# Why are slow people slow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 17, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459 "2010-12-17T02:14:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/101 "2015-07-09T10:36:04Z")
Dude, it took you a year to find this thread? ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/102 "2015-07-09T13:11:36Z")
> [@Daryl\_Mc.Donald](#): > > I am slow both physically and mentally, i have been like this since birth. It affected my schooling years resulting in poor grading. It gives people the impression that i’m not so smart, but of course that is not just true. > > And physically, i find it hard to hold on to a job because i can never keep up with everybody else, so i have lost a lot of jobs. So as a result of that i have spent most of my working life unemployed. > . > . > . > I’m 56 years old now, i’ve given up all hope. Not all jobs require quick movements. Maybe you could have been something like a philosophy professor, a fire lookout, a Maytag repairman or a security guard. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/103 "2015-07-09T13:21:28Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Dude, it took you a year to find this thread? Check back next year for a reply. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/104 "2015-07-09T13:36:33Z")
Some slow people think they have a right to move at their own pace. When I cashier, the line can be 12 people long and some people will ask you to check prices on 12 different items, make you rebag them, take forever to dig out a credit card and/or cash, insist on going through 12 different cards and/or correct change before paying you, insist on putting everything back in the right place, digging out their car keys, and then decide to send a text or phone cvall before leaving! They don’t believe in going fast, and think they have a right to hold up the world. ---
**Author:** ![Daryl\_Mc.Donald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Daryl\_Mc.Donald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daryl_Mc.Donald)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/105 "2015-07-11T04:10:35Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Not all jobs require quick movements. Maybe you could have been something like a philosophy professor, a fire lookout, a Maytag repairman or a security guard. Yes GreenElf that would be nice to get a job that is not fast paced, and something autonomous because i’m not team orientated like most jobs here are. The best job i ever saw advertised was spending six months alone at the South Pole monitoring and sending weather reports and things like that, but there were hundreds of applications for that job, i didn’t stand a chance of getting that one. But jobs are very hard to get, so rather than staying unemployed all the time, the best i can do is get jobs that i’m not suited for. Sometimes i lose the job within days, sometimes within months. I do that because who wants to stay unemployed, plus the extra money is always a nice boost to the budget. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/106 "2015-07-11T06:22:28Z")
I knew a husband and wife who were lucky to have found each other. They were so incredibly slow that they would have driven anybody else crazy. Not mentally–they were both smart. But physically, they were v e r y s l o o o o w. I did occasional yard work and so forth for them. When this lady wrote a check, it would take her about 5 minutes. Their daughter moves slower than 95% of the population, but she’s a speed demon compared to her parents. They both lived into their 90’s. But I think they only managed about 20 years worth of work at normal speeds. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/107 "2015-07-11T06:29:48Z")
One occasionally encounters elderly people at the store. They often move slowly and stop periodically. I try to be respectful of their gray hairs. But do NOT: 1. Pull partway into the parking lot and then stop to scan for parking places, Grandpa. My ass is out in TRAFFIC, here! 2. Position yourself EXACTLY IN THE MIDDLE of the lane, in such a way that one cannot politely pass you without pushing past you, or stop cold to try and remember what you were doing IN A CHOKE POINT. I once got SUCH a look from an elderly couple when they decided to stop and discuss where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do… …at the top of an escalator. Sorry, folks, but when YOU chose the stopping point and I am brought into you by mechanical forces, do NOT look at me like I just peed in your purse. It was either that, or walk backwards into the folks behind me, Granny… ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/108 "2015-07-11T13:53:13Z")
Possibly a sub-type of OCD and/or anxiety disorder? I had a friend who did even mundane tasks like molasses squeezed through honey. It was because she was so afraid of losing control or making a mistake – to state that she approached everything with great deliberateness is an understatement. ---
**Author:** ![Curid1992](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Curid1992](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curid1992)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/109 "2015-07-11T19:44:35Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Perhaps he simply doesn’t care about what he is doing? Not everyone has a job they enjoy you know. This. If it’s at work and it’s something you don’t want to do, of course people are going to be very, very slow. However, I am not a slow person, so I couldn’t see myself being that slow. If they are as slow outside work as they are inside work, we have a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/110 "2015-07-11T23:30:40Z")
My sister and I are fast walkers, apparently. Our respective partners are not, at least relatively. However, my sister’s boyfriend is nine inches taller than she is, so it evens things out a bit, but I have ten inches on my girlfriend, which exacerbates the problem. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/111 "2015-07-11T23:45:34Z")
I am a stickler for efficiency of movement, I don’t move real fast but I finish tasks extremely fast. I have to be up by 4 am so I can do all my reading and answer e emails. I have to be out of the house by 6 am sharp so I can be sure to finish any tasks that I have assigned unnecessary deadlines to. If all my self assigned jobs are done by 12 pm my gift is to be able to work for a couple more hours totally unorganized. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459/112 "2015-07-12T18:27:35Z")
I have noticed three differnt usages of slow in this thread. 1. Intellectually slow which the OP explicitly wasn’t interested in. 2. Deliberate people that were slow in their actions or decisions. 3. Those that are physically stuck in 2nd gear which fits me and my offspring. We get outpaced by snails when we go for a walk. I’ve noticed my wife and daughter are faster walkers and also don’t have flat feet like my sons and I. My eldest son was tested early on and had very mild disability which I suspect his male siblings also have though we didn’t bother to get them diagnosed. I tried to teach them and myself to at least walk at a pace that gets your arms swinging naturally, not forcing them. I work in the maintenance department of a large industrial facility. Walking is all I do. Typically I take a bit longer than others to arrive unless I remember to pick up the pace. I use the time going from call to call to mentally diagnose and have ready made solutions to most of issues that may cause the problem before I get there. Makes me look like a genius. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-slow-people-slow/564459.md?page=5)