Collective Speed Is Not the Summation of Individual Speed

I’ve been thinking about speed which is why Chris Coyier caught my attention in his latest piece discussing how AI might be 10✕ing the speed with which we code, but it’s not making our software 10✕ better: Faster individuals don’t make a fast company My mind immediately went to the 4✕100 relay at the Olympics. (Not sure which race that is? Watch the London 2012 one.) Imagine you were put in charge of winning the 4✕100 relay. All you gotta do is find the four faster sprinters in your country — right? I’m no track and field expert, but I doubt it’s that simple. In a relay race, the baton is arguably the most critical element. Passing it cleanly is vital because if you fumble it you’re easily behind a few meters or maybe even disqualified. So, one could argue, a sprinter’s ability to pass and receive the baton is more important than speed because all the speed in the world won’t help you overcome a dropped baton. (There are other considerations too, like which leg each runner takes,…