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Comment by mdisc | Hacker News Reader

Funny that this is the exact opposite of "Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36312295) from a couple days ago here.

Both speed and "slow productivity" have their place depending on the type of work you do.

I think for junior and mid level ICs, and leadership/management focused people (maybe even senior ICs), speed is paramount.

For staff/principal roles, the balance shifts toward being able to be able to focus more singularly on very challenging problems.

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I don't think they are opposite. There's a difference between rushing to do something, and shortening the feedback loop. It says "slow productivity" but learning enough martial arts in 4 months to look good in a film doesn't sound slow to me, it sounds like he shortened the feedback loop as much as possible by learning every single day instead maybe once a week like a normal person would.

> It says "slow productivity" but learning enough martial arts in 4 months to look good in a film doesn't sound slow to me

Remember the kung fu scenes in Matrix? It's not the first time Reeves has trained in martial arts. This time he crammed in a particular martial art for this movie.

Tbh I'd bet he practices something regularly, just not often enough for it to make the news.

“I think for junior and mid level ICs, and leadership/management focused people (maybe even senior ICs), speed is paramount.”

Why? I would argue they need to move slower and methodically so they understand what they are doing instead of thrashing a bunch of crappy code that has to be fixed by others.

More experienced people can move faster because they are doing tasks that have parallels to prior tasks. For example, Keanu Reaves was able to singularly focus on “gun fu” as he is an experienced actor for whom remembering lines and handling himself on set is second nature, requiring less effort than from a rookie actor.

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