When you first begin working on a goal or a habit (both after a break, or if you’re starting a new one), it’s tempting to do a lot. This is true for the beginner (once they have tested their abilities) as well as the veteran (who knows their ability far exceeds their modest comeback). Both want to push their abilities in order to challenge themselves. After all, who wants to be patient throughout a slow buildup when they can jump straight to the difficult things?

If you zoom in on a curve enough, you can convince yourself the line is straight. Similarly, if you only look at the average value of a sine or cosine curve, you may mistake the functions for constant functions going through the horizontal axis, when they are anything but constant.

Think of the last time you did something for fun. Not for work, not because you felt like you “needed” to. Instead, doing an activity with the pure intention of enjoying yourself as much as possible. It may have been a new sport, or a creative pursuit. What mattered was that it was something completely different than your regular schedule, and was just done for the joy and curiosity of trying a new activity.

If you read nearly any kind of literature in the past few centuries, you may notice an interesting pattern. In many of them, the concept of science is looked down upon, as if science is something to be disdained. Instead of being heralded as one of the most important endeavours in human history, a common thread people attach themselves to is that of the mystery-killer.