Hot take: the most dangerous point in life is not the point of total failure but the point of moderate success. A failed man keeps throwing punches—his spirit is alive and kicking. But a moderately successful man is in the danger of trading potential glory for peaceful mediocrity
is
what you're aiming for, because if you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good. This observation has been made by so many people in so many different fields that it might be worth thinking about why it's true. It could be because ambition is a phenomenon where almost all the error is in one direction — where almost all the shel... See more
How to Do Great Work
Brain Food: Signal Without Static
The “zone of average” is a dangerous place when it comes to inertia. It’s the point where things are working well enough that we don’t feel the need to make any changes. We hope things will magically improve.
Shane Parrish • Clear Thinking

John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, summed up this phenomenon well when he said, “Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.” Succeeding unconventionally carries with it the risk of experiencing failure as a result of veering from
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