As an aside, most of us, when watching a video of ourselves, may notice how slow our movements actually are. I had the subjective impression that I was fast and agile when practicing jiu jitsu, judo, or team sports, yet when I watched some of my videos, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by how slow I appeared to move. The answer was to accept that what I subjectively perceived as fast was actually slow and thus trying to go faster, while not being sloppy or "spazzy".
Although we all know that too fast often means sloppy, if only because of the modifier too, our brains can easily deceive us into believing that we are fast when, in reality, we are moving at a glacial pace.
There is a clear parallel here with what happens when we trust our subjective experience too much instead of relying on objective assessments of ourselves and our skills, whether that means watching a video of ourselves in which we appear goofy or slow when we thought we were as elegant as Baryshnikov and as quick as Ma Long, or when we decide to measure ourselves against the best, and not the average/median competition, and realize how slow we are when operating.
Assuming that standards of quality or comprehension are maintained, it would do good for many, myself included, not to think in terms of "it will take as long as needed (to learn French, jiu jitsu, Python, violin)", but in terms of "how fast I can reach the goal?". And not because of some modern productivity bias, but for reason of speed in reaching the level we are aiming at: the faster we get there, the better our performance will be.
And certainly, many should have the goal of moving faster when doing sports (accounting for age, background, injuries, etc., but not excuses). Speed, more often than not, is the ultimate skill.
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