composer require: prevent "Updating dependencies (including require-dev)"

Question

Am I able to speed up composer require <package> by somehow disabling the Updating dependencies step? I'm just interested in installing one simple package and not reading all other packages. Making it verbose shows the many, many reads it will do.

Updating dependencies (including require-dev)
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2017-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2017-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2016-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2016-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2016-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2016-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2015-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2015-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2015-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2015-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2014-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2014-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2014-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2014-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2013-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2013-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2013-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2013-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2012-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2012-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2012-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2012-1.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2011-4.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2011-3.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packages.drupal.org-8/drupal-provider-2011-2.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2013.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2014.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2015.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2016.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2016-07.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2016-10.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2017-01.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-2017-04.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-archived.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/p-provider-latest.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-drupal-composer$drupal-scaffold.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-cweagans$composer-patches.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-composer$installers.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-zendframework$zend-stdlib.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-zendframework$zend-escaper.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-zendframework$zend-feed.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-zendframework$zend-hydrator.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-psr$http-message.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-zendframework$zend-diactoros.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-twig$twig.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$polyfill-mbstring.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$translation.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$validator.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-ircmaxell$password-compat.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$polyfill-php55.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$serializer.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$routing.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$polyfill-php54.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$http-foundation.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$psr-http-message-bridge.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$polyfill-iconv.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-psr$log.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$debug.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$event-dispatcher.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$http-kernel.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$polyfill-apcu.json from cache
Reading /Users/myuser/.composer/cache/repo/https---packagist.org/provider-symfony$class-loader.json from cache
... Goes on... 

Answer 1

It seems that

composer require <package> --no-update

only updates composer.json with definitions for your new package. To actually install the package, you afterwards need to run:

composer update --no-dev <package>

This will install the package without installing development packages.