Alligator Energy & The Benefits of Working Slowly

Cover Photo by Appolinary Kalashnikova on Unsplash

For years in the startup community or the working world in general, doing things fast has been given a preference over doing slow work. As a person who does work slowly and more methodically, you may feel that the world is against you. However, doing slow work actually works to your benefit in more cases.

Frantic Energy vs Focussed Work

One has a limited amount of continuous energy to do/accomplish things
throughout the day. You can either focus it on a single task and finish it end-to-end or push several half-finished tasks that may break when being put to the test. So, it’s better to focus your energy on one task and finishing it rather than frantically burning through your 'To Do' list and ending with unfinished tasks.

This doesn't mean the philosophy of parallel work doesn't work. You just have to be more deliberate about trying to bring things to completion and even waiting a day or two to maybe come back to that task later on.

Brute Forcing vs Thinking About Solution

The classic "hard worker mindset" elucidates that continuously working hard on a problem without taking a break means that you will find the solution. However, the best/most optimum solution always ends up coming out during the downtime.

That's why the trope of one ends up realizing the source of the bug or the solution of the problem when in the shower. The downtime ironically makes your brain work faster. Hence, it's better to find the door rather than bang your head against the wall to leave the room.

Alligator Energy

Moving slowly also means you end up collecting a lot of latent energy; this is the energy that you use to move forward in a large jump, accomplishing multiple things in one go (like an alligator).

Another place where I personally notice this is when we are completing a large number of tasks that look like they aren’t accomplishing anything. When all of the jigsaw pieces of the project fall in place, people finally see the big picture being completed and understand the smaller, more insignificant tasks.

In other words, "move slow and preserve things".

Dang (HN) on Alligator Energy

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