The Age of Speed

enactd writes "I feel life is a constant juggle, for every task in hand you have another to react to or let drop. The Age of Speed helps you chart your tasks to keep the important goals in sight while recognizing and reacting to distractions. Being a geek on the cutting edge of technology gets one acquainted with speed quickly, but being able to handle it is another matter and streamlining is an ongoing effort. The goal of the book is to help you decide what is important in your life and extract as much pleasure from those things while minimizing the time spent on the mundane." Keep reading for the rest of Chris's review. The Age of Speed author Vince Poscente pages 215 publisher Bard Press rating 8.5 reviewer Chris Alan ISBN 978-1-885167-67-5 summary Tips on getting more done with the time you have. The beginning of the book deals with shedding the guilt most people associate with getting things done quickly. We are lead to believe at an early age that shortcuts diminish the reward or the experience of a task. While there are some tasks where this holds true, overall it is a common myth one needs to overcome in the age of speed.

My favorite anecdote was a fresh look at the Tortoise and the Hare. The common moral one associates with this fable is "Slow and steady wins the race." But the story isn't a condemnation on speed, rather against stupidity. The Hare lost simply because he was dumb enough to take a nap in the middle of the race, in no way did his speed work against him.

One of the major sections of the book splits personalities up into four categories, Zeppelins, Balloons, Bottle Rockets and Jets. The tech world mostly consists of Bottle Rockets and Jets, as long as you don't include managers. The Jets run smoothly and routinely hit their targets while the Bottle Rockets follow pets.com off the cliff.

Whenever I'm behind the wheel and someone asks if I know where I'm going I reply, "Nope, but I'm going to get there quickly." While I'm usually joking, it perfectly sums up the attitude of a Bottle Rocket. While a Jet has a single target and maintains focus until it's task is complete, a Bottle Rocket constantly changes it's target and never seems to be able to hit it before being distracted by a new goal, leaving a wake of unfinished debris. Obviously one should strive to be a Jet.

I finished this book two weeks ago. I started writing the review immediately after finishing the book, but I wanted to see how applying the principles helped me out. My favorite section was titled Aerodynamics and led to an immediate change in how I approach working.

Sometimes I find myself falling into a black hole of needless distractions, constantly switching between email, Twitter, Slashdot and any other diversion I reward myself with throughout the day. If I have too many distractions in a short amount of time I'll fall into a pseudo trance of cycling through them endlessly. Afterward I'm at square one with getting back on task. Directly after reading the chapter An Exercise in Consciousness I turned off my email auto checker. This simple change transformed my work environment from an interruptive process to one I'm in control of. By removing the interruption I don't have the temptation to succumb to distractions and I've felt much more productive.

The only time the author had me rolling my eyes was the shameless self promotion of referencing the Age of Speed throughout the book. If I were reviewing this book for a more general audience I would have rated it a point higher, but people in the technology sector don't have the same speed hang ups as most people, negating some of the insights of the book. However, there are plenty of pointers for even the most hardcore tech geek. Surviving in an always on World is easy, the key is learning how to prosper.

You can purchase The Age of Speed from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Pursuit by Stephen Dobyns

[Slightly Askew]

Each thing I do I rush through so I can do
something else. In such a way do the days pass -
a blend of stock car racing and the never
ending building of a gothic cathedral.
Through the windows of my speeding car, I see
all that I love falling away: books unread,
jokes untold, landscapes unvisited. And why?
What treasure do I expect in my future?
Rather it is the confusion of childhood
loping behind me, the chaos in the mind,
the failure chipping away at each success.
Glancing over my shoulder I see its shape
and so move forward, as someone in the woods
at night might hear the sound of approaching feet
and stop to listen, then, instead of silence
he hears some creature trying to be silent.
What else can he do but run? Rushing blindly
down the path, stumbling, struck in the face by sticks;
the other ever closer, yet not really
hurrying or out of breath, teasing its kill.

A Good topic

[TrippTDF]

I'll probably pick up a copy of this- it's an important issue. Frankly, we're probably getting to a point that time management needs to be addressed in early education, because we all need some principles just to get through the day.

Re:A Good topic

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

When you're motivated to get a task done, you get it done. If it's something you don't want to do, you're posting on slashdot instead.

This isn't time management, it's buckling down and doing what we have to do, so that we can do what we want to do.

My method

[phantomfive]

I dealt with all the things I have to 'juggle' by dropping the biggest that I didn't particularly like: work. It's great because now I have so much more time. Of course it has the side effect of now I live on the street, but really that's so much better because I don't have to 'juggle' other things like wash the toilet, vacuum the floor, or even take a shower. My life is simple now.

Age of Speed?

[girlintraining]

Prediction: It will be found in six months laying in the "nearly free" bin in the bookstore, along with "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", and "Change Your Underwear, Change Your Life."

