World of Impatience: Too Many Things are TOO Slow for TOO Many People!

I suppose I should preface this post by saying that I am generally a very laid back and ”Zen” sort of person. I am definitely not someone who flits about like a fly in a bottle, impatiently waiting for ”the next thing to HAPPEN.”

Whereas I am open to the possibility that these feelings are just a natural part of aging, it seems to me like people have less and less patience with pretty much everything in their lives and environments.

Nobody seems willing to wait for anything, anymore… whether it’s a 5-star meal at a fine restaurant or their delivery of something they just ordered from Amazon. We want things NOW, dammit!

Frankly, I find it both a bit unnerving as well as sad.

We have an old truism or saying in Danish: ”Hastværk er lastværk.”

Loosely translated it means that having to rush is a burden. Although it mostly refers to having to rush with things you work at, it also applies to life in general having to be somewhere in a hurry having to do something in a hurry. The further implication is that the more you have to rush, the more likely you are to make mistakes and produce something of poor quality. In other words, rushing is also a burden on others because they end up with crap in response to their impatience.

That leads to a new set of problems in the form of ”Why is my 5-star dinner not any good?" and the answer being ”because you expect it to arrive at a McDonalds pace!”

The saying is similar to the English "Haste makes waste" except for also including the psychological effects of rushing.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that Denmark tends to be a slower culture than the United States. However I relate deeply to that truism. And it also accounts for why I am not willing to take rush jobs when — for example — I do editing work for people. To be honest, I turn away a substantial amount of work — even potentially well paying work — because authors want their 300-page book manuscripts edited in a few days. It took them two years to get it written, but now it has to be published… YESTERDAY!

When I tell them that a professional in depth editing job with fact checking and source verifications will take 3-4 weeks, many get very unhappy and start telling me how they found a student in India who's willing to "do it" in three days for a fraction of what I am asking.

Most of the time, I don't argue, and merely suggest that I am probably the wrong person for the job.

Aside from the fact that deadlines and having to rush stresses me out, the reason I stay away from it is that I can't do a good job when I have to rush. And it just goes against my nature to give people schlock work for a good amount of money. It also goes against my basic nature to give people schlock work to begin with.

Maybe that makes me a bit obsolete in today's rushed world. That said, the world always tells me that I need to stand by my values. So that's what I do.

Regardless, it does make me a bit sad to think that I am just too slow for the world.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Do you prefer things around you to be fast paced? Are you patient... or impatient? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210602 00:05 PDT
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