Speed Wins

Speed is a competitive advantage. Not just in APIs, but in leadership and personal growth. The faster you iterate, the better you get. Here’s how speed plays a role in engineering, decision-making, and life.

Tech Insight: 3 Ways to Build Faster APIs

APIs should accelerate development, not slow it down. But too often, they become performance bottlenecks. Here’s how to fix that:

✅ Asynchronous Processing: If a request doesn’t need an immediate response, don’t block the client. Use background jobs, webhooks, or event-driven architectures to offload processing.

✅ Smarter Caching: Not every request needs fresh data. A well-placed Redis cache or HTTP cache headers can reduce API load by up to 80%.

✅ Efficient Endpoints: Instead of a single endpoint doing too much, break it down. A lightweight, specific API is easier to scale than a monolithic one-size-fits-all mess.

Leadership Lesson: Why Slow Decision-Making Kills Teams

Engineering leaders don’t just write code—they ship decisions. A slow decision-making process is like a slow API request: it blocks execution, wastes time, and frustrates everyone.

Yet, most teams operate with decision bottlenecks—waiting on approvals, debating minor details, or fearing mistakes. Speed doesn’t mean being reckless; it means knowing when good enough is good enough.

Most of the best decisions are made at 70% certainty. Not waiting for perfect data. Not holding off until everyone agrees. Just shipping and adjusting as needed.

Life Tip: The Cost of Overthinking

Speed doesn’t just matter in tech or leadership—it matters in personal growth too. Every big change in life comes down to one small decision that could have been made weeks ago.

• A job change delayed because you wanted more clarity.
• A side project you keep “planning” but never actually start.
• A skill you want to learn but feel like you’re “not ready yet.”

If you ever look back and wonder why you didn’t start something sooner, you probably already had enough information to begin.