The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World
by Vince Poscente is a light read, but recommended. I haven't read the popular 4-Hour Workweek
, but I'm sure there are many crossover concepts in Age of Speed. Poscente elaborates on how to embrace speed to be more productive and get more out of life. Good [NordicTrack] reading. Four-out-of-five Nordic Track Ski Stars.
---------------------
p.11 The human race has pursued speed for ages. What makes our experience a revolution are two factors unique to our time: an unprecedented need for speed and a new ability to achieve it.
With the boom in technology enabling us to achieve speed in almost every imaginable way, speed is no longer a luxury--its an expectation. Today we're a society of not only haves and have-nots, but haves and have-nows.
Though this may seem immature and spoiled on the surface, the core of our intolerance may be rooted in something quite reasonable: Five minutes waiting is equivalent to surrendering five units of our most valued commodity--time.
We need speed. It's the only way to get more time, more life.
We want to spend less time on things we deem inconsequential, so we devour every chance to speed up the minutiae in our lives.
p.31 We need to identify the root of our resistance and work to change our view, to see speed for the positive force it can be and end our opposition. It's the first step toward thriving in the Age of Speed.
p.41 We either demand speed of others and accept that others will demand it of us, or we refuse speed altogether. The only way to get speed is to deliver it.
The bigger reason we should speed up is to make time for meaningful experiences. Speed is not just the way to get more work done--speed is the secret to having time to do what we want.
p.47 When I suggest that you embrace speed, I'm not recommending faster strolls on the beach or accelerated games of catch with your child. I'm suggesting that you seek to speed up the minutiae in your life and work. The key is identifying the difference between repetitive chores and passionate pursuits.
p.59 In Leading Change in 1996...a dichotomy between management and change, with management concerned mostly with the status quo, while leadership is tied to change.
The new world of change assembled itself within a decade. In the next ten years, the same thing will happen again--only this time the revolution is speed.
We have to be more mindful of the value of our experiences.
p.69 Work is no longer a place--it's a state of mind. The spatial and task-oriented boundaries that once dictated how we spent our time have become blurred, almost invisible.
p.79 The values-based model solution is an exercise in consciousness--an awareness of your values.
The values-based framework will help us make speed work for us--help us see that far from being just another metric to improve, speed is a tool for achieving more significance and accomplishing more of the goals that matter to each of us.
p.129 To do things fast we have to act, we have to jump. This requires a stomach for risk, because with change and progress comes a chance of failure.
Other excerpt-worthy margin jottings found on the remain 100 pages.
[NordicTrackPic]