Slow, slow, quick, slow, slow

Talking of tempo, it took me about 3 hours to publish my last entry. I have got used to walking away and doing something else while I wait for an internet page to appear, praying all the time. At first, it was pretty frustrating, but now I think to myself that I haven't actually lost any time. I am doing other stuff, even just thinking, or staring out of the window, while I wait. I dont know when I last did this: in London, about a year ago, there was a poster ad for the Economist magazine at train stations. The message was something like: you won't get anywhere by staring out of the window. I suppose the creatives sat around saying, hey, let's tap into the Calvinist guilt thing but in fact I am sure people are supposed to their best ideas in the bath, or staring out of the window, and not reading the Economist.

Time has changed. My first ever job at Platts, which was excellent, because a) it was well paid and b) involved one long day's work talking French to some oil traders, maybe half a day taking them to lunch and then sending a newswire late in the evening. What is more, our boss, a laid back Australian who sat with his feet up on the desk, did not take issue with the fact that all the recent graduates he hired did their job in one day and then spent the rest lolling about in the Dover Street wine bar or enacting fantasy soap operas in the office.

At that time, we had no email and I am not sure if we had a fax; we had a telex, which produced a lot of long strips of paper, and transmitted our market reports. Until about 9.30, when the post arrived, you didn't need to do very much: after you opened the post, you did your job and didn't write to anyone, or answer letters.

About twenty years later, in my last job, email had piled up by the time I got in at 8.30, and I spent most of my day trying desperately to clear my inbox out, having arguments with people by email or reading cross emails sent to people in my team. I am not sure I had much time left to do my job. I felt like Sisyphus, trying to roll the boulder of too much communication up the hill, but what has actually been gained by all this communication and everything going so much faster? I ask Sandy this question, since he is supposedly an advocate of technology, but he doesn't seem to have an answer. I expect it has made the UK more productive than a remote Pacific island with seashell currency, but we all, with the exception of some nutcases at Goldman Sachs, know where we would rather live.

Slowing down is not that easy. I still can't sit still for long, but I will keep trying. I just hope Spain doesn't change in the meantime: there was an item on RNE radio the other day about a campaign to get Spanish people to read more, specifically on the beach. Apparently, people here don't read as much as other Europeans, and it is true you don't find that many bookshops, nor do you see people reading, mainly because they are having a good time outside. I am not sure this ought to change: it is much better staring into space, and too much reading makes you anxious.