{"id":97406,"date":"2019-06-14T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/2019\/06\/14\/honk-if-lifes-moving-too-slowly-thats-not-the-answer-oliver-burkeman\/"},"modified":"2019-06-14T16:00:52","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:00:52","slug":"honk-if-lifes-moving-too-slowly-thats-not-the-answer-oliver-burkeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/?p=97406","title":{"rendered":"Honk if life\u2019s moving too slowly? That\u2019s not the answer | Oliver Burkeman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Technology should leave us more free time, but we\u2019re more impatient than ever. Is there a solution?You needn\u2019t spend long in a city where the honking of car horns is out of control \u2013 New York or Delhi, say \u2013 before you notice something: in practical terms, almost every honk is pointless. Every driver is stuck in the same traffic, with the same desire to make progress and the same inability to do so. Surely no honker believes their honk will make the critical difference and get things moving; honking simply provides drivers with brief cathartic relief from their fury that things aren\u2019t moving faster. This is the modern epidemic of impatience in a pure form. You want reality to be one way, but it stubbornly insists on being the other way, so you make a loud noise to express your anger \u2013 thereby ensuring everyone in earshot is annoyed, so at least you don\u2019t have to feel so alone.This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Faster: The Acceleration Of Just About Everything, by the science writer James Gleick, which first introduced me to a truth that has grown truer in the decades since: the faster life moves, the worse impatience gets. Rationally, it shouldn\u2019t be that way. In a world of dishwashers and jet engines, time ought to feel more expansive, thanks to all the hours freed up for more meaningful matters. But, of course, that\u2019s not how it feels. Instead, we grow more agitated with even the smallest delay. As the speed with which we feel our desires ought to be gratified tends toward zero, every wait becomes an affront. If you knew a journey would take for ever \u2013 because you were a medieval cattle drover or a passenger on a 19th-century transatlantic steamship, maybe \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t mind so much. It\u2019s because cars can move so fast that it\u2019s annoying when they don\u2019t. Continue reading&#8230;<br \/>\nVia: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2019\/jun\/14\/honk-life-moving-too-slowly-not-the-answer\" target=\"_blank\">Honk if life\u2019s moving too slowly? That\u2019s not the answer | Oliver Burkeman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology should leave us more free time, but we\u2019re more impatient than ever. Is there a solution?You needn\u2019t spend long in a city where the honking of car horns is out of control \u2013 New York or Delhi, say \u2013 before you notice something: in practical terms, almost every honk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}