[[🧠 (Hub) My Big Fuzzy Ideas]] # Be a cool turtle A mantra from [[Frank Chimero]] related to the [[The value of working slowly]]. The following is copy pasted from Frank's email so I can reference it more easily. I want to write my own interpretation of this soon. --- ### Some Thoughts on Turtles & Slowness A couple of unexpected things have happened since opening AOK: 1. Many people bought shirts with turtles on them. 2. My friends want to talk to me about turtles. Why turtles? Good question. It comes from a conversation with a friend at a bar a few months back. Most of my time this year has been fallow: I left my work schedule partially unbooked to catch my breath after a couple years in Startupland. I kept the extra time away from design and screens--instead I've been reading, enjoying park time, visiting museums, scheduling walk-and-talks with friends around NYC. Activities without chairs and with grass are prioritized. All are serving as a counterweight to help slow the time engaged with work and contextualize the internet’s manicness. This year’s rediscovered slowness has been restorative and transformative. I’m fortunate enough to have the space to pursue this, so I am very thankful and wish for this opportunity for everyone. It’d make the world a better place. At the bar, I started grousing about how we needed to stop believing in speed as a virtue. I complained that I was tired of having the pace of my work (and personal life and civic life and and and) dictated by the speed of technology, because there is no keeping up. The situation is, literally, inhumane. (The last few months have taught me that as soon as I look at a screen, my brain is running on technology time, and eventually my focus and goodwill blow out.) Instead, I said, we needed to reclaim a more biological pace for our lives, apply that kind of thinking into the things we build for people, and make slow cool. There are many causes for the travesties we face each day, but I think speed worship is also worth identifying and fighting. As you can see, my friends are very patient with me. There’s a lot more I could say about this, but I will spare you. I wrote “MAKE SLOW COOL” in a note on my phone, then woke up the next morning and drew the turtle with the sunglasses. In my mind, Young Turt is an avatar of the life well lived--go slow, eat your greens, keep a modest home. She’s the encouragement and reminder that I need to not loose track of what’s important despite a lot of noise to the contrary. But no one else needs to take on that meaning. Turtles are also a ton of fun to draw (give it a shot) and sometimes seeing one in sunglasses on a shirt is great on its own. No shame in that. Now that she’s out in the world, I hope she will mean something a little different to everyone. Until next time, Frank