Navigating the Speed of Change

Published October 30, 2025

The pace of modern life is relentless. Even as an early adopter, I’ve found that sometimes I need to intentionally recalibrate my ability to absorb constant change. How about you? Have you ever thought about this as a part of navigating life? My suspicion is we all benefit from periodically deciding how we’re going to navigate the endless flood of change. And if you think you’ll be clever and opt out, you might just get swept away just the same.

Forgive me. My examples are inside the county line.

Recently, I saw the first water emerge from a well we drilled years ago, but only now completed. I had wanted to see our “old school” windmill pump again. Some of that was based on nostalgia, but I had also thought the old technology must be tried and true. And yet, I ended up with solar. Once I woke up and got into the real trade offs, the whole thing reminded me of why we got rid of sheep. Finding people to shear them was such a pain; it just didn’t make sense anymore. 

There is always a tipping point where swimming upstream to maintain an old way costs too much – making it a luxury. And I’m not talking about windmills or sheep, I’m focused on change and the change process. Regarding the windmill, my lack of awareness in conjunction with lazy critical thinking had snuck up on me. I thought I was good at that, and yet, evidence is to the contrary.

Then it hit me. People navigating change well or poorly is pretty much the driving force for the history of humanity. 

When I think about the poor guy who was born and raised on some tiny island in the Pacific trying to figure out what to do with a few inches of rising sea water, I realize my issues look pretty good. And yet, I still don’t enjoy realizing that the number of qualified people or shops able to fix our family’s 1950s bulldozer is probably even more likely to decrease than it is for the sea to rise.

When pondering this article, I revisited another old school technology. HAM radio. Its official name is amateur radio, where you can potentially talk to someone on the other side of the planet with plain old radio waves. My wife and I have the license to do this, but why? Well, there are reasons. You should do your own research and ponder that, too. But once again, it’s just another example.

For all of these examples, the fundamental needs remain. Get the water out of the ground. Communicate with people far away. Operate the machine that can push around a lot of dirt. Basically, do the needed thing. It’s just a matter of how it gets done, with what level of ease, and at what cost.

Unfortunately more and more, the moment the cost-benefit analysis “gets real” is also the moment our fatigue sets in, making us irrational or just plain lazy. Turn that dynamic up 400 percent, and the data and related choices all become mere noise. Then we lose.

THIS droning noise of change is the danger.

THIS overwhelming river of information and choice is what lulls even vigilant minds to sleep.

THIS is the core challenge. We must stop, assess our capacity, and choose our battles deliberately.

Ironically, the change itself is unlikely to change – except that it might get even faster. Life-critical changes are already flying past you, impacting you in ways you don’t yet realize or will very soon. Ignoring them won’t make them disappear. You and I may not naturally want to pause and exercise our free will, but if we don’t intentionally take the reins, we will suffer the consequences. And that suffering won’t be limited to us; those we care about will likely suffer as well.

You might ask, “Suffer in what way?” Well, suffer in that our monthly expenses may rise in unexpected or unnecessary ways because we missed something. Or we might suffer as a family by losing touch with one of our youngest members who got sucked into some new trend. I think it’s likely that many people are going to miss fundamental changes in how our economy functionally operates and suffer economically generationally. Ultimately, our spiritual natures – our very souls – are being distracted away from health, much like an overweight person gets used to carrying an extra one-hundred pounds.

So much of life can be lived successfully with no real awareness of how we are doing it. The same can be said of living life poorly and wondering how things got so bad. From what I’ve been told, I’m one of those people likely to overthink things. And that’s fair. However, intentionally deciding to sober up and squarely look at changes in our lives is something I feel good about suggesting to everyone – even if there is a bit of overthinking involved.

I’m not the only one pondering this. Fields of science have emerged, and I have learned a few terms worth sharing. “Social Acceleration” describes the engine and the speed, “Cultural Lag” describes the primary tension and friction that this speed creates within a culture. Fields like Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the Sociology of Technology have emerged attempting to make sense of it all.

Here is what started me down this path. I spotted something strange driving through the Texas backroads. Most of the windmills I saw weren’t actually “hooked up.” When I finally noticed this, I had to ask why. Through this one example of my lazy assessment of modern water wells is a simple reminder: missing the change – however small or simple – can be costly.

In the end, I’m sure all I did was trade one set of challenges for another. But, just maybe, I woke up in time, paid attention, changed direction, and my kids will thank me. Or not.

And beyond this, let’s see what’s next!

 

J Matt Wallace