Speed versus Accuracy Tradeoff

The balance between speed and perfection

Background

In this post, I’m covering a topic I think has fundamentally changed the way we work, learn, and achieve our goals, especially as technology continues to present us with more tools to make things easier and faster every day. Time is being tracked by the hour and in some cases (like Elon Musk) by the minute and our minutes are spent optimized. We also never think of slowing down as an option, more so, figuring out ways to speed up. What used to be a four-month course is now a 30-minute “Learn everything you can” video on Youtube, books become consumed via summaries, podcasts and lectures are played at two-times the speed.

I am totally guilty of doing this. Last month, I made a plan to slowly increase my audiobook listening speed from 1x to 2.5x increasing by small increments weekly. I believed that if I could increase my listening speed and force my brain to catch up, I would be able to listen to twice as many books equating to double the knowledge, right? After listening to the book Atomic Habits at 2.5x speed, usually while multitasking during the gym or cooking, I realized I could hardly remember the core concepts. I tried again at regular speed and every sentence became a crisp, well-articulated, nugget of information.

This got me thinking, I wondered if there was research to support this theory of slowing stuff down and its correlation with learning and growth. My slower experience was enjoyable, less pressure infused, and I was able to recall each chapter’s key points. That was the inspiration for this new post and it sparks a deeper conversation on the balance between learning, over-optimization, inaccuracy, and perfection. 

What Science Says

In research, there is actually a term for this topic, called the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff, which is defined as the complex relationship between an individual's willingness to respond slowly and make relatively fewer errors compared to their willingness to respond quickly and make relatively more errors. The Department of Psychology from Boston University ran a study to understand the relationship between the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff on Perceptual Learning. In summary, the study ran a motion detection test where participants balance the speed and accurately clicking the right answers. Key learning included decision-makers’ attempts to maximize and balance between accuracy and reward rate (correct responses). Participants may feel comfortable setting a lower boundary to produce a relatively large gain in speed for a small loss of accuracy. Our brain automatically seeks to improve speed even if it means giving up accuracy and this applies to other areas in our life beyond a simple motion detection trial. If we are aware of our behaviors and tendencies, we can slow down to increase accuracy, but what is that balance?

Some Examples

A popular Youtuber, WarOwl, creates content on one of my favorite first-person shooter games, Counter Strike: Global Offensive created an experiment to test this. He played a regular competitive match at twice the speed and realized that the player’s brains could not keep up with the pace of the game. The shooting accuracy of each player was highly inaccurate and it was unenjoyable, so much to the point that they started to slow it back down shortly after attempting it. At 50% speed, he started to realize he was appreciating the small adaptations he had to make with each shot and with every movement. At a slower speed, he was hyper-aware of the base mechanics of the game, he could see the movement inaccuracy, calculate the gun recoil in real-time, and observe the spirit of the game he loves. After slowly increasing the speed back to 125% speed, he was able to adapt to the speed that he found difficult earlier in the experient and even aced (one person killing every member of the opposing team) his opponents.

I can also support the slower theory from my experience of playing the piano. When learning to play a new song on the piano, it is done by playing one hand at a time before merging them together. The song is played at a slow pace, but it is done precisely, accurately, deliberately, and with no errors. As I gained a strong grasp of the song, I would start increasing the speed, playing it faster and faster, until it was played quicker than it was meant to be played. This was the true mastery of the song.

Takeaway

From science, anecdotes, and applications across different activities, there’s evidence that supports doing things slower will help us become more accurate. Slowing things down can also improve the rate at which we learn, retain, and generate output. It also increases the satisfaction and enjoyment of activities like games or learning new things. Applying this mental model expands beyond a game or a new skill, but everything to our work, day-to-day lives, and more. Simply put, we need to slow down to speed up.