Every idiot can drive around the Nürburgring race course (or any other of these sites). To make it complicated, you have to do it fast. Not every idiot can go to the South Pole, or fly to Mars. It does not matter how fast you do it, as long as you make it at all.

I normally would not even think about 'time management' as anything special. Time is just one of the dimensions we move in. But today I rejected a very kind invitation to give a lecture on this subject, which I honestly have never really thought about. Somebody must have had the impression that I am doing it very well. Thank you. And there seem to be a lot of people who want to know about it. Puzzles me. I would rather listen to a mountaineer talking about moving in z-direction above sea level (climbing), or a diver doing the opposite below sea level (diving), than to somebody talking about behaving on the time vector. How boring!

You can build a ratio of many things by time. For example speed is distance by time, and power is work by time etcetera. These ratios are often perceived as measures of performance. But when you are in the business of doing complicated things, then the real point is whether you can get something done at all. Ever! How fast? Who cares? In your lifetime, if you are lucky. Sure, sometimes it is good to be first, because of 'Intellectual Property Rights' or fame and other ways to capitalize your findings. But in the end, if somebody else can solve the problem before you, you were not too slow but your problem was not hard enough.

Okay, timing is important. You don't want to go to the South Pole in the stormy season. Time is a useful dimension to synchronise with your environment and the society. But how could I give a lecture on that, when not even knowing the overall problem to solve? Are we flying to Mars, programming a website, or cooking lunch?