Did you hear? Speed is the ultimate measure of intellect. Or so they say.
Men and women, schools and businesses. Your worth is measured by a clock now.
Tests. Deadlines. Quick answers to prove you’re smart. It’s all nonsense.
You see speed used everywhere as a measurement of choice by institutions and individuals as a way to “prove” academic or intellectual merit. The philosophers of old said otherwise.
Today It’s Speed Over Substance
Speeding doesn’t make you a good driver.
Teachers use speed as a measurement to judge whether a student understands a subject in the form of “tests”. Historians like Shelby Foote damned the rote facts stuffed in your head. He was the anomaly the institutions hated because he wasn’t one of them and diverged from established norms.
Knowing dates, names, details – that’s not true understanding. Never has been.
Arbitrary time limits prove nothing. Your ability to remember all minute details in books does not imply your ability to understand history clearly.
But the experts cling to their charts, their holy data. They point to fast test-takers who climb ladders later.
It fools them and they want it to fool you.
It’s a self-fulfilling system that creates a lie, arbitrarily enforces it, then says because it’s enforced then it must be true!
It Wasn’t Always Like That
Your ability to perform well once is not an accurate gauge of your overall ability. Never has been.
The philosophers of old didn’t follow along with this cookie-cutter approach to life. You shouldn’t either.
Socrates believed true intelligence was tied to understanding one’s own ignorance. Self-examination – not speed.
In Plato’s Apology, he recounted how the Oracle at Delphi declared Socrates was the wisest man because he recognized he knew nothing.
Tests don’t examine the soul’s capacity. Much less when they’re given by someone else deciding if you measure up to their standards.
Confucius said it long ago:
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
In the ancient writings of Aesop, the tortoise beat the hare. Slow and steady wins every time.
Don’t let outside forces rob you of your motion forward.
