Are you a fast person or a slow person?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I am extremely fast, especially at walking, and I find it very uncomfortable to do things slowly. I really don’t like walking with slow walkers because I feel like I acting out some slow-motion piece and it takes a lot o

I am also extremely decisive and I convey information very quickly and efficiently in person. I have no patience with people that just hem and haw and mull over what I think should be plainly obvious. I am also constantly on the lookout for shortcuts to just about everything. This works out well in my IT consulting career but it causes some personal strife. My wife is a very slow conveyor of information. I will often fly past her on my way to work or something and she will start a story that I know is going to take much longer than it should for the information content. I have to tell her to save it for later.

I will probably drop dead of a heart attack at 45 but I will still do more than the slowpokes do in twice the time.

22

In everyday life, I’m slow. Walk slow, eat slow, speak in well-measured, pear-shaped tones.
At work, I tend to be fast. It’s like an alter ego.

23

I’m definitely a fast person. I count seconds. Like others in this thread, I quickly get impatient with slow walkers in the store blocking the aisle. I am more forgiving when I am with someone who does not walk as fast as I do and I will adjust my pace to match theirs. If I’m on my own, it’s full speed ahead.

I am the same way when it comes to working on any project. I like to work quickly, even if I know that if I slowed down a little I’d probably make fewer mistakes. I just can’t do anything at a mind-numbingly slow pace. Any hobby that requires one to be slow and precise I just can’t do.

Slow drivers really get me fired up. They do my blood pressure no good, but dammit, they’re there right in front of me, taking up all the lanes and holding up the rest of traffic, and they’re in my fucking way! Move your lead-asses over, goddammit! As long as the road is dry and visibility is clear and your car is in working order, there’s absolutely no reason to drive any slower than what the speed limit allows. Okay, maybe some people do have their reasons, fine. Just be considerate of us who like to optimize our time and would rather not waste it putzing around behind some schmuck who is afraid to drive over 45 on the highway and is likely going to make me miss the next light because I couldn’t get past the moron who was holding me back. They call it the “fast lane” for a reason, people. Stay out of it if you’re not going to go at least the speed limit. I’m not an aggressive driver and I don’t zip in and out lanes like an Indy 500 racecar driver, but I just want to get where I am going and do it in the least amount of time legally and safely possible. If I can avoid getting stuck behind a big truck at a red light I will do so, even if there are more cars in the other lane (up to a certain point, after which it won’t make any difference which lane I choose).

In conclusion, I’m a type-A person by nature. I know that living like this might send me to my grave earlier than someone who takes things easy, but at least I will still feel like I have accomplished more in my lifetime than I would have by taking my time at it if I had more years in which to do it. I’ve tried to slow down and take time to smell the roses, but I just can’t do it. My life is always in fast forward mode.

24

Wolf was a New Yorker no matter where he was living. :wink:
I am sure he was transplanted.
dwc1970, slow drivers drive me nuts also. It is a horrible fault I have, but I get very frustrated with the slow drivers.

Jim {LOUNE: I’m an older Yankee fan, it takes a lot of abuse and insults to overcome the smugness of being a 3rd generation fan of the greatest team of all time}

25

I’m all about the fast myself. I’d explain more, but I wanna get done with this post too quickly.

26

Fast. I’ve had people complain that I walk too fast. Blame it on being short but having a dad who’s 6’2" - if I didn’t walk fast, I never would have kept up as a kid! Having to walk slowly upsets me in a way I don’t think I can put into words. I guess it just feels wrong. I swear, loudly, at people who refuse to do the speed limit during rush hour traffic; I think the drive to work each morning is the only thing that keeps my heart pumping, since despite being a high strung person, my blood pressure is low-normal.

And I guess I speak fairly quickly, but what person in the North East doesn’t? I think fairly quickly, enough to impress my bosses anyway, but part of that is because I’m observant and a perpetual contingency planner, so it’s easy to seem to spout off a solution at the drop of the hat.

27

I’m a quick study, slow mover, speedy thinker, fast talker and patient lover.

The only thing I average is my ability to admit when I’m wrong.

28

I am most definitely fast.

I walk fast. I’ve received many comments from others about how quickly I walk. I don’t notice it in that I never feel like I’m rushing. My most comfortable gait is one that’s a bit faster than most other people’s.

I talk fast. Many people are confused because I have a strong mid western accent yet I talk as fast as a New Yorker (or so the stereotype goes–I haven’t noticed New Yorkers talking particularly quickly). I give a lot of presentations and have to make a concious effort to slow down.

I type very fast. I don’t know how many words per minute I am now since I haven’t tested myself in years. I know I won the junior high typing contest and I’ve only gotten faster. Co workers often comment on how quickly I’m hitting the keys when they hear me typing.

