“Water that is too clear has no fish.”
Dongfang Shuo
I read a memoir called Heavy a few months ago and one passage has stayed with me since.
Kiese Laymon weighed 319 pounds in college. By 26 he was running 11 miles a day, playing two hours of basketball and eating 800 calories.
He ran at least six miles a day for 2,564 days straight.
During that stretch he passed out in a grocery checkout line.
Then his mother gambled away the money he had lent her and asked him for more. They fought about it.
He ran over 20 miles that night.
He came home and stepped on the scale. Just under 160 pounds for the first time in his life.
Then his body broke. Arthritis got bad enough that he couldn’t make a stride.
He gained it all back.
With most good things, more of them does less each time. The tenth hour of study teaches less than the second did.
With a few good things, more of them starts to cost you. Six liters of water inside three hours killed a healthy woman in a radio contest.
Past a point, a good thing starts producing the harm it was protecting you from.
Where could you stop before the good turns bad?
