The Science of Waiting and the Art of Delay
Frank Partnoy's Wait brings together research and interviews to examine how timing shapes decisions, procrastination, and what makes human judgment different from impulse.
Useful takeaways from this story.
Decisions should be matched to their relevant time window—ask how long you can reasonably wait to observe outcomes before choosing.
Thinking about delay is an existential capacity: the time we take to reflect helps define who we are and what we aim to do.
The useful part
This tension between anticipation and impatience, indeed, seems central to the human condition. What emerges is an important, if counterintuitive, perspective on delay in a culture obsessed with efficiency, speediness, and productivity that bleeds into the hasty and the rash. We like to believe there is wisdom in our snap decisions, and sometimes there is.
How it works
- You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)
- Asking questions about timing is crucial, even if we cannot arrive at an answer as specific as '42.' [ … ] Thinking about the role of delay is a and fundamental part of being human.
- Questions about delay are existential: the amount of time we take to reflect on decisions will define who we are.
- Is our mission simply to be another animal, responding to whatever stimulations we encounter?
- Life might be a race against time, but it is enriched when we rise above our instincts and stop the clock to process and understand what we are doing and why.
What to take from it
The converse of Socrates's famous admonition is that the examined life just might be worth living..
Details worth keeping
have told us not to jump to firm conclusions about the unknown. Yet today we jump faster and more frequently to firm conclusions. This is why it is so important for us to think about the relevant time period of our decisions and then ask what is the maximum amount of time we can take within that period to observe and process information about possible outcomes.
Related coverage
- Theartfulage: The convention needs two things: an hour firm enough that twenty past reads as a choice, and a host who reads it that way.
- Inc: In a crisis, the clock is part of the message.
- Medium: The phenomenology of exhaustion, the tyranny of chronological time, and the quiet grief of falling behind. Continue reading on Philosophy Today »
More context around this story.
Why you procrastinate on things you actually want to do
Below, Dr. Itamar Shatz shares five key insights from his new book, Solving Procrastination: The Science of Why We Put Things Off and How to (Finally!) Stop . Itamar is an Affiliated Lecturer at Cambridge University. He helps people understand why they procrastinate and how to stop, using a practical system that he dev
Being fashionably late needs a fixed start time to be late to, and a study of clock accuracy and walking speed found pace of life varied systematically across 31 countries, while f...
The convention needs two things: an hour firm enough that twenty past reads as a choice, and a host who reads it that way. Levine and Norenzayan measured walking speed, postal clerks and public clocks in 31 countries and found the pace of life varied systematically. Ling and Lai's focus groups found arrangements now ge
Ed Sheeran Waited 14 Days to Respond. That Delay Became Part of the Story
In a crisis, the clock is part of the message.
The Illusion of the Pause Button
The phenomenology of exhaustion, the tyranny of chronological time, and the quiet grief of falling behind. Continue reading on Philosophy Today »
Culture
A dancer wearing a traditional costume performs during a "Convite," a traditional dance festival in Guatemala— AFP
Loading more related stories...
Keep reading in the app
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.