Managing Speed

[raijinsetsu]

The best way to manage speed is not to abuse it. Too much leads to a coronary, and too little leads to not enough time in your day(having a day shorter than 28 hours leaves me with too much to do the next day).

So, whether you inject, inhale, or ingest your speed, be sure do to so in moderation.

I don't care about getting things done quickly

[iminplaya]

I care about getting them done effortlessly. We need to automate the mundane completely to leave us more time for our mindless distractions. In truth we probably need to maintain some stress in our lives to avoid becoming shapeless blobs.

Re:Time to read book?

[MyLongNickName]

If you don't make time for what is important, your life will continue to be dictated by others' whims.

This book sounds like a rehash of Tyranny of the Urgent and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Hard to tell from a summary, but that is my first impression. Both are must reads if you want to do important things and not just do a lot of things.

Also 'Laws of Leadership' has its high points, and is worth at least a scan.

Wrong lesson

[nine-times]

My favorite anecdote was a fresh look at the Tortoise and the Hare. The common moral one associates with this fable is "Slow and steady wins the race." But the story isn't a condemnation on speed, rather against stupidity. The Hare lost simply because he was dumb enough to take a nap in the middle of the race, in no way did his speed work against him.

The lesson here wasn't "speed is bad" or that "the hare lost simply because he was dumb enough to take a nap." I've always read it more like: you can't let yourself get overly-confident in one of your particular strengths to the point where you take your superiority for granted and stop trying your hardest.

You see it often enough that someone is good at doing something quickly, but they're sloppy about it. Or they're smart, but they don't think things through thoroughly. Being smart and fast are great additions to being a disciplined hard worker-- but they aren't good replacements.

Rather obvious examples don't you think?

[hellfire]

This review completely failed to sell me on the book. The user seems very excited by it, but the suggestions are in themselves, rather mundane. The assumptions and analysis in the beginning is flat out wrong. Here's my review of the review:

The beginning of the book deals with shedding the guilt most people associate with getting things done quickly. We are lead to believe at an early age that shortcuts diminish the reward or the experience of a task. While there are some tasks where this holds true, overall it is a common myth one needs to overcome in the age of speed.

Who exactly has guilt at getting things done quickly? Most people I know get things done too quickly, because they are lazy, and don't do it right the first time. The one or two people who take too long and don't use shortcuts are people who are either too lazy to change their routine, or are overthinking the problem. But now more than ever we are all about quick.

My favorite anecdote was a fresh look at the Tortoise and the Hare. The common moral one associates with this fable is "Slow and steady wins the race." But the story isn't a condemnation on speed, rather against stupidity. The Hare lost simply because he was dumb enough to take a nap in the middle of the race, in no way did his speed work against him.

The fable of the tortoise and the hare has never been a condemnation of speed. The author has created this false "reanalysis" to sell the book. We all get the fable, and know what it means, that's why it's timeless.

Whenever I'm behind the wheel and someone asks if I know where I'm going I reply, "Nope, but I'm going to get there quickly." While I'm usually joking, it perfectly sums up the attitude of a Bottle Rocket. While a Jet has a single target and maintains focus until it's task is complete, a Bottle Rocket constantly changes it's target and never seems to be able to hit it before being distracted by a new goal, leaving a wake of unfinished debris. Obviously one should strive to be a Jet.

From here out, the review basically describes something that doesn't take an entire book. Humans don't do well if they try to multitask too much. Multitasking doesn't make you more productive. Sometimes it's necessary (I have to take questions all day at my job while working on a specific task) but you are never more productive.

So basically you are describing a self help book for teenagers and college students who haven't learned yet that all this blogging/twittering/emailing/chatting at the same time is not productive. When you are home enjoying yourself and relaxing, and you relax by having multiple inputs, that's great, but when you are working, shut it all off. Most hardcore geeks understand this, and if they don't, their friends, coworkers, or managers are telling them so. Outside the geek realm, you have your parents constantly telling you to get off the chat rooms if you expect to get your homework done.

There I saved everyone the price of the book.

Re:Unlike "Pilot"...

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you've never been a parent ...

Re:Age of Speed on Wall St.

[vertinox]

Would the financial disaster we're in right now have been better off without so much speed?

No. Probably a lot far worse for small time investors just trying to save something for their retirement.

I was thinking of how it was back in the day at least when my dad was introducing me to stocks in the late 80's early 90's. Basically, in the morning you would pick up newspaper with yesterday's closing quote and then call your broker at the end of the day ($50 commissions were cheap back then) and placed your order.

Well by the time that happened a lot of stuff could have happened on wall street and you the small time investor don't have a computer with a dial up connection to the NYSE stock exchange like your broker does.

Well I suppose you could have called your Broker every 5 minutes to see what was going on, but they generally frown on that unless you do $10,000+ trades.

Anyways... The internet has basically imported the little guy (albeit a lot of little guys) to be able to trade like the big dogs. Last year I have actually bailed on stocks I otherwise would have held on to and lost a lot of money on simply because I had net access.

