When I was studying in the city of Bern, I took diving lessons offered by the university’s sports department. The lessons took place on Fridays at noon in the indoor swimming pool Wyler. We were usually around four people. My diving teacher, Andrea Geissbühler, a copper (since Luther my favorite word) and nowadays National Councillor for the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), her brother, Simon Geissbühler, a Swiss diplomat, Peter Wurz, a physics professor who was engaged in the NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity project, and humble me. The diplomat brother, Simon, was an excellent diver and former five time Swiss champion (he was at the time only surpassed by his little brother Michael, who also showed up from time to time, and even their dad was in the Wyler from time to time.). Peter Wurz was very good too. And I was, well, not particularly bad. What sounds like fun was actually quite severe. I remember in particular one exercise. You had to cower on the 3m diving board, facing backward, then you had to let go and stretch in the moment Andrea whistled. If you were too late, you came down belly first, if you were too fast, you came down on your back. You lost either way. Timing is everything, in sports, politics, and even jokes as you can read in this excellent piece in the FT by Frank Partnoy from last year. Sometimes timing even shelters you from pain. A lesson for life.