The ego is incapable of doing anything. It just wants comfort.

The body-mind does all the work.

At the track, the ego wants to know how much is left? A mile, half a mile, a quarter mile? It wants to soothe itself with the knowledge that the pain will be over soon.

Meanwhile, the body can do 10 more miles. It thrives on hormetic stress.

Government bureaucracy is the just the ego at scale. It wants to know, it wants to manage, it wants to control.