The Graphs We Need 1

With many aspects of life (e.g. e-mail, exercise, orange juice) a certain amount is pretty good. Handling e-mail makes you efficient, exercise is good for you etc. But there comes a point where the benefits plateau: all you are doing is e-mail; the amount of exercise if increased would give very little return. And there comes a point where too much can be a bad thing. Too much orange juice and you simply turn orange. The up-turned U is a pretty handy graph to be aware of. (Thanks to Gladwell's recent writings for a reminder of this one)