Speed is underrated. We live in a world that often prizes perfection over progress, planning over doing. But here's the truth: moving fast isn't just about getting things done quickly. It's about fundamentally changing how you learn, work, and succeed.

You Learn More When You Move Fast

Think about learning to ride a bike. You don't master it by studying physics equations or watching videos for months. You get on the bike, you wobble, you fall, you adjust, and you try again. Each attempt teaches you something real.

The same principle applies everywhere. When you move fast, you make contact with reality more frequently. Every iteration is a data point. Every attempt reveals what works and what doesn't. In the time it takes someone to plan the perfect approach, you've already tried three different methods and learned from each one.

A startup that launches in 3 months learns more about their market than one that spends a year perfecting their product in isolation. A writer who publishes weekly improves faster than one polishing the same piece for months. Reality is the best teacher, and speed gets you there sooner.

Speed Forces Focus

When you have six months to complete a project, you'll find six months' worth of work. When you have two weeks, something magical happens: the unnecessary disappears.

Speed acts like a filter. There's no time for endless meetings about meeting formats. No bandwidth for politics and posturing. No room for features that don't matter. When you're moving fast, you naturally gravitate toward what's essential because that's all you have time for.

This isn't about being sloppy. It's about being honest about what actually matters. Most of what we think is important is just noise. Speed reveals the signal.

Slow is Fake

Here's an uncomfortable truth: slowness often masks uncertainty or fear. We tell ourselves we're being "thorough" or "careful," but often we're just avoiding the moment of truth when our ideas meet reality.

That extra month of research? Often it's procrastination dressed up as diligence. The fifth round of revisions? Usually fear of shipping disguised as perfectionism. The endless planning sessions? Frequently just avoiding the discomfort of actually starting.

When you commit to moving fast, you can't hide behind these comfortable illusions. You have to confront reality, learn from it, and adjust. That's where real progress happens.

Every Week Counts

A week is 2% of your year. Let that sink in.

When you waste a week on something that doesn't matter, you've burned 2% of your annual capacity. Delay a decision by a month? You've just spent 8% of your year in limbo. Those "quick" projects that drag on for a quarter? That's 25% of your year gone.

Time is finite and irreplaceable. When you truly internalize that a week is a meaningful chunk of your year, you start treating time with the respect it deserves. You stop letting things drift. You make decisions faster. You ship sooner.

Time is the Denominator

In any equation of productivity or success, time sits at the bottom of the fraction. Whether you're measuring learning per month, revenue per quarter, or progress per year, time is always the denominator.

This means that even modest improvements in speed create dramatic changes in output. If you can do something in 3 weeks instead of 6, you haven't just saved 3 weeks—you've doubled your rate of progress. You can now fit two cycles of learning where there used to be one.

This compounds. The team that ships weekly learns 52 times per year. The team that ships quarterly learns 4 times. After a year, the gap in knowledge and capability becomes insurmountable.

The Speed Mindset

Embracing speed isn't about being reckless. It's about recognizing that perfection is often the enemy of progress, that done is better than perfect, and that the fastest way to get good at something is to do it repeatedly.

Start before you feel ready. Ship before it's perfect. Decide before you have all the information. You can always adjust, iterate, and improve—but only if you start.

The path to excellence isn't through endless preparation. It's through rapid iteration. The magic isn't in getting it right the first time; it's in getting it done and then making it better.

Moving Forward

Speed is a choice. You can choose to move fast, to prioritize learning over planning, to embrace imperfection as a stepping stone to excellence. Or you can choose to wait, to plan, to perfect—and watch as the world moves on without you.

Move fast. Learn faster.