Pharra

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Extra Degree

At 33 degrees, water falling from the sky on a Saturday is a rainy day. At 32 degrees, children are building snowmen, riding sleighs and promising their parents that they're warm enough to stay outside five minutes longer. A beautifully uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed our every endeavor; you can reach exponential rewards in life by applying one extra degree.

From the book "212 - The Extra Degree" Author S.L. Parker.

I love this because it is so stupid. The extra degree gives exponential rewards in, as the example illustrates, very rare and specific circumstances. There are degrees 34 through, say, the surface of the sun (10000°F/5000°C, and even hotter above and below the surface). None of those lead to frozen water, although a great many of them lead to a molten surface on Mercury.

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