Extremes

When, for example, you discover a problem, you'd better be sure to act quickly to fix it, because, after all, …

A stitch in time saves nine.

On the other hand, you'd better not act too quickly, because …

Haste makes waste.

That's a nice pair of contradictory memes for you! I'm pretty sure there are other, similar pairs of proverbs, but I'm not going to look for them right now.

Anyway, as I said, the truth, or right action, falls somewhere in the middle. The two ideas pull in opposite directions, and the trick is to find the correct balance between them.

As another example, consider the very ideas of truth and falsehood, right and wrong, good and evil. Those are certainly extremes! If you'd like more examples, you can probably find a few by looking through the index, at right.

I'm not sure why people think in terms of extremes, but I do have some ideas. One possibility is that it's a function of language—we only have a finite number of words, so we let those words represent the extremes, and deal with the middle as best we can. Another possibility, getting back to the example of proverbs, is that it's a function of meme propagation—it's easier to remember two strongly worded incorrect statements than one mushy but correct one.