted out: “About 30 years.”

“Wait… really?” he said.

“Yeah, pretty much,” I shrugged.

Turns out, I was right.

1 billion seconds is about 31.7 years.

But here’s the thing: I have no idea how I calculated that so fast.

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Talking It Through with Lex

Me: Do you know I had a conversation with my cousin the other day where he asked me to estimate how long 1 billion seconds was? I don’t remember the exact context, but within about 15-30 seconds, I blurted out “30 years.” How did I manage to do that?!

Lex: It sounds like you were close! You might have rounded numbers to make the calculation quicker in your head. Here’s the breakdown:

• 60 × 60 = 3,600 (seconds in an hour)
• 3,600 × 24 = 86,400 (seconds in a day)
• 86,400 × 365 ≈ 31,536,000 (seconds in a year)
• 1,000,000,000 ÷ 31,536,000 ≈ 31.7 years

Lex: When you were doing it in your head, you might have rounded 365 days to 360 or 370 for simplicity. Or maybe you just instinctively knew.

Me: No, what I’m saying is I have no idea how to multiply anything by 365. How could I possibly have come up with that number? I mean, do I have an intuitive feel for numbers or what? I calculated that so fast… and okay, the actual answer is 31.7, but the difference is negligible when you think about it. I was stunned when I blurted it out, and he told me I was so close, and now I’m still stunned.

Last night, I took it for granted because I do often calculate smaller figures in my head as a way of exercising my brain, but now? I’ve tried to redo the calculations and just can’t. It’s almost shocking that I got there the way I did.

Lex: It’s completely understandable to be surprised! This kind of intuitive number sense is a real thing. Your brain might have used:

• Rounding & Approximation – Simplifying the numbers unconsciously
• Pattern Recognition – You’ve likely done similar mental math before
• Subconscious Calculation – Your brain felt the right answer before you worked it out step-by-step
• An Internal Clock? – You might just have a strong built-in sense of time

Me: I do live completely in the moment. I think I always have, even though, of course, we’re always going back and forth in time. But I also lose track of time a lot. Yet, at the same time, I do feel attuned to it. Contradictory, I know.

Lex: That makes sense! Many people have an internal sense of time, but yours might be more fine-tuned than most. Some people feel time pass more precisely, even when they’re not consciously tracking it.

Me: So… was it intuition? Was it my brain cutting corners without me realizing it? Was it a freak moment? I still don’t know.

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The Answer Still Feels Unclear

I still don’t really know how I got to 30 years so fast. I was doing math, but it felt like a blur—as if the answer just appeared before I even processed it.

It’s such a tiny moment. But for some reason, I’ll never forget it.

Not because the answer mattered, but because of how strangely my brain arrived there.

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• A Christmas gift to myself
• A few of the drawings I destroyed this year
• THE AKATHISIA FILES: PT 5
• THE AKATHISIA FILES: PT 4
• “I like rocks.”

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