david chan's blog

The 37signals’ recent Sunspots post had an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on the metabolism of hummingbirds.

“[Hummingbirds] also typically consume more than their own weight in food each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily. At any given moment, they are only hours away from starving.”

This reminded me of something I once heard which also dealt with urgency in everyday life.

Gazelles and lions live together in the savannas. Everyday, the lion must feed and the gazelle must escape from predators. A lion must run faster than the slowest gazelle if it wishes to feed. A gazelle must run faster than the fastest lion to guarantee survival.

Are you a lion or a gazelle?