Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c744IR // #c744Verbatim excerpt
"I understand: she is in love with James, and flirts with Frederick." "It is probable that she will neither love so well, nor flirt so well, as she might do either singly. The gentlemen must each give up a little."

— Source: Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen)

[Use when]

Use when someone is running two incompatible plays at once. Name the split; predict the halving.

[Why it matters]

Henry's cold arithmetic of divided attention: splitting yourself between two objects does not double the yield, it halves both. A divided strategy underperforms either pure one.

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