The slow is fast paradox

Slow is fast.

That’s a paradox I notice more and more.

We tend to rush to do things when we want to go fast and cross the finish line in record time. But is it the best way to do it?

When I was a StrongFirst kettlebell instructor, I learned and experienced that taking your time leads to faster results. Taking your time during your strength training session. Taking your time with the load increase over time. Because if you don’t, you’ll have to pay this debt later.

I’ve also observed that paradox in product management. Let’s say you want to add a new feature, or build an entirely new product. Being slow makes you faster. Here, “slow” means that you take your time to document, to log the decisions, to properly weigh the choices. Because if you don’t, you’ll have to pay this debt later.

Paying these debts means being much slower at some point, or even coming to a full stop.

Taking your time is an attitude in action. It’s not “not acting”. It’s acting with a form of poise. And the more you can relax into action, doing things deliberately and thus slowly, the faster you are.

Interesting paradox, isn’t it?