The Religion of Speed(graybeard.ing)
308 points by MobiusHorizons 47 days ago | 157 comments
tl;dr: "Moving fast" has become a moral posture that disguises impatience, fuzzy thinking, and avoidance of responsibility as productivity, producing systems and organizations built on unexamined assumptions that inevitably require expensive cleanup. Real speed comes from understanding the problem, clarifying constraints, and making clean decisions first—not from skipping the thinking and calling the resulting rework "iteration" or "learning." The author argues for urgency over haste: calmer work that still ships, but respects the problem enough to make sense of it before moving.
HN Discussion:
  • Endorses 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' with emphasis on proper measurement and thoughtfulness
  • Speed itself is a genuine feature with real economic and customer value that shouldn't be dismissed
  • ~The pressure for speed comes from structural forces like VC funding and sales competition, not just bad thinking
  • Management culture rewards visible stress and urgency theater over actual careful progress
  • ~The article ignores the reality of deadlines and whether pushing back is even practically possible