More Is Never Enough

Abstract

On a weekend reprieve from work, Pablo and I traveled down a washboard dirt road so straight it narrowed before vanishing into the horizon. We were in South Africa, near Botswana’s border. Staring back at us was a brown monotone landscape of desert bushes, rock outcroppings, and plateaus. Such drab, uninspiring scenery was not what I had hoped for, given the region’s importance in human history. For anyone who ever lived in the last eight thousand generations, this continent was home—this was where the human race began.

Each morning on the plains of Africa, a gazelle awakens, knowing it must outrun the fastest lion or be killed. At the same time, a lion wakes up, knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or starve to death. So whether you are a lion or gazelle does not matter. When the Sun comes up in the morning, start running.

— African Proverb