Life is in fast-forward mode. And I am enjoying it.
Fast food. Fast food delivery. Fast grocery. Fast fashion. Blink. It arrives before your eyelids reopen. Get it in a blink, almost. What is 10 minutes in the lifetime of this universe, which is 13.8 billion years, but less than a blink?
Fast food is a winner: prepared, delivered and eaten quickly. What could be better? I am in no mood for the quiet time to cook something with my wife. We can kick up a fuss about something over fast food.
I don’t need to remember anything. If I forgot to buy bread when I was in the grocery store — when was the last time I went there? I find it difficult to remember — no problem. I don’t blink. I take out the phone and place an order in the grocery app for a 10-minute delivery.
I don’t need to think hard about gifts either. Forgot to buy an anniversary gift for my wife? No worry. Order it through the instant marketplace app, and it arrives in 10 minutes. Or, at the most, in 24 hours delivered from the nearby amazing mega warehouse, just in time before my wife surprises me with a well-crafted gift.
Indeed, the fastest way to give gifts is cash if I don’t worry about the amount and how it would be assessed against my wealth. Cash removes the need to strain my mind about a suitable gift for the recipient, shop for it and gift-wrap it myself. Where do I have the time now to spend on such thoughtful gestures? Easier to cash it.
Fast gyaan (advice). Fast forward gyaan. Fast forward gyaan many times. I wake up in the morning to a stream of advice on my phone: messages in WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. Health tips, historical tidbits, political snides, cooking recipes, relationship recipes, unsociable commentaries. I feel obligated to forward them instantly to my other friends and continue the fast-forward circle. Forward one. Receive ten. Don’t have the time to check, read, or ponder. Or to sit in silence without checking the phone.
Quick to comment. Quick to judge. I have the quickest mind when a message with a view pops up. I have to contradict it or agree with it instantly. How many viewed and liked my comment means more than whether the view actually meant anything to me. I don’t have to wait for the postman to deliver the handwritten letters and reply to them in my best script over days.
Fast writing. Fast to the market. I don’t need to prompt even ideas for my next story or novel. AI can generate the ideas and the stories with characters, plots, scenarios, and climax most implausible in no time. It also takes no effort to get it to the market. I write. I publish. No one reads.
Not only stories. AI also writes emails, tweets, and messages. It replies promptly, without my prompting. I don’t have to spend time over courtesy or context of the conversation.
Soon, AI will also maintain my BFFs, best fast friendships. It will send timely messages and make timely calls to my family and friends, in my voice and tone, updating them about my life and status. No one will miss me. Even when I am gone for a long time. Or, forever.
I catch on quickly. Instant pleasure. Instant fame. Instant love. Fast values. Quick money. Fast wealth. Fast success. Fast heart. Fast temper. Fast bike. Fast car. Fast crash. Fast death.
Here is a theory for those who want everything fast, good and cheap. The Triple Constraint theory is: You can get any two, but never all three. You can have it fast and good, but it won’t be cheap. You can have it cheap and fast, but it won’t be good. Fast food is the ultimate example of the fast-and-cheap combo. To make it work, the “good” (nutritional quality and fresh ingredients) is usually what gets sacrificed.
It’s up to you what you choose your life to be. Choose slow. Choose good. Blink — and this moment is gone.
(The writer is a former journalist and communications professional.)
I really like this piece of writing. It hits at the heart of the modern man dilemma - are we here just to rush through at top speed - but without substance - or to make the best of the short time we have while building something that may not be durable but is respectful and appreciative of the many gifts that biology, nature and the universe have given us.