One of the drivers of the speedaholic culture is our vexed relationship with time itself. Why is there never enough time? What is the best way to use time? Can we slow it down? Or speed it up? What exactly is time? An Italian graphic designer has now launched an intriguing project that tackles some of these questions visually. She is inviting people of all ages from around the world to submit a drawing that depicts the passage of time. Already hundreds have submitted their vision of time’s winged chariot in motion. Some are easy enough to deciper: a watch on a wrist; a cafeti√®re pouring coffee into a cup; an arrow flying through the air. Others are more enigmatic: undulating waves; a series of bubbles; lines coiled into the shape of a wind-sock. The site really gets you thinking about time and how to relate to it. It’s also fun to see other people’s take on it. Check out the site by clickingVisualization of Time Project. And while you’re there, why not take a little time to send in your own portrait?
Category: Blog
The backlash begins?
The other day as we were driving through a neighbourhood not far from our home in south London I saw a young man walking along the pavement wearing a T-shirt that caught my eye. It was baggy and white, and the black lettering across the chest screamed: Slow Sucks. My wife and I had a good laugh, but I wanted to know more so I leaned out of the car and tried to engage the man in conversation at the traffic lights – not exactly normal behaviour in London. He must have thought I was a freak, or a debt collector, because he put his head down and started speed-walking in the other direction. Who was the mysterious Slow-baiter? Where did he get that T-shirt? If anyone can shed any light on this, do drop me a line…
Slow Mandarin
I don’t speak the language, but I am told there is a word in Mandarin, “kuai-huo, ” that means “cheerful” or “thrilled.” It is made up of two characters whose literal meaning is “fast living.” When In Praise came out in Taiwan last year, the publisher coined a new word for the title: “man-huo,” which means “slow living.” Apparently, “man-huo” has now entered the Taiwanese vernacular, with people using it as shorthand to describe a better way of doing pretty much everything.
Maybe I’ll try it out on the waitresses at our local dim sum restaurant in London. Sometimes they could do with putting on the brakes a little….
From the beach in Bahia
I lived in Brazil long ago, and even then felt a strong pull to visit Bahia. Spicy food, colonial architecture, colourful folkloric dress, music everywhere – my kind of place. The Bahian people are also famous for being friendly, relaxed and unhurried – for being the slowest people in Brazil, in other words. At the moment, I’m at Praia do Forte, an eco-resort in Bahia, telling a gathering of Brazilian CIOs why they need to slow down. Maybe it’s the warm wind blowing in from the sea, maybe it’s the steady stream of caipirinhas, or maybe it’s something in the Bahian air, but they seem to like the idea.
We DON’T need that yesterday
The Slow philosophy seems to be making inroads in the corporate world of the Baltic states. Before my talk yesterday in Riga, Latvia, a manager from UPS, the delivery company, told me that businesses in the region no longer insist on shipping everything as fast as possible. In the 1990s, demand for late-night and weekend deliveries was brisk. But now most UPS deliveries occur during normal working hours. His conclusion: Baltic companies have realized that many shipments can wait till tomorrow, or even till Monday. Staff are also less willing to put up with work hassles outside the office. Amen to that.
My final Baltic talk is this afternoon here in Tartu, Estonia….
Baltic slow
Just arrived in Vilnius on the first stop of a talking tour of the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. This part of the world is racing along to catch up with the rest of the West. Everyone is in a hurry and schedules are packed to bursting point. One of the first ads I saw screamed: “I love life in the fast lane.” Yet already the idea of putting on the brakes is catching on with the locals – even the most impatient ones. I have been invited here to talk about the Slow philosophy by an organization called FastLeader.com….
Iceland takes the plunge
I’m in Iceland at the moment singing the praises of slow. This may be a small country – the population is about 300,000 – but the virus of hurry has entered the bloodstream here, too. In Reykjavik people race around in their cars jabbering into mobile phones. Everyone has a packed schedules and the working day is long. But at least Icelanders have an antidote: soaking in the outdoor pools that dot the country. In one complex near my hotel in Reykjavik, people of all ages, shapes, sizes and income-brackets come to soak in the warm water underneath the northern sky. There are no Plasma screens showing CNN, no speakers pumping out muzak or MTV and everyone leaves their mobile and Blackberry at the door. You just relax, let the mind wander or chat quietly. The best kind of slow.
A cure for vacationitis?
The aversion to taking a vacation has gone so far that big companies are now looking for ways to force their staff to take a break. A recent report in the New York Times reveals that PricewaterhouseCoopers has taken to closing down its entire US operation twice a year to ensure that its employees down tools. Everything stops at the well-known accounting firm for 10 days over Christmas and five days around the Fourth of July. During the year, the company also sends electronic reminders to staff who are failing to take enough vacation time. Posters depicting idle days away from the desk now hang in its New York office. One high-ranking member of the firm says that “we wanted to create an environment where people could walk away and not worry about missing a meeting, a conference call or 300 e-mails.” Not surprisingly, productivity is up since the new push for vacation.
And if PricewaterhouseCoopers can do it, then….
Chinese takeaway
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If you think speed-dating is rushed in the West, just consider the hurry-up approach to romance in China. In the country’s bustling cities, young people are now so busy that they have no time to look for Mr or Ms Right. The solution: group dating. In China, though, ‘group’ does not mean 30 singletons flirting over scorecards in a pub. At a recent event in Zhejiang, 12,658 people turned up looking for love. That’s an awful lot of potential mates to sift through in an evening. No wonder some female participants report that the only phone numbers they come home with are those of other single women looking for a shoulder to cry on.
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Slow vacation
We’ve just come back from the ultimate slow holiday – travelling round Holland by barge and bicycle. I can’t think of a better way to see a country. Pedalling through the countryside and villages, stopping to picnic or sightsee or join in a pick-up soccer game. Cycling offers the perfect speed, fast enough to cover lots of ground, slow enough to take in the details. In the evenings you can smell suppers cooking as you glide past the open kitchen windows. Our unorthodox tandem sparked more than one conversation with the locals. Holland is amazingly bike-friendly, with dedicated cycle paths all over the place, even in the cities. The Dutch cycle everywhere. In Amsterdam you see businessmen in smart suits pedalling home from work. Or elegant women in high-heels cycling off to meet friends for lunch. Even bad weather doesn’t put them off. If only the rest of the world would follow suit. Imagine if you could cycle round London without fear of being squashed by a bus or an SUV. No one in Holland wears a cycling helmet, by the way. Apart from the tourists.