The middle child dies in the middle, by neglect. Neither fully mishandled like the first nor fawned over like the last. She exists in limbo, a cautionary tale for all of us who linger in indecision.

This death-by-middle appears everywhere.

"If you're not growing, you're dying."
Breaking Bad's Mike insists: "No half-measures."
Andy Grove championed "disagree and commit."

The middle kills. George Mack's viral meme captures the essence of this:

The idiot on the left happily uses Apple Notes, the genius on the right does too, but the midwit in the middle is paralyzed by seventeen productivity apps, optimizing his way to nowhere.

This “midwit” psychology seems to infect every domain:

The middle is usually where ambiguity lies. In ambiguity, anxiety festers like mold. As Chris Williamson noted, “uncertainty often masquerades around as anxiety… Do not make the assumption that inaction has no price. Anxiety is that price.”

In my line of work, it doesn’t matter if my client is from Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Brazil, or Mexico. She’s a person, so the psychology remains constant: the fear of failure. We think that by avoiding clear criteria for success, we’ll avoid criteria for failure. But it’s much better to try your best with conviction to reach a goal, with a strategy and a plan, and fail, than dying slowly in indecision.

“Be inpatient with your actions and patient with results.” - Naval

With large corporations, it’s often the same.

Alex Hormozi observed that many businesses die because they can’t decide who to serve. You can be McDonalds - cheap, massive economies of scale, serving everyone. Or you can be American Express, who resurrected themselves in the 90s by choosing only the top 10% of their customers - marvelous Centurion lounges, concierge service, and meaningful rewards. You can’t be both. The middle kills companies as surely as it kills individuals.

Politicians demonstrate this all too well. During the NYC mayoral debate earlier this year, when the candidates were asked whether they'd attend a Knicks or Mets game happening the same night, most picked one. Easy, right? You would think so, but Andrew Cuomo somehow managed to invent the wrong answer: both. He tried to please everyone and satisfied no one.

The Biden administration's immigration stance exemplified this fatal middle ground. After millions of immigrants entered the country, Biden’s stance was to neither fully embrace increased immigration nor take a hardline stance, so he left everyone dissatisfied with the "half-position."

Even the kids can describe this truth in the most simple term - “motion”, a compliment to someone with swagger, someone who has the sauce and isn’t bogged down by inertia or lameness.

Don’t always mistake moderation with decline. Many politicians across the U.S. find success when they manage to moderate extreme positions. Hell, that’s what Mamdani did during his campaign, as he distanced himself from his previous support for defunding the police. The key is intentional, accurate moderation vs. paralyzed indecision. People can smell fear masquerading as patience.

Our Lord and Savior, SZA, even sees the problem.

Better to move, even imperfectly, than die in the middle.

“You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.”

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

_{The vibe-killer disclaimer: The opinions in this post and all other posts only represent myself and do not represent the opinions of my employer or any groups I am a member of.
This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice}