Speed: The Great Flattener

Why rushed judgments turn people into categories instead of stories

Hi, I’m Claudia. I help you face a hurried world with greater confidence in your “Power of Slow.”

You are reading the sub-section SlowPOWER of the publication Un-Rush-The Power of Slow in which I demonstrate the absurdity of rushing and make you realize how slowing down benefits your life and work.

Don’t be shy to share it with fellow rebels against the hurry culture and click the❤️ button, so more people can discover it on Substack. Thank you!

Speed: The Great Flattener

Why rushed judgments turn people into categories instead of stories

We walked through Bologna, Italy, with a small group of Street Photographers last week, and it taught me how speed can blind us to human complexity. For the quick image shot, for trying to see and cover everything with the camera, we easily settle for assumptions about people and their personalities or scenes of life unfolding in front of us. But that doesn’t give you the intriguing, fascinating moment of life you want to capture.

We’re obsessed with the notion that we don’t have time. We need to keep running and performing, which results in jumping to conclusions since we don’t have the patience to take a closer look. What we miss is that beyond the quick glance lies the richness of a person or a place, which only reveals itself when we pause our assumptions.

We have been told that we're so efficient because we make quick judgments, but this is a false economy. Speed and busyness are often mistaken for efficiency and success. They end up costing us insights, connections, and deeper understanding. We're actually creating more problems and missing opportunities.

Our fast-paced culture encourages us to categorize people instantly, missing the richness of who they truly are and creating a barrier between us and human depth. Have you ever noticed how we see ourselves as complex and unique, yet we flatten others into stereotypes and categories when we rush? Rushing makes life so much easier, right? We can skip the complexity, the depth, and the curiosity.

How rushed assumptions flatten extraordinary people into ordinary types

One of the real costs of shortcuts we take with people is that we pursue our lives in a shallow way, engaging with people without perceiving the enriching variety of their different characteristics, personalities, perspectives, depths, and unique traits.

When we rush to judgment by categorizing people before truly seeing them, we pay a price far greater than we realize. The personal cost of this habit extends beyond simple misunderstandings – it fundamentally alters how we experience the world and the richness of human connections available to us.

We tend to experience life through a lens of simplistic categories rather than vivid individuality. It's like choosing to watch life in low-resolution black and white when high-definition color is available for the small price of our patience and attention. (Though black and white photography often helps to cut out the distraction of unnecessary information in the picture.)

This is what we realized last week while doing Street Photography in Bologna. Every one of us has a different perspective. Unexpected ones. We are moving around the same area, and the image results are very different from each other. And it is wonderful to see how each of us, having diverse backgrounds and ideas, creates unique viewpoints of people and human interactions.

But if we keep hurrying and speeding through life, we rush past human complexity, and the more we do so we train our brains to see only surface-level patterns. Eventually, genuine curiosity for others withers away like an unused muscle. We become less capable of recognizing nuances and become less skilled at meaningful connections. If you are not curious, guess what – you become less interesting to others as well.

The hidden cost of quick judgments about people

• You might miss a surprising friendship you didn’t expect.

• You don’t get to that solution that emerges from someone whose perspective you previously ignored.

• You don’t experience a profound connection that develops when we allow ourselves to be surprised by someone's hidden depths.

• You are losing out on that sense of wonder (you had as a kid) and the delight of being surprised by humanity

• Do you remember the joy of discovery that can come when someone reveals themselves to be fascinatingly different from our initial assumption?

• You get bored hanging out with people who fit neatly into your preconceived categories and who only reinforce your existing worldview instead of sparking new insights.

• Your conversations become predictable. And you become boring to others.

The irony is that our desperate race to do more things faster has left us with emptier connections and less joy. We've gotten so good at treating people as interchangeable types that we've built ourselves a world that feels increasingly bland and predetermined.

In our busyness, we forgot how taking the time to interact with others on a level beyond the surface and assumptions enriches our lives. Research consistently shows that diverse perspectives drive innovation, creativity, and better decision-making. When we flatten human complexity in our rush to categorize, we actively disadvantage ourselves, making poorer choices both personally and professionally.

Practical slowness: Exercise in seeing

Here is an interesting and fun exercise. Take your smartphone and do some Street Photography. This is about making you aware of the Street Photography paradox: Do you realize how we see ourselves as unique artists, but often photograph strangers as “anonymous types"?

Try this: Spend 10 minutes observing one subject before photographing. Be aware of how this exercise reveals stories, details, and humanity you'd otherwise miss. When you slow down and pause, you merge with your environment, you become invisible to the others. By slowing down, you absorb your environment with more attention.

Last week, during the Street Photography excursion in Bologna, Italy, I was at some point standing still for about 20 minutes. Just observing the life on the historic streets, filled with young students. (Bologna has the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088). The surrounding noises of chatter and Vespas morphed into a distant sound wave, and I felt as if I were merging with my surroundings. Letting go, just be, and perceive. I noticed details, gestures, human interaction, emotions, and life unfolding. Special moments. You can try this anywhere, with or without your smartphone camera.

It shows you how brief moments of intentional curiosity can reveal human complexity without requiring hours.

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CONCLUSION

• Go beyond the quick glance. The richness reveals itself when we pause our assumptions.

• Because our surroundings have greater depth and character than is apparent through the closed window of a speeding car. Speed is a great flattened.

LINKS of Interest

Here is a short curated list of articles/links on the topic of slowing down and living better.

» Tap Out, a new app blocker with a powerful twist: The only way to access your apps, is by tapping the Tap Out. Physically.

» A hotel with no Wi-Fi used to be a deal-breaker. Now, it’s a drawing card.

» The “Well” section of The New York Times hosted the first-ever Well Festival on May 7, 2025, bringing together doctors, relationship experts, authors, celebrities and more to talk about maximizing happiness - here are some videos.

» Sweden is building the world’s largest city made entirely from timber.

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