Being speedy is an experientially engaging state to be in. It’s easily one of the most generic and convenient factors to come to mind when thinking of optimizing processes. I learned how to touch type 8 years ago to look cool when programming; I practiced speed reading for a month, aggressively, around 6 years ago so that I could consume a larger corpus of literature in a given duration. Apart from those, I generically invested in a lot of skills along the lines of speeding up my operations and being more efficient.
After 26+ years of somewhat serious cognitive work, with a certain minimum threshold of focus, the most important skill that helped me accelerate my progress was deliberately slowing down.
It’s one of those realizations that my younger and unwiser self did not anticipate I would have.
