On speed

On the bike and online, there are basically two main levers you can pull to get faster: weight and power.

On the bike, it’s basic physics. The lighter you and your gear are, the less effort it takes to move. That’s why cyclists drool out over carbon frames and all things titanium—less weight means more speed for the same power output. However the rider is always many times heavier than the bike, the most gain was to be made from the human losing weigh. By the same process, fitness always improves, more speed. Then e-bikes showed. Now, anyone can pay for power. You don’t need to be fit or ride a TT bike to hit 25mph. Since you don’t have to consider fitness, most don’t.

The same thing happened on the web. It used to be that speed came from clean code, optimized images, less dependencies. You had to make things lean to make them fast. That was the “old-school best practices” mindset.

But these days you can just pay for speed. Today there is a whole industry built around making sites load fast. It doesn’t matter how bloated your page is, if you stack CDNs, edge delivery, prerendering and all sort of trickery, that’ll be fast, strictly speaking.

But here’s the thing: does making a heavy unhealthy thing fast actually make sense? Do most people need a carbon road bike? Not really. If you’re commuting, getting groceries, or just cruising around, 20mph is plenty. Maybe 28-30mph if you’re feeling spicy. Similarly, no website absolutely needs a sub 1s first paint.

But we’ve convinced ourselves otherwise. Some influential group said “it has to be lightning fast” and now we’re all chasing performance badges. Capitalism eats that up every time there’s a shiny new thing to buy that makes the problem disappear (on the surface).

It’s worth remembering you always trade control for speed. On the bike, the faster you go, the more you need to focus—everything gets twitchy and riskier. Same deal online. When you’re buying speed, you’re often adding layers of complexity. More services, more config, more stuff that can break or slow down in other ways. We’re moving faster than ever and getting used to a less and less control. We like speed and forget to consider if it is worth it.

I wanted to close with something pithy about how obvious it is we’re going too fast, hands off the handlebar. When conditions are dodgy (I’d argue AI is one such curve ball), it’s always a good idea to slow down to regain a bit of control. Perhaps starting by getting leaner could be a good idea. Be less extractive and more aware. But then I’m inching into productivity talk, which I’d rather avoid. Like most commentary, this could be spun against itself. That’s the zen of it all.

There are many aspects of life that are unproductive and sluggish, and yet necessary. Some want to speed up the unpleasant hoping to make more room for the good stuff. It’s that logic that lead some think that being an interplanetary species make sense. Speed is inherent to growth. What grows achieves its purpose faster with iteration–creatures and machines. But that assumes the purpose is clear. As for websites, bikes, or the fate of our species, it is a matter of opinion. Our ability to be fast in almost everything has, indirectly, left me feeling unfulfilled, lost in the commotion.

It takes a non trivial effort to slow down. Maybe it always has. We’re still humans, still wired the same way. New triggers, same condition.

← Index / Published on 2025-06-11