Obvious non-transport analogies aside, this was absolutely my experience when commuting across London by bike. Rushing just stressed you out and didn't really get you anywhere.<p>The same goes for driving. On a highway, you can go as fast as you can (70 in the clear; whatever the vehicle in front is doing when not, so probably averaging low 60s on a moderately busy motorway). This requires a lot of concentration as you need to constantly plot a way forward through the traffic.<p>Or you can sit behind an HGV in lane one and just do 55 all the way. Listen to music or an audiobook maybe.<p>Total journey cost is a few minutes, but you arrive able to function rather then needing a coffee and a calm down to recover from the drive.<p>The benefit is even less in the city as you can aggressively tailgate all you want, but at best you'll get through only a small handful of lights one cycle earlier over the entire journey.
From the Tim Ferris podcast the episode with Hugh Jackman, they are talking about the 85% rule which is about how relaxation is linked to high performance, for example elite athletes don’t tensión going full 100% but just 85% and you’ll go faster than if you think I’ll go full in because you are relaxed you can perform better you use your resources more wisely, nice article.
The idea makes sense for work, but I don't buy that biking leisurely makes you move the same speed. What made the biggest difference for me was training, and the author maybe got faster from all the hard riding before testing the easy riding.<p>I also used to ride that Santa Monica path all the time, and there are some tight turns with sand on the path. Maybe biking hard then wasting energy braking on those turns negatively impacted the time, but idk, there aren't enough of those turns to make a big difference.
The same feeling I had with the car: to go to my girlfriend's house, I have to drive for 40 minutes.
I've always driven that 40 minutes at full 130 km/h speed, stressing about traffic and jumping from lane to lane.
Once I decided to drive differently in the slowest lane, enjoying the ride with a nice podcast, not worrying about the traffic and with an average speed of 110km/h.
The result was that I really enjoyed the ride and it took me ~43 minutes.
Some sports skills, like driving a golf ball or serving in tennis, <i>require</i> relaxation. You hit the ball much harder if you are relaxed than if you try to "muscle it". In tennis, at least, the principle really applies to the whole game. As my coach said, "you won't play well if you're thinking about winning."<p>It reminds me of the Taoist poem by Chuang Tzu that Thomas Merton translated as "The Need to Win":<p>If an archer is shooting for nothing<p>He has all his skill.<p>If he shoots for a brass buckle<p>He is already nervous.<p>If he shoots for a prize of gold<p>He goes blind<p>Or sees two targets—<p>He is out of his mind!<p>His skill has not changed But the prize<p>divides him. He cares.<p>He thinks more of winning<p>Than of shooting—<p>And the need to win<p>Drains him of power.<p>[EDIT: Trying to figure out how to get single-spaced line breaks here. Not much poetry on HN, I guess. :-)]
"When I notice that I’m all stressed out about something or driving myself to exhaustion, I remember that bike ride and try dialing back my effort by 50 percent. It’s been amazing how often everything gets done just as well and just as fast, with what feels like half the effort." -- Listen to Derek Sivers.
This isn’t super surprising. Going 5km/h faster when you’re already going 20km/h takes just as much effort as going those 20km/h in the first place.<p>If you keep pushing yourself to 25km/h at the start, you’ll end your ride exhausted and going 15km/h.
“A pelican flew right over me in Marina del Rey. When I looked up to say ‘wow!’ he shit in my mouth. I can still remember that taste of digested shellfish. I had to laugh at the novelty of it.”
love it, also liked video animation of that essay: <a href="https://youtu.be/amS0u15AL14" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/amS0u15AL14</a>
People who practice playing musical instruments eventually learn something similar. You shouldn't really push hard, you need to be relaxed and then the speed will come. Plus it's also lot more enjoyable.
Related:<p><i>Relax for the Same Result (2015)</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23639404" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23639404</a> - June 2020 (47 comments)
There is a saying in Spanish that perfectly encapsulates the idea of this article: "vísteme despacio que tengo prisa" (dress me slowly, — because — I am in a hurry).