Seth's Blog : Top speed is overrated

The Amtrak Acela is capable of going well over a hundred miles an hour. And yet, it's not unusual for a 90-mile ride on the Acela to be only three or four minutes shorter than it would be on a more traditional train. I can drive my Prius from NY to ...

Top speed is overrated

The Amtrak Acela is capable of going well over a hundred miles an hour.

And yet, it’s not unusual for a 90-mile ride on the Acela to be only three or four minutes shorter than it would be on a more traditional train.

I can drive my Prius from NY to Syracuse faster than I can fly there. Even though a plane has been engineered to have a much higher top speed, the door to door costs of travel (security theatre, parking, checking in, the rest of the last mile once I land) aren’t impacted at all by the top speed of the chosen form of transport.

Top speed is easy to measure and fun to work on. But for most of the people you work with, there are dozens of factors that matter more than the easily measured versions of top speed that are talked about.

Fix the systems first. Look at the overhead of context switching. Bravery, empathy and other real skills matter for more than horsepower.

   

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Seth's Blog : Slow is relative

In between the holidays, it all seems to slow down. Most days, there is little traffic on the road (or on websites). Fewer products launched, fewer inbound emails, fewer things to check off a todo list. And yet, if someone in 1820 had lived at the pace ...

Slow is relative

In between the holidays, it all seems to slow down. Most days, there is little traffic on the road (or on websites). Fewer products launched, fewer inbound emails, fewer things to check off a todo list.

And yet, if someone in 1820 had lived at the pace we live in December 2019, she would probably have dropped dead from exhaustion.

A store in New York that feels slow this time of year might be recording record traffic if it had the same turnout in Scottsdale or Tempe.

Two things are true: The world is faster and crazier than it has ever been before. And the world is as slow and predictable as it will ever be again.

Bustle and crises are local conditions.

 

PS The last week of the year is quiet, which leaves time for new plans, new learning and new opportunities. I hope you’ll consider signing up for the ninth session of The Marketing Seminar (it begins in a few weeks, but if you visit today, you can sign up for updates). You can find my Udemy courses here as well.

   

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