That said, this could be a bad thing when people panic and personal investors tend to be a lot more emotional than the professionals. So your more likely to do dumb things when you should have held on like you would have in the old days.

I would argue that the problem that happened with Wall Street was over leveraging (borrowing of money to invest) of certain big time million/billion dollar funds rather than the fault of a a slew of small time investors who panicked en masse. Yes they did panic, but surprisingly not as bad as you would have though of 1929.

Yes, its a different market these days but its easier to be informed about your investment decisions and able to act on them in a more timely manner.

Still doesn't keep people from doing dumb things.

News flash: people are impatient.....

[King_TJ]

Just from the Slashdot summary alone, I'm placing this book among the ranks of the useless "self improvement/self help" tripe out there.

People are generally impatient when they want things. This is part of the human condition. Technology allows many things to happen more quickly. People, in their impatience, leverage these technologies - and by collectively doing so time and time again, it becomes the "norm" or "standard". People stop planning as far ahead for important things, assuming this "faster delivery time" can be expected/counted on ... and that gives us a perception that we're living in this "Age of Speed".

The thing is, you can read all of these books you want, in some attempt to "improve your own situation". But you can't change the fact that FedEx can deliver a package half way across the world overnight. You can't change the fact that email shows up in a recipient's inbox the second the sender clicks the "send" button. And you definitely can't change the thought processes of business owners who realized technology allows them to process orders at a faster pace, and therefore generate more income per day than they used to.

Ultimately? It comes down to you deciding how many "impatient people" you want to try to cater to. You do stand to gain financially by participating in the "rat race" -- but you can't keep running *all the time* without a break. You have to make your own lifestyle choices and compromises, to find a happy medium.

I've noticed a pretty drastic difference when traveling. If I visit many of the southern states in the US, or even some of the less populated parts of my own midwestern state, there's FAR less overall sense of urgency to get things done. "I'll get to it as soon as possible!" often means "some time before the week is over", vs. "We know you're expecting it today, so I'm trying to get somebody on it this afternoon or by tomorrow morning!"

Hmm... perhaps not so effective after all...

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

I finished this book two weeks ago. I started writing the review immediately after finishing the book, but I wanted to see how applying the principles helped me out.

Perhaps they didn't help you out at all, if it took you two weeks to finish an 8 paragraph review?

Unfortunately, the review didn't give enough to go on as far as why the book was good. I'm gonna go ahead and file this away with the various other "time management" systems, right along with "GTD" and others: it very likely takes more time to follow the program than you lose by trying to do too many things at once.

When somebody comes up with a good way to organize all of the /information/ that we deal with every day - and by good I mean "not requiring time or attention", give me a call.

Re:Age of Speed on Wall St.

[pileated]

That's true. There is much that can be done more quickly. And I for one won't argue with being able to do my taxes more quickly, or many of other such things.

But I wonder what's been lost. For instance why has the Slow Food movement been so popular for so long. Why do I find blogs about slow painting? Why is there a Take Back Your Time day? As far as I'm concerned there's been a tremendous loss. And of course the poem by Stephen Dobyns in one of the first replies indicates this. We are all hurrying. But for what?

I don't think people, and it certainly seems like this book and this reviewer, slow down enough to say: wait a minute! What's the hurry? What have I just lost by being in such a hurry? What have I gained? How do they balance out?

If the book reviewed talked about that I'd be interested. If it just says speed is inevitable and here are some quick hints for dealing with it then I say no thanks.

Re:Age of Speed on Wall St.

[pileated]

Thanks for the link. I'm unfamiliar with him but did read, too speedily I have to say, his thoughts on the crash. Unfortunately, and I'm not trying to be obnoxious, they strike me as unproven theories at best, and more likely just nonsense.

Perhaps due to my age I've lived through a number of movements, of life-changing, consciousness-changing events. Guess what? The changes were minor. Life didn't change, nor did human consciousness.

Where did the current crisis stem from? the answer is: subprime mortgages; housing credit that proved unsustainable; land. The victims are the hundred of thousands of people who are going to lose their homes. The whole concept of sedentarism had already been challenged by immigrants, exiles, deportations, refugees - and the delocalisation of economic activities. This phenomenon is bound to increase

So what the financial crisis is really a challenge to the 'concept of sedentarism?' I don't think so. The problem with writers such as this is that they know enough about a number of subjects to theorize possible connections between seemingly dissimilar fields. When I first read Marshall McLuhan I was dazzled by his abilities to do this. The problem is that it's like a magician. The audience is too busy being dazzled to notice the tricks, lack of proof, illogic, etc.

Since I've never read him before I don't feel right in criticizing further. Perhaps I'd find more in further reading. But so far I have to say, in spite of what I think are your good intentions regarding him, that I don't find much there.

But I would add I read him quickly. I've found that I always read more speedily, and with less comprehension on the web. Maybe I need to slow down and read a book............