What happened a billion hours ago?

A Billion Hours of Good shares a brilliant roadmap to make our biggest possible impact. A gripping and inspiring read that has already made a profound difference in my life, Chris shows us exactly how to make a difference while boosting results in our own work and lives. Chris will move you to action, providing a simple approach that each of us can embrace to help change the world. ---Josh Linkner, #1 booked innovation speaker in the world, two-time New York Times best-selling author, tech entrepreneur, and venture capitalist

This book reached my soul. It's a prescription to leading a life of service that makes all of humanity better. Chris reminds us that each of us can make a difference and challenges us to have the discipline to lead a servant-centered life. There is a network effect to helping others that multiplies and creates positive change for the world... here is your guide! ---Mark Roenigk, Head of Hardware Engineering at Facebook, Former Technology Advisor to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Director of Taelor's House Foundation

Chris Field is an astute observer of the human condition. He has used his insights and a lifetime of personal experiences to create a way to leverage the cumulative good in all of us-14 minutes at a time. This book is nothing less than a blueprint for each of us to become a better version of ourselves. He encourages us to embrace our compassion, courage, and creativity. And in this way, he has prepared us to make our individual contributions to A Billion Hours of Good. --―Dr. David N. McMurray, Regents Professor Emeritus, Former Peace Corps Volunteer (Kenya), and Former Consultant to the World Health Organization

About the Author

Chris Field is an award-winning author, speaker, modern-day abolitionist, nonprofit innovator, business consultant, college lecturer, Guinness world record holder, viral sensation, twenty-five-time marathoner, and ice cream lover. But his greatest superpower is inspiring people to believe they can actually change the world and then showing them how to join him in doing so. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Stacey, and is a father to Micah, Beckett, Lincoln, and Theodore.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” continues to set viewership records for Netflix. The Ryan Murphy-created series debuted on the streamer on Sept. 21, and by the 60-day mark on Nov. 20, it had clocked more than one billion hours of viewing.

Only two other titles in Netflix history have been able to achieve the same: “Squid Game” in 2021 and Season 4 of “Stranger Things” earlier this year. Both reached that milestone within their first month. Netflix measures its charts of its most popular series and films of all time based on each project’s viewership during its first 28 days of availability, and “Squid Game” remains No. 1 with 1.65 billion hours viewed while “Stranger Things” Season 4 is the most popular English-language title with 1.35 billion.

“Monster” nabbed its third place overall position after just three weeks of availability on Netflix even though it hadn’t reached one billion yet. It first entered the Most Popular chart for English-language TV at No. 9 with 491.1 million hours after just 12 days of streaming, then jumped to No. 2 the following week with 701.4 million hours. (Because “Squid Game” is in Korean, it charts on a separate list.)

The series, which stars Evan Peters as the titular serial killer, also remained at No. 1 on Netflix’s weekly Top 10 list for three weeks — the first title to beat it also came from Ryan Murphy: limited series “The Watcher” — and stayed on the chart for seven weeks.

Nielsen’s third-party assessment of “Monster” viewership was also impressive. The series’ debut with 3.7 billion minutes viewed brought in the 10th biggest streaming week ever since the beginning of the measurement company’s weekly streaming rankings. Then it went on to beat its own record, with its second week becoming Nielsen’s No. 7 biggest streaming week with 4.4 billion minutes.

Though “Monster” was originally intended as a limited series, in November Netflix renewed it for two more seasons. As an anthology, each season of “Monster” will follow “other monstrous figures who have impacted society.”

Politicians — at the state and federal level — talk in numbers that most folks can’t visualize, whether we’re talking budgets or campaign spending.

First, we have to clarify that we’re using the US system of numbers, not the British system (short scale v long scale). If we’re talking about things relating to the US political system, we are using the US system. Here’s the math:

The chart, however accurate, doesn’t put the number “a billion” — one thousand million — into perspective.

Most of us know that the numbers are big, we just don’t know how to think of them in the context of our own lives. Here are some attempts, collected from around the Net:

• If we wanted to pay down a billion dollars of the US debt, paying one dollar a second, it would take 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds. To pay off a trillion dollars of debt, at a dollar a second, would take about 32,000 years. The current U.S. federal debt is $18.1 trillion.
• About a billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was in full swing. (One billion minutes is about 1,900 years.)
• About a billion hours ago, we were living in the Stone Age. (One billion hours is about 114,000 years.)
• About a billion months ago, dinosaurs walked the earth. (One billion months is about 82 million years.)
• A billion inches is 15,783 miles, more than halfway around the earth (circumference).
• A billion pennies, stacked one atop the other, would reach nearly 1,000 miles. The Space Shuttle orbits about 225 miles
  above the Earth’s surface.
• A person counting at the rate of two numbers per second would need 5 years, 308 days, 9 hours, 41 minutes, 50 seconds to reach a billion.
• The earth is about 8,000 miles wide (diameter), and the sun is about 800,000 miles wide, not quite a million.

Remember that a trillion is one thousand billion — and today’s federal budget numbers are in trillions.

For a really mind-blowingly large number, think about the googol, which is 1 followed by 100 zeros (10100). To try to wrap your mind around that, envision a diamond that weighs as much as the earth. It would contain only 1050 carbon atoms.

How old would you be if you lived 1 billion hours?

How long ago was 1 billion seconds?

How much is 1 billion minutes?

How much time is 1 billion hours?