The speed of light is outdated

People wanted a speedy solution to their problems, but what if their moods had been driven down in the first place by the hurried pace of their lives? They imagined that they were rushing now in order to savor their lives later, but so often, later never came.

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm had made this point more than fifty years earlier: “Modern man thinks he loses something—time—when he does not do things quickly; yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains except kill it.”

Fromm was right; people didn't use extra time earned to relax or connect with friends or family. Instead, they tried to cram more in.

One day, as we interns begged to be given more new cases despite our full caseloads, our supervisor shook her head. “The speed of light is outdated,” she said dryly. “Today, everybody moves at the speed of want.”

Source: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb