I met technology theorist Tom Chatfield in Oxford back in November. A few weeks later I sent him an e mail, inviting him to an improv session in London. I didn’t hear back for a while.
When I did, after about a month, Tom was profusely apologetic, bless him.
And yet there had been no rush, the event was still more than a month off (and he couldn’t come anyway). But it made me think about the assumption that if we don’t respond immediately, there is something wrong. While I am all in favour of showing people respect, it also strikes strike me that the immediacy of technology may insidiously be suggesting that immediacy is everything. That there is no place for the slow, deliberate, thoughtful reflective response. If so, then the important collapses into the urgent, we become less discriminating, less skillful at appreciating and understanding variations of rhythm and we get more stressed as a result.
So, if anyone owes me a response on anything that you feel is overdue, relax. You can quote this back at me.
