I interpreted "retrain myself to perform only those steps over the course of 30 seconds" to mean that after training for n seconds/minutes/hours, he could solve an equivalent problem in 30 seconds (via the distilled steps). You seem to interpret it to mean that the training takes 30 seconds, and the length of time to solve the problem after training is unspecified. 

I don't know which it is, the wording seems ambiguous.

This also tracks with LSD, measured in micrograms rather than milligrams like other psychedelics like psylocibin and 2c-b