We tend to think we live in an age of speed, where advantage lies in momentum. But do we really value speed? Or do we mistake it for the dash and whizz? While giving lip service to Lord Speed, don’t we hamper his powers by encumbering him time and again with endless meetings, addiction to studying sample studies, unending rounds of consensus hunts? This is not to say that meetings, sample studies and discussions need to be shunted out wholesale. What one is talking about here is that the fetish of making these central to decision-making, rather than taking the decision itself, is missing the food for the treat.
Pace – doing things fast, or even deciding quickly not to do anything – should be the object, not the ancillary smog most people tend to mistake quickness for. A simple example of the gifts that real speed can deliver was shared on X by martech company Grapevine CEO Saumil Tripathi recently. It was the post of someone who landed in Bengaluru on a Thursday, went house-hunting with a broker on Friday, finalised the place on Saturday, and shifted to the new place on Sunday. House-hunting is a classic example where people think they require reams of time, choices to sift through before coming to a decision. But, in actuality, it is all about gathering inputs fast and deciding quickly. Lingering, in all walks of life, is overrated.
