Tao Te Ching

“the distribution of flexibility among the many variables of a system is a matter of very great importance. The healthy system... may be compared to an acrobat on a high wire... he must be free to move from one position of instability to another... If his arms are fixed or paralyzed (isolated from communication), he must fall.”

— Gregory Bateson 1904 – 1980 CE
from Steps to an Ecology of the Mind