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As soon as possible

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Tom

Imagine how relaxing it must’ve been 200 years ago? It’s a long time, but I have a sudden need to look back at days gone by. If someone from your community couldn’t answer a question for you, you either had to wait weeks before you got an answer by mail or you just had to accept the fact that you’ll never know the answer.

as-soon-as-possible

Though limited by the knowledge within the community, what they knew for sure was that if no-one knew the answer, the question had no reason to exist anymore. That must’ve been a liberating feeling doesn’t it? Why bother right?

Times changed and people, curious as we are, looked for new and faster ways to get their questions answered. We’ve built computers that can calculate complex formula’s in nanoseconds, whether right or wrong, we can even predict the weather almost a week in advance, do you know how amazing that is?

At the same time, tolerance towards ‘taking some time’ grew very thin. My mailbox is filled with ‘exclamation mails’, everything is ‘as soon as possible’ and I get calls from the same people every week demaning a ‘prompt response’ otherwise they can’t guarantee me what I asked for.

It’s not because we have the possibility to act really fast that we actually need to do so. Taking some time can put things into perspective, create a fresh spin on things, maybe generate a better idea than the one you were putting together in a hurry.