My writing is extremely fast. When I have a presentation, memo, or other item to prepare, I sit down, plan what I’ll say in an outline, then bang it out at lightning speed. Many people agonize over the wording or exhibits for hours or even days before they start a draft. Not me, it’s done right away. However, I do go over it and over it again leading to many rewrites. For me, thinking about what I want to say, writing it exactly as it comes to me, and then revising it (many, many times) leads to a much better quality piece then agonizing over the precise wording before I even put something down. I can agonize over the wording later in the rewrites.

I am the queen of speed in the check out line or at the ATM. In the check out line, I have my items organized to minimize clerk/bagger time (including the self checkouts). My payment is ready and waiting before the clerk is ready for it. I put my items in my cart as I’m waiting for a credit card to clear or the clerk is making change. At the ATM, I press those buttons the instant the machine allows me to do so. None of this looking, looking, looking for what to do. I’m pretty familar with ATMs by now. I’m fast cash all the way and I can get that PIN typed in a mili second!

The only thing I don’t do quickly is drive. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been involved in too many serious accidents (the most serious have been as a passenger). I usually drive about 5 - 10 mph over the speed limit (depending on condition and location; I don’t drive much over the limit in bad weather or when the limit is only 25 mph to begin with).

The odd thing is, I’m not really an impatient person. I just like to maximize efficiency! For example, I have nothing better to do while waiting in a check out line. Why not get my items and payment ready?

29

Most definitely fast. I’ve only met a handful of people who naturally walk as quickly as I do. Walking through a mall or at a carnival is sheer agony for me because of all the stopping and starting and shuffle-footed walking.

I use my ATM card at the supermarket because I can punch in the numbers before everything has even been scanned, and so I’m waiting to go with a full cart of bagged groceries by the time the clerk hands me my receipt.

My time on the west coast (and less quickly admitted to, age) has slowed me down a little, but not nearly enough to be considered slow. The day that happens, you can just go ahead and put me down.

30

There are a lot of people on the SDMB that believe themselves to be in the highest tiers of walking ability. I think it is time for a showdown.

Just to warn you, I started wearing leg weights under my work clothes to slow myself down. It worked for a little but then the muscles grew. I have lots of torque off the line now.

31

I think I detect a trend here among us Dopers…

32

I’m fast. I do lots of things fast, and it drives me mad when people don’t keep up. When I worked in an office as an admin assistant there were two of us, but I’d end up doing 75% of the work because the other guy was a real bumbler. He left and was replaced with another person, who, while slow at the routine stuff, was really REALLY good at the stuff that demanded patience, so we ended up splitting the work by frustration level rather than volume, and we were both happy.

Right now I have an admin assistant for my English school, and while she is pure gold in every other way, she is so SLOW. When we do stuff like making up student packages together, I have done my half in the time it’s taken her to get her stacks of paper and equipment just so. And asking her to write a newsletter - it takes her all day and Japanese is her native language. It is not that she is slacking either, she is working to the best of her ability and the final product is always good. I have learned that I simply must walk away and not watch or one day my head will explode.

I walk fast too but married a man who also walks fast so now it’s our poor kids who fly along in our wake!

33

So, when are we going to make a distinction between being “fast” and being “organized”?

34

Fast
Nobody but my brothers and sisters could keep up with me. They learned to be fast because they had to if they came with me instead of staying home.

35

Organization is one strategy to help one become faster and more efficient. There is no virtue in being organized by itself outside of that goal.

36

Zoom. Minimal therbligs. Long legs, fast car. Used to be a courier. My life is against me being Molasses Girl… Talk quickly but clearly, think faster than most by all accounts. The only time I get slow is sometimes when I’m screwing, usually when I’m reading a good book, getting my back rubbed or when I get all zoned in to the computer, otherwise I’m pretty much on the go.

Withal, I’m a champion procrastinator when I don’t keep on top of the tendency!

37

Slow.
What’s the rush?

The joy is in the doing, not in having done it.

38

Fast, definitely fast. Hate slow walkers. Hate slow drivers. But I must admit that I’m not moving as fast as I used to.

39

I don’t talk more quickly than anyone else from the East Coast, but I do tend to speak concisely and with a minimum of “ahs” or “ums.” So I will get annoyed by people who take forever to get a complete sentence out, and/or by people who take forever to get to the point. :slight_smile:

Frankly, I’m a little surprised: I expected the results to be more even. No idea why I’d have that expectation, but I did!

I see no correlation: being compelled to walk/drive fast and being organized have nothing to do with each other, IMO.

Well, for me the joy is in the fast doing. :wink: Like I said, it’s not about being in a hurry or wanting to be done – it’s about preferring to do certain things quickly.

40

Well, some people are fast because they have things prepared before they get to their destination.

The correlation becomes more apparent.