Bill Gates’ favourite thinker makes a case against speed: Why faster isn’t always better

The approach is unmistakably Smil: part history and sociology, generously seasoned with physics (inevitable, given the subject) and statistics.

Crucially, speed here isn’t just about moving from A to B. Smil treats it as the time required to move from one state to another—between developmental phases, technologies, or civilisational milestones. From the birth of the universe to processors and high-speed trading, from speech to transport, the book spans milliseconds and millennia alike.

Why slow groundwork matters

One of Smil’s central arguments is that bursts of rapid progress are almost always preceded by long periods of slow groundwork. The speedy deer exists because evolution first took its time.

To make the point tangible, he traces the shrinking time required to produce a kilogram of wheat—from about 25 minutes in early Imperial Rome to roughly 1.5 minutes in highly mechanised America by 1900.

Smil is also unafraid to call out hype. He memorably skewers Elon Musk’s 2022 claim that rocket transport could soon fly at economy-class prices, dismissing it as breathless promotion divorced from practicality, cost, and safety—and abetted by a credulous media.

Speed with purpose, not speed for its own sake

While acknowledging the benefits of faster technologies, Smil repeatedly cautions against treating speed as an end in itself. He invokes the Latin maxim non multa, non multum—not many, but much—to argue that quality should trump sheer quantity.

Speed, he reminds us, is not experienced equally by all.

Low-income countries do need to build basic infrastructure faster than in the past, but that doesn’t require unprecedented physical speeds—only sensible allocation of resources to construction and management rather than destruction and violence. He is equally pessimistic about the affluent world’s addiction to “speed dreams” in an age of nearly limitless high-tech hype, a scepticism that extends to the media at large.

Fascinating, but decidedly unhurried

Ironically, given its title, Speed is a slow read. Smil is a formidable researcher, not a natural storyteller, and his sentences can sprawl across half a paragraph. He often assumes a level of scientific literacy that some readers may lack, and he has a habit of detouring into technical explanations where a simpler statement might suffice—such as detailing Mach numbers when discussing aircraft speeds.

How the World Really Works is one of Vaclav Smil most compelling reads. (Credit: Penguin)

As a result, the book doesn’t flow as compellingly as some earlier Smil works like How the World Really Works or Numbers Don’t Lie. The canvas here is broader, and the arguments sometimes drown in their own complexity. Still, the payoff is substantial.

This is a treasure trove of facts and perspectives that will frequently make you pause in surprise. Keep a search tab handy—the 350-odd pages include nearly 90 pages of references and index. And don’t even think about speed-reading it. Patience is rewarded.

Speed: How it Explains the World by Vaclav Smil
Penguin
352 pages  
₹1099