One of my favorite articles is Speed as a Habit by Dave Girouard, the CEO of Upstart. Dave writes that just as software development is agile and products should be iterated quickly, companies should also move fast. I love the simplicity and clarity of thinking.

A few highlights:

  • “When you think about it, all business activity really comes down to two simple things: Making decisions and executing on decisions.”
  • “Speed is a defining characteristic — if not the defining characteristic — of the leader in virtually every industry you look at.”
  • “We’re deeply driven by the belief that fast decisions are far better than slow ones and radically better than no decisions…There are decisions that deserve days of debate and analysis, but the vast majority aren’t worth more than 10 minutes.”

From companies to people

“Speed as a habit” applies to people as well as companies.

When it comes to careers, I’d extend the motto to “speed as a necessity.” If you value your time and your goals, and if you believe that you can make an impact, it’s your responsibility to move fast.

You have limited time and resources, and there’s an opportunity cost to everything you do, so you have to continually assess marginal value versus marginal cost. A few examples of this in my life:

  • When I’m running experiments, there are a dozen paths I can go down. What do I prioritize?
  • When vetting startup ideas, how can I get to the core issue or assumption as quickly as possible? This has been devilishly hard for me, and I don’t have a good answer yet.

Regarding ideation: most ideas are bad. The odds are you’ll need to vet a lot of ideas before you find one worth committing to, so you need to move quickly to maximize throughput.

People often talk about the importance of working smart, which seems like the more clever thing to do, but moving fast is crucial. The world is governed by opportunity cost and tradeoffs. Speed is our way of fighting back.

Note that this applies mainly to career. I’m all for slowing down and smelling the roses in one’s personal life. In fact, I think the ability to quickly and thoroughly toggle from sprint mode to rest mode is important for recharging fully…and preparing your mind and body for the next sprint!