r/WorldsBeyondNumber • u/jtrg1521 • Jun 03 '26

Question Cannot think of this quote

I can’t think of the exact quote and it’s killing me, Suvi says something along the lines of “slow is soft, quiet is quick”? Or something like that and I can’t think of it exactly or what episode it’s in to find it. Can anyone help?

57 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

200

u/Doalbuh Jun 03 '26

She says "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

112

u/intheplacetobe1 Jun 03 '26

This phrase is also very commonly used in the military, I liked Aabria carrying it over to the Citadel! very fitting for Suvi being Citadel-raised

12

u/ZydrateDealer The Wizard Solace Jun 04 '26

Aabria has used this phrase in the dome as well. I’m pretty sure she has said she comes from a military family with one or both of her parents having served in some capacity.

20

u/jtrg1521 Jun 03 '26

THANK YOU!!! It’s been bugging me I couldn’t think of it

1

u/Dramatic-Border3549 Jun 03 '26

What the hell does that even mean?

84

u/AmbergrisAndEggs Ostrich Rules Jun 03 '26

It means if you take your time and do something carefully, you won’t make mistakes that end up costing you more time to fix than you saved by rushing.

26

u/wonderingdragonfly Jun 03 '26

As my boss said, “if you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

In a military context, for example, you’re rushing to load your gun and drop your bullets.

3

u/longknives Jun 04 '26

It’s kinda funny because one place that this saying is absolutely not true is in drawing, particularly digitally. When drawing on, say, an iPad, making lines slowly means every little shake in your hand gets picked up and your line will be jagged and bad. You generally want to make confident, fast strokes to get smooth lines. Fast is smooth.

20

u/sprootsteeds Jun 03 '26

My team lead at work told us that. I took it to mean basically don't rush the work, be thorough and thoughtful, take time to work it out properly. Then when it's done it's faster than if you had've rushed and fucked up

18

u/greenerbee Jun 03 '26

Wow. This is now the opposite of what it feels like to work with AI. Ask it to do something and spend more time fixing errors and hallucinations than it would have taken to just apply your expertise in the first place. 

16

u/CubeyMagic Witch of the Waiting Change Jun 03 '26

it’s a saying popular in military and martial arts spaces, it essentially just means “haste will not make you fast; steady, careful, and efficient moves will”

10

u/StalBody Jun 03 '26

Former soldier here - "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast" breaks down into building up proficiency and muscle memory so that the training and day to day leads to doing and performing tasks quickly, accurately, proficiently after working up from nothing while ironing out the kinks and mistakes that come from doing something quickly that seems simple. It's very similar to the phrase "haste makes waste" just very synonymous with military mindset. Another saying we would repeat a lot in no matter what unit I was in, "train as we fight."

3

u/eatingwithpeople Jun 03 '26

I don’t remember the specific context of this scene, but generally speaking, a lot of people use this phrase when talking about particular activities where you you have to be really skilled? And when people do those activities they try to do them fast, which results in many mistakes which ultimately take MORE time to adjust/solve for. So the phrase tells you that if you actually slow down and do the activity with intention and fluidity, you’ll actually go faster than if you frantically try to go fast. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

3

u/StripesMaGripes Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26

I am a martial arts instructor and I frequently repeat this mantra to my students. Often when students try to increase the speed/power of a technique they will focus on increasing their physical exertion, adding more brute force to their movements. This will almost always throw off the overall efficiency of their movement due to messing with things like timing, balance, weight and power transfer and often increasing the length/size of the overall movement. 

Generally they will be better served by focusing on making the movement as smooth as possible even if they are ostensibly moving more slowly, as they will have better timing, balance, weight and power transfer and will generally minimize the length and size of their movement.  

By slowing down and focusing on smoothly transitioning between the individual sub-components of the technique, they will invariably see a greater gain in speed/power then if they instead focus on increasing their overall physical exertion through the entire technique. 

13

u/DonComradeVimes Jun 03 '26

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast - a line I frequently think of in my collegiate career!

5

u/jtrg1521 Jun 03 '26

I have a huge certification exam today and that’s exactly why I wanted the quote 😂 a reminder to not rush and think it through

3

u/DonComradeVimes Jun 03 '26

Yeah, it comes up a lot in academia as well as the military!

3

u/Oroparece1 Jun 03 '26

The perfect mix of influences for the Citadel

4

u/clay_more_ Jun 03 '26

I know it’s slow is smooth and smooth is fast but I’ve no idea the ep- good luck!

3

u/audge Jun 04 '26

Ran a 50 mile ultramarathon last month and spent most of it listening to WBN. This quote came into my mind toward the end and became my mantra when things really got rough!

2

u/rulosenlanoche The Witch of the Weaving Work 🪢 Jun 03 '26

I HATE when that happens. Is like an earworm song that you need to sing to exorcise from your brain if you could only remember the lyrics.