Velocity Debt · also called the speed tax
why does cutting corners always come back to bite me
Velocity debt is the gap between what a shortcut appears to save and what it actually costs once the skipped step comes due. It compounds silently, since the bill never lands the same day the corner gets cut, so speed keeps looking free until the rework, the breakdown, or the apology arrives all at once.
The shortcut did not save you ten minutes. It borrowed them, at interest, from the version of you who has to fix it later.
What to do about it
Name the one corner you keep cutting to move faster, then calculate what it actually cost you the last time it caught up with you.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Pay The Tax Two$6.99
Build Back Iron$6.99
Keep The Three$6.99
The Warrior Blueprint$6.99
Absorb The Blow$6.99
Grief Is Job$6.99
Rejected Rebuild Manual$6.99
The 5AM Tax$6.99Part of the Warrior series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- why does cutting corners always come back to bite me
- I rush everything and it keeps breaking
- moving fast and breaking things I actually care about
- redoing work I rushed the first time around
- I am always in a hurry and always paying for it later
- speed is costing me more than it is saving
- why do my shortcuts never actually save time in the end
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.