Book Review: The Slow Fix by Carl Honoré

The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter and Live Better in a World Addicted to Speed by Carl Honoré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be fair to the author Carl Honoré, this must have been a difficult book to write.

In today’s fast paced world, the author attempts to put forth a series of case studies in the benefits of taking the time to slow down. The resulting list, with admonishments to “think holistic” and “think long” and “collaborate”, fall somewhere between general good advice and overused platitudes.

Still the book has its moments. Honoré reminds us that penicillin was discovered because a doctor took his month long August vacation (I’m going to trust he did his research on that one and that is what actually happened). He also defends time spent gaming, putting forth the theory that it helps build valuable problem solving skills (a brave argument considering the books target audience). The case studies on the prison systems in Norway and organ donation in Spain were interesting.

Ironically enough for a book advocating slowness, he doesn’t dig deep enough on some of his examples. For example during a paragraph about how Steve Jobs spent time paying attention to details I found myself talking back to the book saying, “Yeah but Honoré, Jobs also said “Real Artists Ship”.

Despite all the problem solving vignettes (and there are plenty, often they are non-sequiturs), Honoré doesn’t tackle the two questions I thought his book would address. The first is, “Where is the fine line between a ‘slow fix’ and procrastination?” The second is, “How can you tell you are taking the right amount of time to solve a problem?”

I don’t know that the author really delivered on the book jacket description to deliver “a new paradigm for efficient, sustainable problem solving” but in general it’s always a good reminder to slow down and think.


View all my reviews