Speed vs. Velocity
This first edition explores how our AI automations may complicate rather than clarify our workflows.
One signal 🔭
One prompt 🧠
One subtraction opportunity ➖
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🔭 Signal: The Automation Arms Race Has No Finish Line
Nearly every team I talk to is layering AI tools into their workflow these days. Often 3 or 4 deep.
Example: A prompt drafted in ChatGPT feeds into Notion synced with Zapier to Slack, then rerouted into Jira. Now multiply this by 6 teams. What are we actually improving here?
Every team is hoping to speed things up, smooth things over, or catch up to the next team doing the same.
But what’s emerging isn’t clarity. It’s accumulation.
Systems are becoming harder to explain. Outputs are increasing, but outcomes are muddier. And nobody’s confident about what the second- or third-order effects of any of this will be.
The pressure to automate and optimize is real. But without intentional orientation, we’re not gaining leverage. We’re just speeding up entropy as we over-index on micro and lose sight of the macro.
🧠 Strategic Prompt
Are you automating something you haven’t fully understood?
Or: What are you trying to optimize that’s not yet 100% aligned?
➖ Suggested Subtraction
⏯️ Pause one automation layer. Even a brief pause helps.
Pick something added in the last 90 days that’s meant to save time or improve consistency. Now ask:
What has this actually improved?
Who benefits from this result? Who’s burdened by it?
If we left this layer on pause, what would break?
Does ⏯️ = ⛓️💥 ?
How could we find out? 😉
Sometimes clarity comes not from more tooling, but from letting one process breathe a bit. There is always a minimum/maximum/optimum input volume, and a downstream to consider.
It can feel scary to risk breaking something, but remember: everything breaks eventually. You can choose a lower stakes timing and learn from what happens now, or you can hope it never happens on your watch.
Set a quiet reminder on your calendar for when to unpause if that makes you feel safer.
🐢 Analogy of the week: Speed vs. Velocity
The hamster runs tirelessly on its wheel. Impressive speed, progress not so much. That’s speed without velocity. In contrast, the turtle that moves steadily towards its destination has velocity. That’s purposeful movement in a specific direction. While it may look slow, turn away for a moment and you’d be surprised how much ground it can cover and never look back.
In your organization, are you feeding more to the hamsters or the turtles?
🧭 Closing Note
Foresight isn’t just about seeing what’s next. It’s about knowing what to release so you can meet it with less drag.
If this signal hit close to home, a Signals Briefing might be right for your team. We surface 3–5 strategic signals aligned to your space, unpack what they mean, and map where you might subtract or simplify before complexity hardens.
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Until next time,
Sam Rogers
Strategic Subtractor
Snap Synapse