Slow...

As we head into the new year and winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I think about the word "slow" and what that means in my life.

Back when I was doing product design for USA Today, we had a hypothesis about people enjoying longform content, even though staff weren't advised to publish such material (an ad-based business needs eyeballs, after all).

However, we didn't dive in blindly. We had numerous academic papers¹ and internal data that suggested people wanted to consume longer content—that they wanted to sit with the words on the screen longer and absorb them. This desire for deeper engagement reflects a fundamental human need to slow down and process information meaningfully.

It's this same need for deliberate pacing that draws me outdoors. One of my favorite things to do is to be outside, where I can just sit with my thoughts instead of being consumed by the rat race that surrounds us every single day.

Now that it's winter, sometimes slow is forced upon us.

During COVID, slow was a necessity...

Slow wasn't and isn't a bad thing.

Many of the best moments of my life are slow: watching a sunset, sitting on a dock, that deep eye gazing engagement of love from friends and family...

Slow is intentional. Slow is reflective. Slow is humbling.

Slow is, as the turtle would say, "slow and steady wins the race."

I hope this resonates with you as well at the end of this year and may you embrace the slow. Cheers to '25 📣

— Josh https://x.com/_jshmllr

slow

  1. Such academic paper https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2005-07962-005

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