Day 137 - Speed Is the New Measure of Value

February 22, 2026

Episode Theme:
Why speed has replaced coordination as the main bottleneck.

Key Topics:

The historical role of Agile in solving coordination problems
How constraints have shifted with modern tooling and AI
Why 30-day release cycles are now outdated
Speed as a structural advantage, not a hustle tactic
Volume and output as new competitive edges
The danger of clinging to old frameworks
Rethinking quality, cycles, and feedback loops
Why mindset is now the limiting factor
How new rules require new systems

Notable Takeaways:

The bottleneck is no longer capability—it’s speed.
What felt impossible last week is now baseline.
Agile solved yesterday’s problem, not today’s.
Speed is becoming the new measure of value.
Teams must redesign systems to match what’s now possible.

Suggested Reflections:

Where are you still operating on old time horizons?
What would change if your cycles were measured in minutes, not weeks?
Which processes exist because they once mattered—but no longer do?
Are you optimizing coordination when you should be optimizing speed?

Memorable Line (Paraphrase):

“The bottleneck has shifted — and speed is now the measure of value.”

Episode Transcript

Guy Reams (00:00.642)
This is day 137. Speed is the new measure of value. The old rules are dying. Not slowly, not gradually, fast. We are living through a shift as fundamental as the one that hit the textile industry when steam engines arrived. What worked yesterday does not work today. What seemed impossible last week is now the new baseline. For years, agile development methodology solved the right problem. We had bottlenecks everywhere.

Communication broke down, requirements changed mid-flight, teams struggled to coordinate. Agile gave us a framework to navigate the chaos. It worked because it addressed the constraints we faced. But those constraints are gone. The bottleneck is no longer coordination, clarity, or even capability. The bottleneck is speed, and most of us are still moving as the old rules apply. With AI, we can move faster than ever before we thought possible before. The tools exist that keep cape

Capacity is there, but we are not using it the way we should. We are still thinking in terms of 30-day release cycles. We are still planning sprints as we did five years ago. We are still treating speed as a nice-to-have instead of the only thing that actually matters. The reality is that 30-minute release cycles are not some distant future. They are possible now. The technology supports it. The infrastructure can handle it. The only thing holding us back is the way we think about the work.

This is not about working harder, it's about cutting corners or sacrificing quality. It is about recognizing that the game has changed. The teams that win will be the ones that move fast. Not just faster than they did before. Fast enough to match what is now possible. Volume matters now in a way it did not before. We need to increase output by a hundred times. That sounds absurd until you realize the tools to do that already exist.

The question is whether we are willing to let go of the old frameworks and build new ones that match the reality we are living in. Speed is the new measure of value. Not speed for its own sake, speed because it is the only way to keep up with what is now possible. Speed because the world is moving that fast. Whether we are ready or not, speed is important because the teams that figure this out first will leave everyone else behind. Speed is the new measure of value.

Guy Reams (02:23.138)
So if you are still planning a 30-day cycle, stop. If you are still treating Agile as the final answer, reconsider. The rules that got us here will not get us where we need to go. The bottleneck has shifted. The only question is whether you will shift with it.