Every weekday at around 5:45pm, I ride the train home from work. Like everything that happens with such mind-numbing regularity, I have it reduced to a mostly unconscious routine: leave the office at a particular time, take the elevator downstairs, go out the north exit, walk through the alley, head up the stairs to the station, and walk to the northernmost edge of the platform.
People spread out on the platform while waiting for the train to arrive, but hardly anyone walks to the very end. When the train finally comes, I always get a seat.
Other things being equal, people tend to cluster around the middle in any situation: to do what takes the least effort or what other people seem to be doing.
There is much less competition and much more room to be flexible at the extremes.
Where there is a definite correct answer to be had, there is often wisdom in following precedent—check out James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds. Where things are more ambiguous or where, like the train platform, any position is as legitimate as any other, extremes can be the best places to hang out.
Naturally, there is a price for heading to the edges of the platform. Going to extremes often takes:
- more effort, because you are no longer taking the path of least resistance,
- more courage, because you are doing something extraordinary, and you risk being wrong (and conspicuous),
- more ingenuity, because the extremes may not be obvious. It can be hard to see past the bulge in the middle of the bell curve.
It’s worth the price.
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