On Thinking Slowly
We live in a culture that rewards speed. Respond faster, ship sooner, decide now. But the most consequential decisions — the ones that shape careers, companies, and lives — almost always benefit from slowing down. This post is a case for thinking slowly and deliberately.
Key points
- Speed is overrated for high-stakes decisions
- Slow thinking reduces costly errors
- Creating space for reflection is a competitive advantage
- The best thinkers are patient, not passive
The speed trap
When everything moves fast, slowness feels like falling behind. But speed without direction is just motion. Many of the mistakes I have made in my career came from deciding too quickly — not from a lack of information, but from a lack of time to process it.
There is a difference between being responsive and being reactive. Responsive means you have thought about it and chosen to act. Reactive means the situation chose for you.
What slow thinking looks like
Slow thinking is not procrastination. It is structured:
- Pause before responding to anything high-stakes
- Write your thoughts out — messy is fine
- Sleep on it when the decision is irreversible
- Ask one more question before committing
These habits are simple but remarkably hard to maintain when the pressure is on.
The cost of fast decisions
Consider a simple example. You receive a job offer. The salary is good, the title is impressive, and they want an answer by Friday. Everything in your environment pushes you to say yes.
But what if you took a week?
A week of thinking rarely costs you the opportunity. A decade of regret always costs you more.
In that week you might discover the role is not what you imagined. You might realise the commute is unsustainable. You might find a better option you had not considered.
Making space
The hardest part of slow thinking is creating the conditions for it:
- Block time in your calendar with nothing scheduled
- Take walks without headphones
- Keep a notebook for questions you are not ready to answer
These practices sound trivial. They are not. They are the infrastructure of good decisions.
Thinking slowly is not a luxury. It is a discipline. In a world addicted to speed, patience is a genuine edge.