I Moved Your Cheese

SOME MICE ARE BIG

It was a day like any other for Big. He woke up, stretched, and then began his morning run. He ran through the maze—fast—following his usual path. He normally ran for an hour, and then shifted his attention to strength training.

Big had used a single criterion when he first decided to chart out the path he would follow during his morning runs. Big wanted to sprint at maximum speed through the maze and did not want the hassle of having to dodge crowds of other mice. His path consisted of the least crowded passages in the maze.

But on this day, Big noticed that something had changed. The passages he was running through—the ones he had always run through—were crowded. After he finished his run, he reflected on this. He realized ...