When I say speed, I don't mean application performance. I mean the time between "I have an idea" and "I can see if it works." The feedback loop.

Fast feedback loops change how teams work. If your CI takes 45 minutes, developers batch changes and merge big PRs. If it takes 3 minutes, they ship small increments and catch problems early. If deploying is scary, you deploy rarely and each deploy is a big event. If deploying is boring, you deploy ten times a day and each one is a non-event.

The teams I've seen move fastest aren't the ones with the best developers. They're the ones where the path from change to production is short, automated, and trusted. Speed isn't about working harder. It's about shortening the loop.