I think I have metapneumovirus. It's just the common cold, but my wife Googled "April 2026 cough," and found that it was spiking. Objectively I am not very sick, but I am regrettably afflicted with the man flu. Whenever I get even minorly sick I get dumb as rocks and I feel like I'm living my life through molasses. So anyways, I took Thursday and Friday (mostly) off work. And, unlike normally when I take time off work, I mostly just...sat around and did nothing.
I don't actually know where this phrase comes from, but I like it! I'm sure many people have different interpretations of it. To me it means: taking time to think through the right thing (going slow) lets you make the right thing immediately (going fast).
This is not a new or original idea, but it's delightful to think about how powerful intelligence and planning are. Humans ought to be quite unsuccessful creatures! We are slow, weak, and we burn lots of calories. I...don't actually know mucha about the human body, but my understanding is that we burn so much more energy specifically for our brain. Reasoning is so effective that we have become (nominally) less energy-efficient simply because planning is just so good. We can spend calories to consider an unexpected efficient route, and in doing so save/produce much more energy than we have expended.
(Sorry if this is factually wrong! Best effort understanding 🙂)
And being sick as made me do nothing.
I forget how active my mind gets when it is not being used to its fullest every day. When I'm healthy, I naturally push myself a little bit beyond my limit. When unrestricted, this behavior pushes me towards a little burnout-lite where I iteratively reduce my overall capacity for work day-after-day. That process typically takes 2-3mo. And then something comes up to make me not work as hard (vacation, getting sick, spending more time with wife and dog, the holidays), and I recover.
I haven't actually gone back to work yet (it's Sunday). But I'm remembering that typically after this happens, I go back to work substantially more capable than when I left. I think to myself that I should work less, take better care of myself, and then I'll probably end up doing better. Hopefully I can remember this time.