In my latest for The Lehrhaus, I argue that we ought to rethink the way we say Selichot, which tends to emphasize quantity over quality. What if instead we looked to explanatory Kinot on Tisha Be-Av as a better model?
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Yosef Lindell 
It’s really refreshing to see this issue of difficulty with Selichos brought out. It’s something that always bothered me to the extent that I would rather Daven Selichos by myself than join a minyan that rushes it. As you mentioned, it’s become commonplace in Yeshivos with younger students to drastically shorten the Erev Rosh Hashana Selichos and even to skip some in the Asseres Yimei Teshuva. I believe this change really has basis in Halachah as stated in the first Siman in Shulchan Aruch: טוב מעט תחנונים בכוונה מהרבות בלא כוונה. I wonder what can be done to get this idea to gain more traction in the wider community.
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I’m glad this resonated with you as well. It’s something that’s troubled me for years, and I finally decided to write about it. Gaining traction for an idea like this is tricky. I think yeshivos are comfortable making small modifications because it’s more under the radar. Someone reached out to me about putting together a new selichos book with some options for shortening the service, and I may assist with the project, but the moment you do that, it smacks of liturgical reform, which makes many people uncomfortable.
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