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Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

navyseal.com

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Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#51

Post by borski »

maxioatic wrote: post #45
borski wrote: post #18

This is one of the first really important lessons you learn in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Everyone walks in, day one, and is dumping adrenaline everywhere they look. I mean, the person in front of you is literally engaging you in practicing murder, so I get it. Everyone starts that way. Super tense, super shallow breathing, and everyone wears themselves out in about 30-40 seconds. Of a 6 minute round. Doesn’t matter if you…

Same thing with Olympic weightlifting. This is a very common phrase in my gym. Snatching has got to be the most humbling barbell movement ever. Dudes who can easily bench over 100 kg (220 lbs) would never get to close snatching that. (Myself included, but hopefully one day)

I know nothing about Olympic weightlifting! What makes snatching so unique and humbling?

Aside: you don’t have to, but a one sentence definition of it would be awesome too - my lifting has been limited to the classic stuff, no fancy Olympic “bend and snap” stuff ;)

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#52

Post by jameshart »

borski wrote: post #31
lubujackson wrote: post #5

"Pants on fire" startups would do well to learn from this... a whole lot less stress and better results vs. slamming out midnight patches.

Sometimes urgency does matter; for example, when I ran Tinfoil, we got a lot of good press from being the first ones to release a public vulnerability checker for things like Heartbleed and so on, and it was a common reason we made sales. Getting those out within 12-24h was an intentional part of our model, because our competition would take a week, so it was trivial to make them look bad. That said, it was extremely…

‘Slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ is a mantra about how to go fast. I’ve heard it in a number of contexts - racing drivers use it, so do woodworkers, so do musicians. None of the people using it are trying to tell you to not try to get things done fast. Speed is still the goal, it’s just about the approach you take in how you act moment to moment, while trying to get things done fast.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#53

Post by tom_ »

josh-sematic wrote: post #27
zarmin wrote: post #15

Good lord, 99% of the words in that article were unnecessary.

They were taking it slow.

And slow is smooth... and smooth is fast. Just think how much longer the article would have been if they'd used fewer words.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#54

Post by borski »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #47
borski wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes urgency does matter; for example, when I ran Tinfoil, we got a lot of good press from being the first ones to release a public vulnerability checker for things like Heartbleed and so on, and it was a common reason we made sales. Getting those out within 12-24h was an intentional part of our model, because our competition would take a week, so it was trivial to make them look bad. That said, it was extremely…

I think your example is largely a good, valid reason to move fast. It’s a short lived, time sensitive event with clear outcomes and low ambiguity. The problem comes when you’re tackling large, ambiguous problems.

Yes, agreed completely. “All hands on deck” can work really well for time sensitive things like this, but… it has to end relatively quickly, there must be a reprieve afterward (celebrate, take a day off, something), and it can’t happen all the time.

If it happens all the time, nobody will pay any attention to it when it actually matters.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#55

Post by agumonkey »

roughly wrote: post #13

Especially as I've gotten older, I've noticed I do less work more slowly than my younger peers, but I only have to do it once, and I usually get closer to the root than my younger colleagues. Measure twice and all that.

Long ago a cousin challenged the uncle for a swim. Both are acceptable athletes. He started faster, was ahead for 50m or so and then came back cooked. The uncle started 30% slower... but he kept at that rhythm forever until we couldn't see him and came back unphased. Very telling lesson.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#56

Post by skobes »

CephalopodMD wrote: post #49

Does this read to anybody else like it was written by gpt? Super repetitive with awkward organization and prosy style.

Yes, the article is pure noise. There's nothing there beyond the title, which seems to be what most of the commenters want to talk about.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#57

Post by borski »

jameshart wrote: post #52
borski wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes urgency does matter; for example, when I ran Tinfoil, we got a lot of good press from being the first ones to release a public vulnerability checker for things like Heartbleed and so on, and it was a common reason we made sales. Getting those out within 12-24h was an intentional part of our model, because our competition would take a week, so it was trivial to make them look bad. That said, it was extremely…

‘Slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ is a mantra about how to go fast . I’ve heard it in a number of contexts - racing drivers use it, so do woodworkers, so do musicians. None of the people using it are trying to tell you to not try to get things done fast . Speed is still the goal, it’s just about the approach you take in how you act moment to moment, while trying to get things done fast.

Amen. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#59

Post by borski »

agumonkey wrote: post #55
roughly wrote: post #13

Especially as I've gotten older, I've noticed I do less work more slowly than my younger peers, but I only have to do it once, and I usually get closer to the root than my younger colleagues. Measure twice and all that.

Long ago a cousin challenged the uncle for a swim. Both are acceptable athletes. He started faster, was ahead for 50m or so and then came back cooked. The uncle started 30% slower... but he kept at that rhythm forever until we couldn't see him and came back unphased. Very telling lesson.

This is a really big problem for me in general, actually. I have ADHD, and so my brain is always telling me to go faster, so that I can get the dopamine hit and move on to other things.

It has to be extremely intentional for me to remind myself that pace matters. I really envy those who can just do that naturally; my wife is one of those people.

Meanwhile, when I forget, I find myself 25 minutes into what was going to be an hour-long strength/lifting workout… in the bathroom at the gym throwing up.

And then I remember to pace myself for like a year or two until I forget again haha

Re: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast: Navy SEALs' efficiency secret

#60

Post by throw7 »

As with all catchphrases, it's a type of truism. Not that that's bad per se, just that it's better to takeaway that by going slow, you'll be better at identifying, planning, and avoiding "blunders".

The tradeoff is: you're going slow. (c.f. Uvalde)

There's a kind of corollary on how to get fast from music: you practice as slow as you can perfectly play the etude, then go one step faster until that is perfectly played.

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