Most people will die after three days without water. But drinking too much can be equally dangerous – water intoxication is deadly, and during rigorous training about a dozen soldiers per year are hospitalized for drinking too much water.

大多数人在没有水的情况下三天后会死亡。然而，喝太多水同样也很危险——水中毒是致命的，每年大约有十几名士兵因为在严格训练中喝水过量而住院。

Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” That might be true for some things – health, happiness, golden retrievers, maybe.

玛·韦斯特曾说：“好事多多益善。” 对于一些事情来说，这也许是对的，比如健康、快乐或者金毛犬。

But in so many cases the thing that helps you can be taken to a dangerous level. And since it’s a “good thing,” not an obvious threat, its danger creeps into your life unnoticed.

在许多情况下，那些对你有帮助的事物有可能被你推到危险的极端。而因为这些东西被认为是“好事”，不是显而易见的威胁，它们的危险性就悄悄渗透到了你的生活中而不被察觉。

Take intelligence. I’m talking about book intelligence, the kind that shows up in SAT scores and GPAs.

拿智力来说，我指的是书本上的智力，也就是通过 SAT 成绩和 GPA 体现出来的那种。