Slow down, you move too fast....

.... said Paul Simon in his Fifty Ninth Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy). So too said Carl Honoré at the recent TEDGobal conference. The author of In Praise of Slowness, Mr Honoré cautioned against the 'road runner culture' that pervades our world more than ever today. He got the idea for his book when he found himself contemplating a book of one minute bedtime stories. It was a wake up call for him as he asked himself: "Has it really come to this that I'm ready to fob off my son with a sound bite at the end of the day?" It forced him to reasses his life, and the book grew out of that. His does not advocate that we should all slow to a crawl, but that we should find the right pace for things. Choice was another topic raised at the conference. Barry Schwartz spoke of his experience of finding "175 salad dressings. 40 toothpastes, 75 ice teas, 230 soups and 285 varieties of cookies" at his local supermarket. While some choice is good, the bewildering amount we have in many aspects of our lives can be counterproductive, he argued. Too much choice paralyses our decision making, as we get hung up on the thought of making the wrong one. This leads to self-blame and even depression. Hmmm, maybe I should stop looking for that 25th hour in the day and make the most of the other 24.....