The need for speed.

This is the very first job ad Jeff Bezos posted for his new start-up, on August 22 1994 (Amazon didn’t even have a name at that point).

The ad is for a programmer who Bezos says should be able to build and maintain complex systems “in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible”.

His obsession with speed was on display even then, an obsession which has no doubt made Amazon the monster it is. And in the process made Jeff Bezos the one of the richest men on the planet.

In the 29 years since that ad was posted the global north also feels Jeff’s need for speed, and I’m sitting here thinking if it’s at all possible to be an intentionally slow business today?

(It’s perhaps telling that in Wikipedia’s entry on Slow Movements, which range from Slow Art to Slow Travel, ‘business’ is not one of the 28 areas where Slowness has taken root.)

There’s one practical reason why MTTR can’t offer Prime-style postage or rapid repairs: There’s one employee.

But it goes much deeper than that.

My focus is on quality. Not speed.

The quality of the goods you are are buying. The quality of MTTRs actions. The quality of our relationship. All things which require time and thought.

You can’t do any of that properly if you’re crushing, rushing or chasing.

Going slow in a world obsessed with speed also feels like an act of rebellion.

This is denim, after all.