[sneak]

This only worked because his relaxed pace/speed was fast and built up by MONTHS of intense training first.

He would not have had that time if he had gone at the relaxing pace the entire time he spent training.

Relaxation is good, no doubt. But there is a time and place for, as they say, "going hard in the paint". Building muscle and associated stamina is one of those times.

This is a perfect example of why experiments require a control group to mean anything at all. I am surprised that the intelligent Mr. Sivers would fall into this rookie trap.

[leokennis]

I’m not disputing your comment, but still I agree with the gist of the article. My four year old son recently learned to ride a bike (in The Netherlands) so naturally he now wants to cycle everywhere himself.

So instead of putting him in his seat and cycling to the store myself (20 km/h) we now cycle side by side (10 km/h) to the store. It takes exactly 5 minutes longer single trip, and it doesn’t matter a bit.

If you really depend on achieving 100% vs. 90%, and it takes a ton of stress to get to 100%, it might be time to change habits/goals/employer.

[sneak]

I’m not disputing your comment either, but in startupland the difference between 90% and 100% is often the difference between dead and alive.