Dear Reader,

at one key turn in my post Faster and Faster Shit, I introduced the simple concept of a threshold. Let me give an extremely loose definition of what could be defined as a threshold: whatever divides or separates, physically, logically or conceptually, two states or phenomena.

Better, from the Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers:

threshold /ˈθrɛʃəʊld; ˈθrɛʃˌhəʊld/n

  1. Also called: doorsill a sill, esp one made of stone or hardwood, placed at a doorway
  2. any doorway or entrance
  3. the starting point of an experience, event, or venture
  4. the strength at which a stimulus is just perceived: the threshold of consciousness
  5. a level or point at which something would happen, would cease to happen, or would take effect, become true, etc
  6. (as modifier): threshold price, threshold effect
  7. the minimum intensity or value of a signal, etc, that will produce a response or specified effect
  8. (modifier) designating or relating to a pay agreement, clause, etc, that raises wages to compensate for increases in the cost of living

We are mainly interested in the meaning in points 4, 5 and 6.

I suppose some examples are in order now:

  • as in the post mentioned in the beginning, a minimum level of quality is what separates a possible buy from an inconceivable one
  • when you try to make an object slide on a surface you must apply a minimum force to win friction. Otherwise, it won’t budge
  • in sports, like high jump, the bar is the threshold separating success from failure
  • when dieting to lose weight, nothing happens until you assume fewer calories than you consume
  • in chemistry, many reactions don’t start until you provide a minimum amount of energy. Think about combustion: wood does not burn until heated to a certain degree. You suddenly go from nothing happening to a blazing pyre.

Now, what does all this have to do with our lives? Aren’t they trivial examples?

Well, the answer is yes and no. They are trivial, but their consequences are not so.

As humans, we are strongly biased and defective in many areas. We know we should do at least that many workouts, we should eat at most that quantity of food, we should study at least that much to learn a new language. Yet, we don’t rise to the occasion and don’t take action. Explicitly knowing and reminding ourselves about the possible presence of threshold is a good practice to keep us in check.

Moreover, in the examples above I presented clear-cut cases, unquestionable statements. However, in some instances we may not know the level of the threshold, or if there is a threshold at all, to begin with. That is when the affair gets exciting! In many situations, we apply ourselves only up to a certain point, but we could be well under the threshold for that phenomenon. For example:

  • just one pushup a day or just one less spoon of sugar a day will leave your health and weight at the same level, even if you feel you are applying “because hey, I’m doing something, right?”
  • likewise, reading 20 book pages every day will leave you as ignorant as before if you read them without due attention
  • having worked for 20 years in the same position will not trigger a promotion if you do a half-assed work
  • caressing a door will not open it, but blasting it will.

I have got a little advice for dealing with situations where there could be a threshold, but I don’t know the level: attack them like an obsessed madman!

I will exemplify by discussing my eating and tidying up habits.

During last year (maybe a bit more) I tried to keep my body in a state of ketosis. Very briefly, I try to have my metabolism to rely on fats to fuel itself, rather than glycogen. This particular state is achieved by limiting the intake of carbohydrates to a very small amount, my physiological threshold: since I don’t know where it is, I started out by cutting down on carbs obsessively, and I was able to reach my goal and keep the habit. I’m convinced that slowly reducing carbs from my usual intake level would have left me bored and with no results pretty soon, and that nothing would have been achieved in spite of the effort.

As for tidying up, I have already written about the subject in Defeating Nostalgia. There, I mentioned the KonMari method developed by Japanese consultant Marie Kondo for putting order into households. Since then, I read her book and started instilling order into my clothes (the first suggested item category in the method). Without going into details, I tried to go full force into the technique, and I saw the results coming: I donated four bags of clothes to charity, my room is much cleaner and I stopped worrying about unused garments and the disorder in my drawers. I’m entirely confident that, were I not to devote myself to the method, I would have still been left with… you guessed it: unused clothes, a messy room, and I would have just added the remorse of having given away something.

Here are some pictures of the transformation:

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And what do I do when I don’t know whether a threshold is in place or not?

It boils down to three steps:

  1. Identify the critical dimension of the matter at hand (be they calories, speed, effort, time spent, whatever)
  2. Suppose that a threshold is hidden in all of them
  3. …obsess like a madman about performance in those dimensions!

Until next time, step on that threshold and begin your journey.