---
title: "On Crumbling"
description: "A terrible crisis, a mountain of tasks, a thousand open threads… None of it breaks a man. They just convince the man that he should break down at some point because that’s how it works."
author: "Ghaith Ayadi"
site: "Verbatim"
collection: "Briefs"
url: "https://verbatim.ayadighaith.com/briefs/on-crumbling"
date: 2026-11-07
updated: 2026-11-07
---
# On Crumbling

A terrible crisis, a mountain of tasks, a thousand open threads… None of it breaks a man. They just convince the man that he should break down at some point because that’s how it works.

“I’ve been going hard all day a year now... Non-stop. I should probably crumble by now, right?” says the man.

At some point, the answer becomes yes. The man crumbles at once, because he now thinks he should.