We should be chefs when it comes to career-path-carving (a.k.a. reason from first principles). This is because of the following: (1) it takes up a significant chunk of our lives, (2) it plays a big role in determining the quality of our lives, (3) it serves as our primary mode of impact-making, and (4) it also serves as our primary identity.
So why do runners have limits? And why do the limits differ from one person to the next? In part, it's because of physiological factors: blood oxygen levels, lactate, muscular strength, each of which has a genetic component. But there's another theory, put forward by a sports physiologist named Tim Noakes. As he puts it, in what he calls the... See more