Why being obsessed with speed may make you more of an Alpha

"The-Ever-Socially-Apathetic TBAL" (tokyobayaqualine) 03/28/2014 at 13:09 • Filed to: None

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Clearly, most of the people visiting Jalopnik enjoy speed; It's a website about cars and motive transport, come on!

The hypothesis of what I'm about to speak about is based on my own individual findings, in and around large groups of car guys and girls.

Obsessed car guys and racers, such as Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna, as well as many of the commenters on this board, and many of the car guys you meet tend to "soak" in information, while socializing and racing. True car guys are rarely a loud, obnoxious bunch. They also enjoy collecting information behind the wheel. Not many of them speak or contribute unless it's to give a statement about their findings. This, for the most part, is a mature group of people. Some of them let their emotions get in the way on the rare occasion, outside of their analysis (like myself) and others are purely analytical, all the time.

And that takes me to where I'm going with all of this; Our ability to digest information may be hereditary, as car guys.

Think of it this way. Back when we were all technically cave men, we had to leave the cave to go and hunt for food to sustain our families well being. The quicker we could soak in information and our surroundings, the more adaptable we were. Especially when it came time to "hunt".

Knowing when the perfect time to make the move, and knowing how to travel at excessive speed across land in order to orchestrate the "kill" was extremely vital, and eventually became instinctive. Some people could sneak, but the truly great hunters among us were capable of not only timing our kills, but also attaining our prey if our sneak technique ultimately failed. We became faster - and therefore felt the urge to BE faster, always, in order to get what we needed to survive. Our prize was our catch. And in order to catch it, we needed to be FAST.

In other words, our only pursuit was in strength and velocity. We became obsessed with speed because we knew that by being faster, and adapting faster, we in turn got what we wanted quicker and more successfully. This ultimately made us better hunters, and more attractive to mates: IE an Alpha.

Now factor that into today's society. Most of the people on earth want instant gratification (we're clearly part of a "ME" generation). The faster we can get what we want, the happier we'll be. But not many people are capable of "digesting" the information at the speed necessary to constitute continual growth. Often times, we'll spend years stagnant on a corporate ladder, not because we're not capable of improving, but because in terms of adaptation, we haven't adapted at the rate of speed necessary to facilitate further growth.

A good racer is very different than most people however. They can digest information at incredible rates of speed. Processing the meaning behind the information comes secondary - what becomes most important is the adaptation to their surroundings. Because they soak in information at such an accelerated rate, their reflexes become quicker, such as that of the "cavemen" hunters. They learn from their mistakes very fast, and adjust their positioning accordingly. To them, the environment around them becomes only a small contributing factor in their major motivation: To win.

Therefore, the faster we digest and process the information (Which a racer must do in order to stay competitive), the more of the urge to go faster we have, in turn making the best racing drivers, the best "hunters".

The only difference being, we're not pursuing the prey anymore. We're pursuing the euphoria of coming out on top, as victors.

Which is why it may just be that the people who love speed more, and live for it more than others, are the top dogs, and more capable of getting what they want quicker in their chosen field of work, whether it be racing or whatever.

In summary, our genetics, and the predisposed knowledge of knowing that "Faster + Accuracy = Success" may make us what we all are. And it may explain why those late night drives alone... In other words, "calming yourself in the practice of pursuit" may be more important than you think.

Mattbob > The-Ever-Socially-Apathetic TBAL 03/28/2014 at 14:54

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