I’ve been thinking about speed which is why Chris Coyier caught my attention in his latest piece discussing how AI might be 10✕ing the speed with which we code, but it’s not making our software 10✕ better:

Faster individuals don’t make a fast company

My mind immediately went to the 4✕100 relay at the Olympics.

(Not sure which race that is? Watch the London 2012 one.)

Imagine you were put in charge of winning the 4✕100 relay.

All you gotta do is find the four faster sprinters in your country — right?

I’m no track and field expert, but I doubt it’s that simple.

In a relay race, the baton is arguably the most critical element. Passing it cleanly is vital because if you fumble it you’re easily behind a few meters or maybe even disqualified.

So, one could argue, a sprinter’s ability to pass and receive the baton is more important than speed because all the speed in the world won’t help you overcome a dropped baton.

(There are other considerations too, like which leg each runner takes, which sequence works best given individual pairings and rapport, and whether a slower veteran might perform better in the heat of the moment.)

Faster runners won’t guarantee a faster team.

And faster coders won’t guarantee a faster company.

Like a relay race, it might be worth giving some thought to the relationships and interfaces between people.