

Slow is not a dirty word - jamesvandyne
http://www.jamesvandyne.com/slow-is-not-a-dirty-word/

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JacobAldridge
Two critical philosophies I share with my business-owner clients, who have (as
most of us do) a natural tendancy to jump from concept to implementation
without taking the time to educate ourselves and plan a strategy.

1) Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. This is Abraham Lincoln
sharpening his saw; or replacing a flat tyre before entering the freeway.

2) Slow is smooth. And smooth is fast. Same context, just another way of
indicating that often in business slow gets you to your destination (vision) a
lot faster than unprepared, directionless speed.

------
waynecochran
Yes. I find many developers and programmers to be very non-contemplative. This
really hit me at OSCON this summer as I sat in session after session where the
speaker was trying to teach me multiple JS/DB/web-stack-whatever
frameworks/platforms in 50 minutes. I am used to drinking from firehoses at
developer conferences, but it really seemed over the top. There was absolutely
no time to think deeply about any of these things. No wonder there are so many
holes, bugs, and just fragile software.

~~~
emotionalcode
I've been afraid of participating in any sort of developer / computer science
/ code gathering because of how extroverted and quickly moving it appears.
Thing after thing is built, and called a different name, and I can't help but
wonder whether participating would show me a perspective of something
different, or more of the same.

I'm a developer/(non-academically affiliated computer scientist) who spends an
excessive amount of time thinking about my field, sometimes over the same
concepts for many years. I don't know how many people like me exist; being the
non-vocal kind of makes it seem like you don't (which I am quite fine with).

~~~
mattgreenrocks
I feel the same way.

I think it's worth trying it out, if only to step outside your comfort zone.
There are a lot more people than you realize who are a bit more thoughtful;
the culture just skews towards the loud.

FWIW, I've been studying Haskell and enjoyed the community there. So far, most
have struck me as fairly humble and studious.

~~~
emotionalcode
What Haskell community do you interact with? I spent some time on
reddit.com/r/haskell while I was trying to learn some specifics of the
language the first go around. I've been thinking of getting back into it.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
Yup, /r/haskell comes to mind. Also check out #nothaskell on freenode --
they're quite helpful.

------
chasing
Slow is wasting time. Slow is letting other people take initiative while you
ponder. Slow is often unsustainable and irresponsible. Slow is often
disrespectful. Slow is not necessarily more thoughtful. Slow is a luxury many
people and businesses often don't have. Slow is expensive. Slow has nothing to
do with tweeting about a sunrise because, really, if tweeting about a
particularly pleasant sunrise is your little way of sharing a moment with the
world, go nuts. Slow has little to do with documenting the world or not. If
fact, I think taking a photo or writing about an experience can help someone
extend and savor a moment.

~~~
john_b
If you equate "slow" with "wasting time" you have very clearly missed the
point.

"Move fast and break things" works only when the value of, and audience for,
your work is highly uncertain. If you have any confidence whatsoever in the
value or audience of what you're building, slow is usually better.

Going fast in the wrong direction is only a good use of time and resources
when you quickly recognize the mistake and turn around. In my experience, most
people who prioritize speed above all else are hellbent on a specific
destination and won't change course until it's too late.

~~~
chasing
Well, my point is that it's a little silly to decide that "slow" is always
better than "fast." Or vice versa. You wind up with platitudes that are vague
to the point of absurdity. Like: "Slow is usually better."

Of course you shouldn't universally prioritize speed above all else. That'd be
dumb.

You shouldn't rush through something that should be done with careful
deliberation. You also shouldn't linger on something when time is of the
essence.

------
rhubarbcustard
"This fast-paced always-on life style blends our home-life and our work-life
together. We can no longer leave the office and are always just a text or
phone call away."

I've read quite a few articles recently about this blurring of office and home
life and people being "on" all the time, has this really become normal for
most people? It was "go home on time day" the other week, have things really
got so bad that people need a special day just to get home and see their
family?

I get paid to work 35 hours a week, I work those and then I'm not at work and
unavailable unless I've agreed to paid overtime. I assumed most people worked
like this too?

~~~
majelix
If you're hourly, of course it's a different thing.

But if you're salaried, it's an arms race. Employees willing to work extra
hours get more done (or at worst, only appear to get more done), and thus will
get the rewards and promotions.

~~~
vitd
I actually experienced the opposite. The employees who went to heroic efforts
to work long hours and “get things done” were often the ones who did the worst
work that had to be cleaned up by someone else later. The people who came in
on time and left on time tended to be more methodical and their shit just
worked.

------
drinchev
I tend to agree with almost everything in the article.

What strikes me the most is that the word itself is actually bad, because it
creates additional pressure that makes you weak.

Example :

I usually don't give estimates or deadlines to my clients and in the end I
usually do the task in the same time as I would do it if I had a deadline. The
only difference is that I work pleasantly and I don't need constant reminding
: "Hey you have 3 days left"; "Hey you have 2 days left", etc... This makes me
exhausted immediately.

------
x1798DE
This post is not really making any argument for slow, just saying that some
good things happen slowly - though he doesn't actually specify a timescale,
rendering the word "slow" meaningless anyway. If you could have the things
that he describes as being good quickly (i.e. you get them immediately, not
that they have short duration), I imagine you'd be ecstatic. If you could have
beautiful, hand-crafted quality furniture made in 15 minutes, wouldn't you
prefer that to a longer process, all else equal?

To try and extract some actual useful information from this collection of
meaningless platitudes, I'd say that there's a point to be made here that
different things happen on different timescales. Building relationships may
take considerably more time than a few development cycles, etc. Recognizing
what's a reasonable timescale for each part of your business/life/project and
considering the costs you'd pay for trying to accelerate them is probably not
a bad thing to do.

------
forgottenpass
_" This fast-paced always-on life style blends our home-life and our work-life
together. We can no longer leave the office and are always just a text or
phone call away."_

A psychiatrist wrote about a blog post about this phenomenon in commenting on
Randi Zuckerberg's book (dot-complicated). It talks about the societal drive
to fill free time with work.

    
    
        Email is a convenient scapegoat not just because "family 
        time should be protected" but because it gets us out of 
        inquiring what went wrong with our home life that we 
        could ever be tempted by work emails, and the avoidance 
        of this inquiry is highly suspicious, i.e. on purpose.  
    

[http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/01/randi_zuckerberg.html](http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2014/01/randi_zuckerberg.html)

------
tonyplee
I prefer the Electrical Engineering's phase "Impedance matching".

"In electronics, impedance matching is the practice of designing the input
impedance of an electrical load or the output impedance of its corresponding
signal source to maximize the power transfer or minimize signal reflection
from the load."

This basic control system theory that is applicable to Electrical and
Mechanical System design.

More and more I believe it is applicable to Business System.

In product / business development, I like to think the term as "Don't waste $,
time, human resource on scaling Marketing/Sales, until one is reasonable
certain that the product is ready product marketing fit is validated in small
scale."

------
mgregory22
Information is fast, wisdom is slow.

------
cinch
i'd say it depends on how important a project you are working on. if it's
another run of the mill CRUD app, that only get's used internally by a few
people, then you'd want cheap/fast, low quality. if it's mission critical, air
plane software, you take your time and get it right.

but the author is hinting in the right direction: today "slow" get's
undervalued. i've been told i work slow, and yea it had a negative meaning. i
interpret it as good: i take my time and do it right. maybe i was just working
in the wrong company, where the software quality isn't that important versus
churning out more.

------
carsongross
Here's one thing slow ain't: 7% growth per week.

