2010: a year in search of tempo giusto
Following my ambitious 2010 New Year’s resolution to read a book-per-week, I started perhaps inappropriately with Carl Honoré In Praise of Slow. ‘Slow’ has the potential to be a life-changing read. It describes a way of life that calls into question the ‘productivity culture’ in modern society, suggesting an alternative based on living (eating, working, loving) more slowly in order to achieve a happier, more fulfilling life. A lot of the ideas presented by Honoré, come out of The Slow Movement and its predecessor Slow Food, the antithesis of ‘fast food’ and ‘ready meals’. All good stuff.
So, inspired the book, I set out to slow down my life. I started growing my own vegetables, making bread, thinking, relaxing, taking time to ‘savour each moment’ etc. For a moment it worked, but for all my good intentions my journey into the world of ‘slow’ was shortlived — quickly the demands of daily life took over as the initial inspiration from In Praise of Slow melted away.
Now at the end of 2010, I find myself reading Do More Faster edited by David Cohen & Brad Feld, an entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur advice book, born out of the TechStars startup accelerator. Do More Faster is an excellent collection of short articles by successful founders, investors and CEO’s sharing their experiences of creating startups. It’s mainly quickfire, practical advice with a common theme of speed — make decisions quickly, fail fast, get feedback early, throw things away etc. The book is written in short easily digestable chunks (1-3 pages) that can be read quickly. It’s not only about speed, but that’s the key advantage of small companies over big ones, writes Cohen.
So what happened? How did I go from “In Praise of Slow” to “Do More Faster”? The truth is, like most people, I live a very busy life: I have 3 small children, a full-time job, a house and garden to maintain and ongoing side projects etc. So, whilst I like the idea of ‘going slow’, it’s not really practical.
One of the key points Honoré makes is that the Slow Philosophy isn’t about doing everything slowly, it’s about achieving ‘tempo giusto’ (the right speed). This means it’s best to do some things quickly and others slowly, as appropriate. The problem is that In Praise of Slow is an exposition on an idea not a practical handbook. It doesn’t really tell you how to achieve slowness, it just says what it is. But here’s the idea: if I do some things quicker, I can do others slower. It’s about balance — simple!
So in 2011, I’ll try to put this into practice and search again for tempo giusto.
