To achieve peak performance one has to learn where its limits lie. This is due to two things: Improving yourself in the most efficient way needs you to push y

To achieve peak performance one has to learn where its limits lie. This is due to two things: Improving yourself in the most efficient way needs you to push your envelope right behind the limit. Example: do as much push-ups as you can, rest a few seconds, then do one more. You will improve much faster than by simply doing "as much as you can" (or so you thought) because you will learn to truly feel what your real limit is and work out accordingly without trashing yourself. Knowing where your limits lie allow you to quickly go from any point to the limit without overshooting your target, which would then imply overcorrection. The inability to correctly evaluate how much to correct is extremely dangerous and can lead to unstable systems (like one who tries to control a sliding car and by doing so only makes it worse). In a feedback system, the initial ramp-up has to be reasonable else you will overshoot your target, requiring costly corrections later on. Equally undershooting produces undesirably slow results. See [0] for a visualization. Experience of the limits allow you to directly aim for the optimal action. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Step_response_for_two-pole_feedback_amplifier.PNG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Step_response_for_two-pole...