P23

 

1. Breakthrough moments:

• A sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development.

• In the text, it refers to the point where a significant change happens after a period of seemingly no progress. For example, the ice melting at 32 degrees or the bamboo suddenly shooting up.

2. Compounding process:

• A process where something builds upon itself over time, with the effects getting bigger and bigger.

• The text uses this to explain that small, consistent actions (like raising the temperature one degree at a time) don't have a big effect at first, but their combined effect eventually leads to a massive result. Think of compound interest in finance, where the interest you earn also starts earning interest, causing your money to grow exponentially.

3. Valley of Disappointment:

• A metaphor for the period of frustration and discouragement that people often experience when they start a new habit or project.

• During this phase, you are putting in effort, but the results are not visible yet. You feel like you're not making any progress, which can lead you to give up. The "valley" signifies a low point in motivation.

4. Plateau of Latent Potential:

• A phrase coined by the author to describe the period where you are putting in work, but the results are "latent" or hidden.

• This is the flat part of the progress curve before the sudden, steep increase. Your efforts are not wasted; they are being stored up until they reach a critical point where they can be unleashed, leading to a rapid improvement.

5. Tangible result:

• A result that is real and can be seen, touched, or measured.

• When the text says people "fail to see a tangible result," it means they don't see a visible change in their body, skills, or situation, even after putting in a lot of effort. This lack of visible evidence is what causes many people to quit.

6. Habits need to persist long enough to break through this plateau:

• This means you must continue your new habit for an extended period, even when you don't see any immediate benefits.

• The "plateau" here is the Plateau of Latent Potential. The idea is that you have to keep going until your accumulated efforts are enough to "break through" and cause a noticeable change.

7. Geological pressure:

• The pressure exerted by the Earth's crust on rocks, often at the boundaries of tectonic plates.

• The text uses this as a powerful analogy. Just as immense, unnoticeable pressure builds up between tectonic plates for years until a sudden earthquake happens, human progress often works the same way. The effort you put in builds up "pressure" until you have a sudden breakthrough.

8. "It was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.":

• A quote from Jacob Riis that summarizes the main idea of the passage.

• It means that the final action that causes the breakthrough (the 101st hammer blow) is not the sole cause of the success. It is the culmination of all the previous, seemingly ineffective actions (the first 100 blows) that made the final result possible. The success is a direct result of all the patient, persistent work that came before it.