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

Time to read book?

[SirLoadALot]

And where does one get the time to read this book, exactly?

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.

Re:Time to read book?

[RollingThunder]

I far prefer the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates.

Work and Play

[Shome]

Work like a tortoise and play like a rabbit - that sums it up!

I'm Still Confused

[Anonymous Coward]

I read the entire review and I still don't know if the reviewer ever found out exactly how old speed is.

Re:I'm Still Confused

[Yvan256]

Me neither, but in the chapter "killing time", it turns out the butler did it. In the living room, with a knife.

Re:I'm Still Confused

[Experiment 626]

I read the entire review and I still don't know if the reviewer ever found out exactly how old speed is.

15 years. Though it's really not Keanu's best work.

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.

Age of Speed on Wall St.

[pileated]

I wonder if the author did an analysis of how the Age of Speed helped Wall St. to come to its fabulous current state.

The reviewer says we "live in the age of speed." Maybe so. I see plenty of people doing things too quickly. But does that mean we live in the "age of speed?" How does it differ from the age of non-speed? Is it an improvement, an inevitability? Did we lose something? Would the financial disaster we're in right now have been better off without so much speed?

Before reading more about how to cope with the age of speed, I'd prefer to see something explaining just what it is. Otherwise I'm sure not going to spend my valuable time reading it. Right now it just sounds like a buzz phrase.

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.

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.

The juggling analogy again?

[permaculture]

As a juggler, it's a little annoying when people use juggling as an analogy and get it wrong. So here's an explanation of juggling and how to do it, whether it's clubs or tasks.

It's all in the throw, not in the catch. If the throw is perfect, the catch happens without any corrections or concious thought.

You may have two hands, but your two eyes can only look at one thing at a time. Jugglers just peep at the object as it arcs over and downwards, and that's enough to tell them where and when to stick out a hand and catch it. This has been confirmed experimentally using opaque glasses to block off the view of the objects except around about the top of the arc.

Once you get beyond juggling three objects, you peep at the object but then you have to remember how it's falling while you peep at another, before you stick out your hand to catch the first object. So 1) consistency is hugely important and 2) you have to practise daily until it's completely automatic.

The most important tool for juggling is gravity. That's how jugglers stack the objects and know where and when they'll fall. If gravity wavered, it'd bring the pattern down. You have to know what to expect. Remember in Firefly how something unexpected would happen, and it'd turn out they'd prepared for that contingency? Same thing, really.

Now let's apply the theory of juggling to 'juggling' a bunch of tasks. You have to be able to give each task some impetus and then move on, knowing the point at which you'll have to return to that task. You have to have some method, equivalent to the way jugglers use gravity, that smoothly handles the tasks while your attention is elsewhere. Finally, you have to make it funny. Or perhaps that only applies to juggling? Well, analogies can only be stretched so far.