Drawing on Aristotle's Golden Mean, Bock argued that sustainable success requires maintaining a balance between confidence and modesty — what he called, using a chemistry metaphor, the 'required stoichiometry' of chutzpah and humility. He playfully noted that he tended to hire Berkeley graduates more often than Stanford graduates, because Berkeley students generally had a good dose of both, while Stanford students seemed to specialize in chutzpah. Bock spoke from painful experience about the dangers of losing that balance. Looking back with hindsight, he could clearly see that the lowest points in his life coincided with moments when hubris had taken over. His wit made the lesson memorable: 'the biggest killer of a good mind is to stick it in a fat head.' For a practical test of humility, he suggested listening to your father-in-law or your children describe what you do for a living.