Things Take the Time They Take: A 42nd Thought at 42

Two years ago I shared 40 thoughts as I turned 40, and last year I added a 41st thought. So as I make my 42nd lap around the sun, I figured I'd throw another thought onto the pile. 42. Things take the time they take When I was working at R/GA, someone (I can't remember who) said something along the lines of: You can't make a baby in one month by throwing nine people at it. Despite this reality, I've witnessed so many cleverly attempt to hack it over the years. None have worked, and I've found the "good, fast, cheap: pick two." triangle continues to be true. But with each passing year, time feels more compressed and our expectation of immediacy grows proportionally. The digital world introduced near-immediate abundance, which shaped our behavior, package delivery timeframes, and our willingness to wait for damn near anything. Give us another couple years and we'll all fail the fucking marshmallow test. Creating things has become easier and more immediate as well. We now have a new…