Move fast and break things, they were known to say at Facebook in the early days. That could very well be a marketing tagline for indie makers too. Just ship it, they say. 

But lately I’d been feeling the opposite. All that moving fast and leaving a trail of broken things along the way, is that how I really want it? Blazing head-first to beat down a path through the startup jungle, but potentially leaving behind ethics and integrity when you get big, or a series of small toy projects that just fed the daily vanity contest on Product Hunt, and worst, your own. It’s starting to feel exhausting, even when I’m not the one making. That endless Sisyphean consumption of tech media and apps, like daily junk food. I crave for something else, something with more quality, craftsmanship-minded, well thought through, executed with care.  

When I saw the title line “Move slowly and mend things” on my social feeds, it was captured exactly how I felt. Who cares if I ship fast, or not? Why should speed be any measure for me or what I aim to do? There are no rules. Moving slow, I can move mindfully. I can savour every moment making my products. I can enjoy the journey as much as the destination, the through-puts as much as the outputs and outcomes. And I can take the time to mending the broken trail of things that everyone else had ignored, or covering the gaps and lending a hand to people who were forgotten. Ultimately, when you go fast because someone else said so, you’re just running in someone else’s race. I don’t want that. Life is not a race. And my life is certainly not a race dictated by others. 

Take your time. Move slowly. Mend things.