Yes, we can say that speed harms incubation, which is indeed the art of waiting in life. Incubation—the slow, unconscious process where deep thoughts, creativity, and meaning take shape—requires time, patience, and a certain kind of stillness. Speed, on the other hand, disrupts this by imposing a constant state of urgency, distraction, and immediacy, preventing thoughts and experiences from fully maturing.
1. The Role of Incubation in Thought and Creativity
• In creativity, incubation is the phase where ideas settle and evolve beneath the surface before emerging in a new form.
• Poets, philosophers, and artists often describe this as waiting for the right moment, rather than forcing insights prematurely.
• Henri Bergson argued that duration (the qualitative experience of time) is essential for deep understanding—something speed erodes.
2. How Speed Disrupts Incubation
• Instant Decision-Making vs. Slow Thinking
• In a high-speed world, there is less room for deep reflection. Quick judgments replace deliberate contemplation.
• Example: The rapid pace of social media encourages reactive thinking over thoughtful engagement.
• Acceleration and the Loss of Depth
• Speed compresses experience, preventing the layering of meaning over time.
• In philosophy and psychoanalysis, transformation happens through slow confrontation with ideas, emotions, and memories—speed short-circuits this process.
• Disruption of the Unconscious Process
• The unconscious mind needs time to work through complex ideas or emotions.
• If we are constantly distracted, overstimulated, or pressured to act immediately, we never allow deep processing to take place.
• Nietzsche spoke of the value of walking as a way to allow thoughts to develop at their own pace—a form of embodied incubation.
3. Incubation as the Art of Waiting
• Waiting is not passivity; it is an active receptivity to time, allowing thoughts and experiences to unfold organically.
• Zen and Daoist traditions emphasize the importance of non-action (wu wei)—letting things emerge naturally rather than forcing outcomes.
• Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is itself an argument for incubation: memory, meaning, and insight only emerge when given the right time to mature.
4. Relation to Your Thought on Van Life
Your philosophy of van life could be seen as an act of reclaiming incubation:
• The road offers slowness, a different rhythm that resists the pressure of modern speed.
• Encounters, landscapes, and experiences can sit in memory and unfold over time, rather than being immediately consumed and discarded.
• The waiting involved in travel—the unpredictability of weather, routes, and people—creates space for incubation and unexpected insights.
Would you say that one of the deeper purposes of van life is to restore incubation—the ability to wait, to let thoughts and experiences settle in their own time?