Technology disrupts at a faster pace. The internet might have changed every week or so; mobile technology changed by the day. AI changes by the hour, perhaps even in minutes. The people working on AI need to keep and push this pace, and the rest of us hasten to keep up as well.

There will be an increased demand for slowness, driven by two factors:

Need: People can’t move so fast all the time, so they will dedicate parts of their lives to slow down and process what’s actually happening in their outer and inner worlds. It will involve activities like creative hobbies, fitness, and meditation. 

Nostalgia: When people aren’t sure if the future will be better than the present, the past seems even more appealing. We remember the best of the past. While we swipe glass all the time now, we used to push buttons, pound on keys, and shake hands. It was a more tactile era, and we miss it. Vinyl sales have gone up from 1 million in 2006 to 49 million in 2023. Streaming will still be the dominant source of delivering music, but vinyl represents something else.

A product’s pace will be important for people to consider. When you’re presenting a complicated idea, slideshows move too quickly for the mind to keep up; writing on the whiteboard is the right pace for your listeners. The slow food and slow living movements will be inspirational. 

You can eat faster with a spoon and fork, but you also eat more. You’ll eat slower with chopsticks, enjoy the food more, and—at least in my case—keep your stomach happy and lower the likelihood you overeat. That’s the point.