: **

$ time : **

real	0m6.768s
user	0m2.722s
sys	0m0.495s

$ time ( printf ./**/karolinos_halfway.jpg )
./karolinos_halfway.jpg
real	0m36.459s
user	0m0.609s
sys	0m3.672s

$ time ( find . -name karolinos_halfway.jpg )
./karolinos_halfway.jpg

real	0m29.278s
user	0m0.763s
sys	0m1.141s

$ time : **/*

real	0m3.861s
user	0m2.972s
sys	0m0.780s

a=(**)

$ time a=(**)

real	0m5.754s
user	0m2.801s
sys	0m0.451s

b=(./**/karolinos_halfway.jpg)

$ for i in "${a[@]}"; do echo "$i"; done | grep karolinos
karolinos_halfway.jpg

$ mkdir -p dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/ && touch dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/findme
$ timethis 10 "printf ./**/findme"
COMMAND: printf ./**/findme
5.472
$ timethis 10 "find . -name findme"
COMMAND: find . -name findme
17.3

timethis ()
{
    max=$1;
    shift;
    for com in "$@";
    do
        echo "COMMAND: $com ";
        c=0;
        while [[ $c -lt $max ]]; do
            let c++;
            ( time -p eval "$com" ) 2>&1 | grep --color -oP 'real.*?\K[\d\.]+';
        done | awk -vm=$max '{k+=$1}END{print (k/m)}';
    done
}

find . -name findme  1.46s user 1.67s system 99% cpu 3.159 total
./dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/findme=printf ./**/findme  0.97s user 2.96s system 99% cpu 3.958 total
./dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/findme real  0m6.515s user   0m1.937s sys    0m4.553s