Slow the F**k Down
I want life to be extremely inefficient but deeply rewarding
Holy crap I was stuck behind the slowest old lady on the sidewalk today.
Like painfully slow. The kind where you’re debating stepping into traffic just to get around her.
Then I got to the store and had to wait while this young cashier figured out the register probably at her first-ever job.
Then I hit a red light. No cars coming. Just me sitting there, waiting.
And I was annoyed at all of it.
But after rushing through my entire morning I realized… we rush through everything.
We get annoyed at the person walking too slowly on the sidewalk. We sigh when the light turns red and we have to wait another minute. We Uber instead of walking because saving 5 minutes feels necessary. We check the time constantly, even when there is nowhere urgent to be.
We live like every second needs to be optimized.
But somehow, we still feel behind.
Everything Is Faster Than We Were Built For
There was a time when news arrived once a day.
Then once an hour.
Now it never stops.
Tragedy used to be local. Something happened somewhere else and you might hear about it later. Now you watch it unfold live, in real time, layered with reactions, opinions, and pressure to respond immediately.
Everything feels like it needs your reaction right now.
If you do not speak, you are complicit.
If you do speak, you are wrong.
If you hesitate, you are behind.
The hardest part is that there is nowhere to put it down. I mean you have everything in your pocket, a laptop at your desk, and the whole world follows you into bed.
We were never meant to process this much, this fast, all the time.
Speed Has Become the Default
We hurry through meals. We hurry through conversations. We hurry through relationships. We even hurry through rest.
We confuse speed with importance and urgency with meaning.
And when something slows us down, we treat it like a problem instead of a signal.
I don’t really have the answer but why does waiting feel like wasted time and stillness feels uncomfortable?
What if some things in life are meant to slow you down?
A Lesson About Speed
I listen to a lot of Alan Watts while I work and one idea of his has stayed with me.
“I was talking to other day to a college president who said, ‘you know, I am so busy now that I am going to have to get a helicopter.’
I said whatever you do, don’t do it. Because if you get it, more will be expected of you. You will be expected to go to more places faster.
And you see, in this whole problem of speed, of getting advantages in life because we can move about rapidly, we forget that speed is only a real advantage to you if you are the only person who has it. Then you can get ahead of other people.
But the minute everyone else catches up with you, you are all back where you were only going much faster and much more nervously. Going as it were faster and faster to less and less desirable objectives.
We hurry everything we do.
We make our products, our houses, our furniture, our clothes, so that they become obsolete quickly.
We are in such a hurry to get everything done, we pay attention to the front rather than the back.”
Listen to the full version
That feels exactly like where we are now.
The faster we move, the more is expected of us. More urgency. More output. More reaction. We are not actually getting ahead. We’re just running faster on the treadmill.
What If You Let Life Slow You Down
What if next time you need groceries, you walk?
What if the old lady in front of you on the sidewalk is not in your way, but exactly where you are supposed to be?
What if next time you need something, you go get it instead of ordering it?
What if a red light is not something to fight, but a reminder to take a breath?
Not everything needs to be optimized. Not every moment needs to be productive. Some moments matter simply because they exist.
Almost Something
Almost Something is for the people who feel like life is moving too fast and they are being dragged along with it. For the ones who are tired of rushing through days they will one day wish they had slowed down.
You do not need to win the race.
You do not need to respond immediately.
You do not need to move faster just because everyone else is.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is slow the f**k down and actually be here for it.