On writing fast

I finished reading this article about typing fast. Well, more precisely about writing fast. The outline of the article is that if you write fast you think fast. Sometimes fast is not our best bet. I’d argue most of the time isn’t. We run mostly on autopilot already, according to the research exposed by Robert Cialdini in his seminal work Influence, the psychology of persuasion. Humans have an automatic action system. It’s based on automatic stereotype behavior which has resulted in the most efficient form of behaving. “we need shortcuts, we don't have the time, energy or capacity for it. Instead we must very often use our stereotypes and our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly”. Many of us are unconscious of this automatic behavior pattern that seems to be a tenant of our survival but that also makes us marionettes to them. And it gives an advantage to those who know it and exploit it to their benefit. The work of Cialdini is not limited to automatic patterns, but the main principles that influence how we are persuaded. For all the rapid growth of our society, and our ever-shortening attention spans, what the work or Cialdini highlights is the importance to pause and think, to disrupt the trance in which we constantly run to contrarrest that “We exist in an extraordinary complicated stimulus environment easily the most rapidly moving and complex that have ever existed in this planet ”. 

Thinking fast, typing fast, writing fast tend to be traits assigned to extraverts type A personalities. Susan Cain, in her book Quiet, the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking argues that modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to "a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness".

One expectation that lies under when we imply fast thinking is the environment in which it occurs. Are we expecting fast thinking on a campaign trail after a pernicious detail about a candidate has come to the surface a day before election day, or possibly in a software company that suddenly their servers stopped working? Or are we expecting to happen in conversations and outside urgent prescribed tasks? I have had to respond to urgent requests to fix a software many times and think quickly on my feet not only finding the problem and possible solution but also having managers and technology CTOs sweating my neck for status updates. It’s not that I don't consider thinking and writing fast a good skill to have, it's that I consider the implications of the promotion of it freely to be dangerous and wasteful. Many problems require more thinking than that to consider quickly. Good writing (at least typing) can come fast, but only because the ideas on the head are flowing fast. Cain has stated that we cannot be in a group of people without instinctively mirroring each other, and groups follow the most charismatic person, even though there is no correlation between being a good speaker and having great ideas. The same way, there’s no correlation, I think, between writing fast and being a good writer or a good thinker. Look at G.R Martin for an example. Some writers write fast, some writers write slow, some are not good thinkers but determined to write and have passed to history because of it. The speed at which we process information should give no clue at the quality of the processing. Moreover, establishing expectations of speed might discourage those who don’t see themselves as fast to even try in the first place since they don’t match the description. This is particularly true for BIPOC who tend to try to match the most qualifications as possible when self qualifying for a position to which writing is one example. Speed might come later or not, but the value is in the act of thinking, pausing and consciously choosing to bring your ideas, your writing, your truth to the world. I wrote this “fast” but only because this is a subject I felt compelled and passionate about. The ideas flowed easily. Maybe writing fast is a matter of having the ideas already organized.