For decades, faster was better.
Faster processors. Faster load times. Faster everything.
But we've crossed a threshold.
Most software is now fast enough.
The difference between 50 milliseconds and 30 milliseconds doesn't register. Users can't perceive the improvement.
So speed stopped being a differentiator.
What matters now is consistency.
Users don't want the fastest app. They want the app that's always the same speed.
Predictability beats performance.
A tool that's reliably medium-fast wins over one that's sometimes instant and sometimes slow.
The industry optimized for peaks. Users optimized for averages.
Speed used to be the race. Now reliability is.
That's the shift worth noticing.