This space rewards speed. First to post, first to call it, first to move on to the next thing before the last one has even finished happening. I understand the appeal. I also notice that almost nothing I’m proud of came out of that mode.
The work I keep is the work I let take its time. A blog I sat with for three weeks. An interview I prepared for until the questions felt obvious. A sentence I rewrote until it stopped sounding clever and started sounding true.
Slow is not the same as late
Patience gets confused with procrastination, but they’re opposites. Procrastination is avoiding the thing. Patience is staying with the thing long enough for it to become good. One is fear wearing a calm face. The other is just respect for how long good work takes.
I’m writing this down because I forget it constantly. The feed (especially in this industry) is loud, the pace is fast, and doing one thing slowly feels, in the moment, like falling behind. It usually isn’t. It’s just the only way I’ve found to make something worth keeping.