Saturday, February 28, 2009

simply made, made difficult

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. This is an adage used often in the military. What exactly is it saying though? The principle is understandable and entirely logical: If you do something slower than you will do it better and it won't be messy, preventing you from making mistakes that will slow the process or have to be done over. Simple enough but I have always been one for math. It doesn't quite line up so nicely algebraically though. There is a simple rule in algebra: If A=B and B=C than A=C. This is logical right? if both A and C are equal to B than they must be equal to each other so you can ignore B all together. If we apply this to our sentence above Slow=Smooth and Fast=Smooth so we can eliminate "smooth" and say that Slow=Fast. Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense! Slow can't equal Fast they are opposites, bookends, they are as much the same as microwaves and four-leaf clovers. So how can this make sense? The adage is both logical and illogical at the same time. It is simple yet defiant; caught between a world of logic and irrationality. You were probably fine with the first explanation until I ruined it with my algebra that you are probably trying to forget anyway. I guess I just think too much.