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“Too much speaking is no good, nor too much silence; too much rain is no good, nor too much sun.”
Kabir
I’ve spent six years building Trends.vc.
Some stretches I worked 70 to 80 hours a week. Other stretches I worked 10 hours a week.
The long weeks were too much. The short ones were too little.
Bryson DeChambeau wanted to hit a golf ball farther, so he spent a year putting on 40 pounds.
He went from two protein shakes a day to six.
His drives became the longest on the PGA Tour.
So he pushed for more. He aimed for 245 pounds, took a month off to train for speed and tested the longest driver the rules allow.
His first year of bulking bought him about 20 yards. His second bought him less than two.
In 1984 Anatoly Karpov played Garry Kasparov for the world chess title.
The first player to win six games would take the title. Draws didn’t count toward the six.
One more win would end the match.
Then the draws piled up. He stopped winning and lost about 22 pounds.
His aides watched him go to bed later and later, until he was falling asleep at 4 a.m.
He began to make bad moves.
Kasparov started to win.
Citing both players’ health, the head of world chess stopped the match after five months with no winner.
Karpov’s lead had shrunk from 5-0 to 5-3.
A habit’s returns move through four zones as you put more into it:
- Zero returns. You do nothing, so you get nothing.
- Rising returns. The more you put in, the more you get back.
- Diminishing returns. Each unit of extra effort pays less than the last.
- Negative returns. More effort starts to hurt you.
Before you put more into a habit, check what your last increase bought you.
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What’s the sweet spot for your most important habit?
