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Less Is the Point

Five laws of slowness

The teaching
Anything built to be close to a person has to refuse the things that make products successful: speed, scores, notifications, novelty, scale.
Before the laws
These five were written for one instrument and turned out to be true of anything intimate. Each one is a refusal. Each refusal is where the closeness lives.
1 of 5
Never a chatbot. The lag is the intimacy.
Because instant reply is a service. A pause before the answer is a presence.
Let the thing take its time. Let yourself take yours.
2 of 5
Never gamify time.
Because you cannot fall behind on meeting yourself. No streaks, no counts, no 'done'.
Remove every deadline from anything that's supposed to be for you.
3 of 5
Never notify. The waiting is the dignity.
Because a thing that knocks on your door is asking to be needed. A thing that waits is available.
Turn it off. See if you still return. If you do, it was worth returning to.
4 of 5
Never install a new veil.
Because the point is remembering, not learning; recognising, not measuring. A new framework is one more layer to see through.
Ask of any new tool: does this help me see, or give me something else to look at?
5 of 5
Never more where less is the point.
Because the scale is the scale of a life, not a spectacle. More content, more features, more reach — each one makes a life smaller by comparison.
When you're tempted to add, ask what the thing would lose. Usually it's the thing itself.
The practice
Choose one thing you use every day. Apply the five refusals to it, one at a time. Keep whatever survives.
Slow is not a compromise. Slow is the shape closeness takes.
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