b'THE MARATHON SALESPERSON|15familiar principle that is based on an observation of a natural lawsowing a seed and harvesting itsfruitlaterappliedtohumanbehavior.In other words, this principle makes predictions of what to expect in the future based on the actions we take in the present. It does a fairly good job at such predictions, yet it cannot be written as amathematicalequation.Why?Becausethere is an immensity of variables to consider, and it is significantly harder to conduct controlled re-search on people and societies than on physical objects. To illustrate this point, lets consider one of Aesops fables The Boy Who Cried Wolf, writ-ten in the fifth century BCE, which deals with the consequences of lying. It tells the story of a shepherd boy who out of boredom, or to amuse himself, cries Wolf! when there was none, just to see the villagers come out to help him. He does it a second time and the villagers again rush out to help him only to find out they have been deceived one more time.Severaldayslater,awolfactuallyshows up, and the boy desperately cries, Wolf, wolf! But this time the villagers, who have been fooled twice,didntcometotheboysrescueandhe suffersterriblelosses.Heplaintivelyasksthe'