We DON’T need that yesterday

The Slow philosophy seems to be making inroads in the corporate world of the Baltic states. Before my talk yesterday in Riga, Latvia, a manager from UPS, the delivery company, told me that businesses in the region no longer insist on shipping everything as fast as possible. In the 1990s, demand for late-night and weekend deliveries was brisk. But now most UPS deliveries occur during normal working hours. His conclusion: Baltic companies have realized that many shipments can wait till tomorrow, or even till Monday. Staff are also less willing to put up with work hassles outside the office. Amen to that.

My final Baltic talk is this afternoon here in Tartu, Estonia….

Iceland takes the plunge

I’m in Iceland at the moment singing the praises of slow. This may be a small country – the population is about 300,000 – but the virus of hurry has entered the bloodstream here, too. In Reykjavik people race around in their cars jabbering into mobile phones. Everyone has a packed schedules and the working day is long. But at least Icelanders have an antidote: soaking in the outdoor pools that dot the country. In one complex near my hotel in Reykjavik, people of all ages, shapes, sizes and income-brackets come to soak in the warm water underneath the northern sky. There are no Plasma screens showing CNN, no speakers pumping out muzak or MTV and everyone leaves their mobile and Blackberry at the door. You just relax, let the mind wander or chat quietly. The best kind of slow.

Read Slow…fast!

It’s been a long, long time coming but I finally have a blog. So that means regular dispatches from the front line of the Slow revolution. I’d like to kick off with something a reader in Victoria, British Columbia told me the other day. In order to circulate popular books more quickly, her local library offers them on a seven-day loan, with each extra day incurring a one dollar charge. So in Victoria you can now borrow a copy of In Praise of Slow with a large sticker on the front cover saying “Fast Reads”. You couldn’t make it up.