Time must be the main source of anxiety for us. Who wouldn’t want to be swifty, speedy and get things done quickly. Smash every task in hand, and achieve every goal with ease and in no time. If death wasn’t lurking around the corner, if time wasn’t an issue, if there weren’t the concept of getting old, things would be pretty laid back no doubt.

You have a time window of like 70 years to make the best of your life. I feel bad for scientists who make groundbreaking theories, that does not get attention when they’re alive, but thrive after they’re dead. Luckily information technology gives those great minds easier time to spread their ideas.

Everybody can be genius if there’s no time limit. Anybody can do anything given unlimited time and resources. Genius is really working in the environment of restrictions and uncertainties. It is a battle of time VS you trying to make great things happen.

The need for speed inhibits people, big time. Consciously thinking about time and speed is one of the biggest inhibitors and inefficiencies. It is so futile and leads to poor outcomes. “Am I too old to start this…?” “I need to read faster…” “How to get good at programming quickly…”

I wonder how many people don’t start dieting and exercising after they realize it takes atleast several months to see real results. I think this just one more manifestation of the modern day glorification of rationality and intellectualism. People being so conscious about everything and not giving trust to their own control systems. Thinking and worrying about the means and time when all you need is to set the target and let go. You’ll figure it out, no problem.

William James, dean of American psychologists, gave us years ago great advice. In his essay "The Gospel of Relaxation," he said that modern man was too tense, too concerned for results, too anxious (this was in 1899), and that there was a better and easier way…

When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.

…Have some trust people. You have all the tools required for achieving great outcomes, yet, you screw it all up by consciously starting to worry about the means. Such lack of trust in your inner mechanisms is nothing but shooting yourself in the foot.

I really despise the whole rationality movement. I despise the overglorification of facts, figures and predictions as compared to beliefs. After all, we are creatures of emotion, the whole neocortex is relatively new thing, we perform best when we are driven. And now, people plan and worry, are overconscious about every tiny thing, when in reality, if they just had some trust in their inner mechanisms, and if they would be okay when the means of achieving an outcome is not evident… I think things would be a lot better. I think we would perform much better and such overconsciousness creates inhibition mostly.

A lot of the time this overconsciousness is about speed. Do faster, get it done faster, be quicker… It is a good thing to improve in speed, though, that is only when it rises from inside based on circumstances, and is not coerced, intervened and forced. Such conscious forcing of speed creates nothing but inefficiencies, anxiety and poor outcomes.

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Naess

The Speed and Time of our lives