Need for Speed: Go Slow!
Some weeks ago, I made an overdue visit to Stanley. We met over lunch one fateful day at Inffeldgasse, Graz, when I was going for lunch. I wondered: who is this tall guy that looks Nigerian? That was the beginning of a long friendship where we grew to support, encourage and challenge each other.
We have both faced challenges in the last few years. However, it is gratifying to see how we have grown and become stronger with each passing challenge. Stanley recently got a long overdue Ph.D. position after two years of leaving his first Ph.D. I was with him through the whole process, and I know the wait was not easy.
As we reminisced about old times in Austria and the 2-year wait, I began to wrestle with a question. Why does it seem like we are all in a hurry? We seem to be in a speed-arm race. Everything is getting very fast or available very fast. For example, browsing a site occurs in many parts of the world in the blink of an eye. I know that sounds simplistic, but as a computer scientist, I know many things involved, between clicking on a link or pressing enter and seeing a result on the screen. It is such an outstanding achievement that it can even occur in the blink of an eye. And it is only getting faster. Many other activities are being sped up too. The time it takes to build a company has been reduced by years. Many young people want to be successful and become CEO at age 19 or 20. We don’t want to wait to cook our food, so we microwave it. We don’t want to spend time studying, so we go to Bootcamp. Oh, the agony of waiting for the gadget you ordered from Amazon. The horror if Amazon says it will take a couple of days longer. The sadness!
Do not get me wrong; technological advancement has been an enormous benefit to our existence. It has made life easier and made us capable of things we couldn’t do before, e.g., get access to a wide range of resources in less than a minute (think Google). However, there is a flip side to the possibilities that the advancements give us — we are becoming more impatient and cannot handle waiting for anything. We do not think there is value in going slowly. We want to have it all here and now!
But the question is — if you have it all now, then what? What is the hurry? What difference does it make if you microwave instead of cooking? You will sink the extra 30 minutes gained on social media or the TV anyways, so why the rush? What are you pursuing? Have you lived a fast life for so long that you don’t even know yourself? Have you lived so fast that you don’t even hear yourself speak anymore? Instead, it is the external noise that gets to you. Who are you?
So, this piece is to awaken you. To let you know that there is life outside of the speed rat race. You can live again. You can think again. Now, I won’t suggest that slowing down is good without giving at least one way to slow down. So, here you go:
Enjoy the present: Yes, enjoy the current experiences, savor them, soak the memory, learn from them. Take a walk (without an electronic gadget), look around you, observe the trees and how they move, look at the bird, sit alone, work through your emotions, ask yourself why are you feeling this emotion and many more. The present will soon pass, and you might wish you spent more time savoring it than pursuing what next.
A word of caution, don’t compare with the thousands of conscious and unconscious online influencers (you know we had to invent this word in the 21st century. What does it even mean?) or regular people. Take the time you need and sleep as long as you need. Strive for growth but let time stamp in the growth!
So, this is my simple advice, slow down, and if you need more on this topic, please read “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” and then ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. I hope you slowly read this piece!
